How to survive the arrival to Freetown from Lungi airport

So, this post is about how to survive the arrival to Freetown from Lungi airport. There is one thing you can be sure; you will make it! When you get used to it, it is pretty straight forward, but the first time is a bit confusing, particularly because of all the people asking you to hand papers, or offering help. Things get even more confusing if you arriving with an evening flight, and it is already dark.

Sea Bird boat during daylight, Freetown, Sierra Leone

So, just follow the steps below:

• Descend the plane. Have your boarding ticket in your hand, they will check it when descending the plane. Have your paper landing visa, passport, yellow fever vaccination card, and baggage tags readily available, but not right in your hand.
• Enter the bus which will take you to immigration hall. Disembark the bus, and follow the crowd inside the immigration hall.
• Join the line for foreign passports but if asked to change lines, do it. They are trying to help you and speed up the lines.
• Comply with all requests and directions from the officer in the immigration box, including the request to place two index fingers for scanning, and to take a picture. They will ask you the address of the place where you are staying, and maybe a telephone number. The officer needs landing visa and your passport. S/he will take the landing visa and stamp the passport with a one month single entry tourist visa. Along the way someone will likely ask to see your yellow fever vaccination card.
• After your passport is stamped, go left past the money changers (stop and change a $20 if you want). The exchange rate is visible. Proceed to baggage pick-up. Get a cart for 10,000Leones if you like.
• Pick up your bags from the belt. If your baggage does not appear, go to the lost luggage counter directly behind you in the baggage area. It’s an obvious process, and the staff is honest, helpful, and speak English. Complete the form as directed, and keep the copy. Check that there is a telephone number where you can call to track the process, and not only an email. Usually lost luggage flies in with the next flight in your airline, and is sent with the boat, so you can pick it up in Freetown. 
• Proceed with your bags (follow the crowd) to the exit. Eventually you might be stopped by customs, and requested to open your bags. Have your baggage tags out and ready. A person will match your tags to the tags on your suitcases. S/he won’t take the tags. Then exit out the door into the arrivals hall. 
• If you are met by somebody sent by your sponsoring organisation, family or friends, just tell all the eager folks offering you service that you are being met. Follow your scort out of the airport building.
• Go out of the gate, now you are "in the open". You will see slightly to your right two buildings; one for the Sea Coach, and slightly further away to the right, the Sea Bird. Buy a ticket with any of them. Your suitcases will be tagged, keep carefully all the tags. You can carry with you a small bag, it is handier to board the boat if you have a bag that allows you to have your hands free, such a backpack. A small trolley is also possible, but not so handy.
• Your bags will be taken away and put in a small bus.
• You will be asked to board another small bus. You will be offered if you want to buy a SIM card, or asked for "Christmas money" or "Sunday money", meaning a tip.
• Disembark the bus, you might get a glimpse of your bags arriving safely at the dock and properly loaded on the boat. You can just sit and wait. Once called, join the queue to board the boat. You will have to show your boat ticket before walking the wooden pontoon dock. Flat shoes are obviously handy, since the pontoon dock can move a bit if water is rough. Staff will help you to board, and are very friendly with children, carrying them in their arms if needed.
• The water taxi trip takes about 40 minutes. It can be bumpy during the rainy season. You will have a life jacket, and the boat is closed.
• On arrival at the dock in Freetown, staff will help you disembark onto pontoon dock. If somebody is waiting you there, be sure to have agreed in advanced the water taxi company you are using, since they have docks in different places. Sea Coach has its dock in Aberdeen, and Sea Bird in Murray Town.
• You are already in Freetown, the last bit is to show your luggage tags so that you get your luggage. Be patient, you are almost there.
• Be sure you have arranged your transport from the dock to wherever you are going in advanced. Don't expect public transport readily available or a line of taxis waiting for you.

Now you can breathe a sigh of relief. You made it!

How to prepare coconut milk

When I had to cook using coconut milk, I never gave it a second thought, and simply bought a can of coconut milk. I did not even think that I could prepare it myself.

But here in Freetown, there are men with wheelbarrows selling green coconuts on the street. It is a common sight. You buy one, they open it with a machete - each single time I sort of stop breathing because I think that he is surely going to loose a finger in the process - and then you can drink the coconut water. It remains a sort of jelly inside the shell, which you can scrap with a straw or spoon, and eat.

Open green fresh coconut

Water and flesh of a green coconut

Then I just thought to try to blend the two parts, the water and the flesh. I emptied all the content of the coconut in the blender.  Then I just let it blend for few seconds.

Blending the water and flesh of a green coconut

The result is creamy, and it looks more natural than the coconut milk in a can!

