This post is long overdue. However, I need to document my experience returning to the Motherland and my second home Sierra Leone after 4 years. After visiting for the second time in May 2014 I enrolled in public health school and alhumdullilah completed my MPH in environmental health science. The only thing on my mind (besides finding employment😊) was visiting Sierra Leone. Anybody who asked me in May what my plans were after graduation I told tell I'm vacationing in Sierra Leone 😎. I couldn't really focus on anything other than getting back there. I'm so grateful I was able to go for nearly a month and feel truly blessed to be able to travel and enjoy West Africa.
My trip was from May 26-June 20, 2018. My trip started in NY, then Brussels with a 4 hour layover, and a flight straight to Freetown. My Brussels Airline flight left JFK 5/26 after 6 pm and I landed in Brussels around 8 am. I will discuss more extensively my airline experiences in another post. I got to Freetown in the evening of the 27th with a total travel time of ~19 hours. I sat next to a lovely man on my flight and we spoke toward the end of the flight. [I tend to not speak to people on a flight unless they initiate a conversation]. This older man was a minister. He told me he had familial ties to a past president and that he also was related to the current newly elected president. He told me how much he missed his family in the states, and how his youngest daughter was a daddy's girl. When we landed he dropped to the earth and prayed. That warm air hit me and I was back home. Finally! The man asked me to take his picture and send it to him, which I agreed to.
I stayed in Freetown the first couple of weeks and spent time in Bo for about a week. Thankfully, I did take plenty of pictures and videos. I did not exactly vlog as the availability of internet and electricity are not what I'm used to. As much as I wish I had taken more videos and kept a travel diary, I'm so glad I focused on spending time with my people and enjoying Salone for what it is. There's no place like it and nothing like experiencing it first hand. I spent a good portion of Fast Month (Ramadan) in Salone.
Fortunately, this time around I was able to visit Kono District, my parents' birthplace. I went to Koidu for a night and was blessed to see just a little bit of Kono. The hotel was comfortable but the trip was so short lived since I had to get back to Freetown.
I do hope that you enjoy the pics and videos from the trip. Hopefully, you are inspired to see my second home for yourself and find my experience to be a beautiful glimpse into traveling around Sierra Leone.
I traveled once again in December and it was a super short trip. I will be writing about that experience soon. Detailing that trip is overdue as well, but promise it won't be this late! If you would like to see more of Salone make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel: Amina Mansaray.
