First night in Freetown

Editor's note: Until I get set up in my house (with Internet), which could be as soon as tonight, my posts will likely not make it online the day they are written. In those cases, I'll note the actual date. This next one was written on my first night here (Sunday, October 12). Hope all is well back home.

I’m writing this in a Catholic guest house in Freetown at 1 a.m., which is 9 p.m. back home (Sierra Leone is further west than England so the time difference is only four hours).

The trip here went pretty smoothly; the biggest hiccups were our flight departing Heathrow for Freetown nearly an hour late and arriving into a thunderstorm that brought on minor turbulence and a brief holding pattern until the landing was deemed safe.

The woman seated next to me was praying and said it was the closest to death she’s ever been, but I think she’s a bit of a drama queen considering I slept through most of it. The turbulence was akin to riding the Wilde Beast at Canada’s Wonderland.

Otherwise, not too much to tell at this point. The flight from Toronto was probably the most comfortable I can remember (props to British Airways and their atypically reasonable definition of leg room) and I got my fix of Western culture for a while by watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall and 30 Rock.

Four of our five JHR trainers are here, with the last one arriving tomorrow from Senegal. My biggest anxieties about this whole deal remain professional intimidation, as the four journalists I’m working with seem to universally trump me in the experience category. But everyone seems great so far, and I hardly expect that to be an issue.

I met Elvis, JHR’s Sierra Leone director, tonight at Paddy’s. It’s a 24-hour bar/restaurant in Freetown, on which the bar in Blood Diamond is based – supposedly quite the hub of activity for expats and locals alike. It was really enjoyable eating my garlic chicken dinner outside, on the water, though the stray cats were a bit of a nuisance. Regardless, it sounds like Paddy’s will be a frequent haunt for the JHR crew.

Elvis informed me that Radio Kalleone, where I’ll be working, is a station of mostly young men with a large sports (read: football, translate: soccer) interest, so that has at least curbed my anxiety – sounds like a place I’ll be able to fit in.

Anyway, can’t even begin to describe the myriad thoughts swimming through my head right now, so I’m going to shut down the laptop and get some much-needed sleep.