Arrival

Freetown!

My arrival reminded me of a passage from a novel I read last year, You Shall Know Our Velocity, by David Eggers. The characters in the book wake up as they're landing:

The light was screaming through the windows, intent and wild, and I opened my portal's eyelid a quick few inches and we were coming at Africa at 300 mph, the ocean below striking the coast of Dakar with desperation. The neat shadow of the plane jumbled over the city's shoreline, the buildings glowing in tan and white and standing still as the water and wind came to them with all the world's fury-and then died. We were somewhere else. What were we doing here? ...

"How did we get to Africa?" he said. "Already I don't want to leave. Did you feel that air? It's different. It's African air. It's like mixed with the sun more. Like our air isn't mixed as well with the sun. Here they mix it perfectly. The sun's in the wind, the sun's in your breaths."

See the full passage here or get it here. It's a great book. It's a long quote and explicitly about Dakar but I like it and it lets you know I'm excited to be here.

When we finally made it to Freetown, I was greeted on the tarmac by a woman who would help expedite my arrival. (She's the wife of someone at one of the microfinance institutions (MFI) where I'll be working.) The reason the MFI sent someone to help me out is that I had several laptops in my carry on that were purchased in the States on their behalf. And when I say the woman (Aba) expedited things, she really went all out. She hustled me past passport control and past the yellow fever checkpoint. When my bags were slow she used her mobile to call the baggage dudes to find my duffel. And most importantly she helped me with the customs guys who had some questions about the multiple laptops.

The very final leg of my trip was by speedboat. Yep. The airport's located across a wide bay from town, so I hopped a boat and crossed over to town where I met a couple employees of the MFI. I'm really not sure who was happier about the laptop handoff (they were freakin' heavy). Anyways, they took the laptops and helped me find the boarding house where I'll be staying.

That's the arrival. More on other stuff later.