Result after blending

I used this milk to cook chicken in the oven, and also as a sauce for a broccoli salad, and the taste was delicious and fresh. Other dishes that come to my mind are curries, smoothies, and why not, as a substitute to cow milk in your baking. It is easy to make, fresh, natural, and if you live in Sierra Leone, about 10 times cheaper than canned milk. Go for it!

Whale watching in Sierra Leone

Whale watching? Really? Are there whales in the coast of Sierra Leone?

A friend of us arranged a boat trip to see them. We went into one of the Sea Coach boats for 20 people; and since I was traveling with my 3 children, it was really a relief to use a stable boat with shadow. They also provided life jackets.

Boarding the Sea Coach boat in Banana Island, Sierra Leone

Departing a bit after 9am from Aberdeen, Freetown, it took us around 2 hours to get to Banana Island. On the way, the captain stopped few times to ask the fishermen whether they had seen the whales, and they pointed towards the sea. Do not expect sophisticated spotting methods here. All the same, we got to Banana Island without having seen any whale, hearing afterwards that it was too late in the morning to see them anyway.

Fresh coconuts were waiting for us at arrival, which were very welcome for those of us who felt sick after the trip (me). Bafa resort is one of my favourite beach places in Sierra Leone, you can see that the owner has made an effort to use local materials, and he has cleared the land respecting the trees and planting few more plants to make it look really pretty in a natural way.

Swimming in the rocks at Bafa resort, low tide

After a bit of swimming in the rocks, we were served lunch on a pretty table with table cloth and textile napkins. Fish carpaccio with bread, buttered fish fingers, barbecued fish with fried bananas and rice, and when we thought we were definitely finished, four lobsters landed on the table. Good to note too: the water bottles are packaged by them with purified and filtered water, and labelled as Bafa Resort water: a good initiative of local production! 

Lunch at Bafa resort

Considering the heat, and that we still had to take the boat back, I do not think anybody ventured to the bar, but, hey, it did look inviting!

Bafa resort

At 2pm we left again with the boat and returned by circling the island on the left into its northern tip. from there we finally got a glimpse of a whale! It is really hard to take a picture, since at the moment you spot the whale, it is already gone. Honestly, it is pretty difficult to catch sight of one, the ocean is big (this sounds really obvious), and the surface reflects the light like a mirror. So you will see a whale at the moment that is is going out for breathing, and being lucky, if it jumps out of the water. After a while we also saw a couple of dolphins jumping and swimming relatively close to the boat, which was a nice treat.

Two hours later, with most of us half dozing, we arrived back to Freetown; a well spent Sunday! For the record, Greg Deli, at Dalton Banana Guesthouse is also organising whale watching trips departing from Banana island; check it out!

Humpback whales, the ones most commonly seen around Banana island, have wide migratory patterns, and are relatively easy to spot due to the fact that they are close to the shore, and surface active. The NOAA website has quite some information on this kind of whales, as well as the Wildlife Conservation Society and the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature); have a look!

I have tried to find out more on the whales we saw, and their migration pattern. Some sources explain that humpback whales go feeding to the Antarctica, and return to West Africa for breeding, although I have read that they go as far as Benin. Sierra Leone lies above the equator, so above Benin, and I wonder then whether those whales come all the way from the Antarctica, or if they come from another migrating route. If you know more, please, leave me a comment!

Cooking omelettes as mini-pancakes

I hear it often from other parents: "I don't know what to cook anymore! I am running out of ideas!" I have the same feeling, particularly since I have started to cook lunch everyday for my children, (and dinner too!)

Sometimes it helps to just look at your fridge, and see what is left in terms of vegetables. So I found a piece of cabbagge, carrots, and half onion. Which did not look like a promising meal that my children would gladly eat!

Without losing hope, I remembered an Indian recipe of egg balls, and since we recently bought a pan to make the Dutch "poffertjes", I decided to give it a try, and cook them.

So, here it goes the recipe to make vegetables and egg "poffertjes":

Ingredients:

• Two carrots
• Half an onion
• A quarter of a cabbage
• 4 eggs
• Salt

Instructions:

• Shred your vegetables, if you have a food processor, use it, otherwise, use a hand-mixer, a grater, or a knife
• Mix them in a bowl
• Add the eggs, and mix them (or you could also mix the eggs in a different bowl)

• Add the mixture into the pan to bake poffertjes
• Wait a couple of minutes, and remove the omelettes
• You are pretty done, if you do not have a "poffertjes" pan (most likely unless you are a Dutch person), try a flat omelette and cut the omelette in circles. Keep the omelette edges for the salad

Now, I just filled the bottom of the food container with the salad made of shredded cabbage, carrots and onion, and on the top I placed the mini omelettes.

Enjoy cooking and eating (unless you are making this for your children's lunch)!