Blake had never served in Bo. They split his mission before he got a chance to be there and just wanted to see what it was like. It was the nicest part of the country. It was flatter and cleaner then the other places we visited. We really just walked around and checked out the town for 2 days. One of the Elders Blake had trained was now in the mission home in Bo. Blake messaged him and we stopped by to see him and some other Elders. These are cocoa beans on the ground that they were drying. Later in the day when we came back this way they were all dried and bagged up.
Again there was a church very close to our hotel. We asked the Elders good places to eat and they recommended the Dohas which was great since we were staying there and one other place.
Next morning we got up early to walk around. There was an old air strip close to us. We saw the sports arena.
Well Blake and Dave saw it, I looked at the fence :)
I felt very safe in Bo and our hotel was right off a main road. Just before noon I decided to go back to the hotel myself as I was starting to get a headache and Dave and Blake continued exploring. Honestly if it was not for the heat, everywhere in Sierra Leone would have been fun to just walk around and explore for hours.
After our 2 days in Bo it was time to head back to Freetown. We caught a poda poda. I had not felt well during the night and was worried about travelling the 3 hours it was going to take us. I didn't eat anything and took just a little water. We made it back to Freetown safely and began looking for our hotel. It was in a hard location to get to and very out of the way. We finally found it and it was a weird check in, no bed for Blake, didn't see anyone else there. It just felt sketchy. We were only there one night but were booked to stay in the same place after Banana Islands until the end of our trip. It had great reviews, somehow. I started looking at other hotels but not much available except one very pricey one. I thought it was just me so decided to suck it up. It was right down town by the famous cotton tree. And close by to Chicken Town, a restaurant that Blake and other missionaries had talked about often. We gave it a try. Was good.
The next morning when we woke up Dave said he had been looking at places and could we cancel the reservation we had. I could still get a free cancellation and explained that the hotel he was looking at was really expensive. He said at that point he did not care it would be fine and to book it. Best decision we made. We got ready to go and headed to a fabric store for Blake to get some material. Then found a tailor and gave measurements for the things Blake was getting made.
Next off to the Banana Islands. We caught a keke that took us all the way. We had to go to Kent, an hour out of Freetown to catch the boat to the island. We got stopped and were told we had to pay a fee. Blake knew we didn't but after 5 mins of arguing he just gave up and we paid it. On the way back when one of the local men on the boat found out that we had been made to pay the fee he was very upset and went and talked to the boys. They will do it to the next tourists but did get reamed out that day. We got on this interesting wooden orange boat and sailed 5 miles across the open Atlantic. Not something I thought I would ever do.
It was a small resort that we stayed at. Only one other family was there at the time. There were getting ready for there open season. We had a lovely girl that met us at the dock and had us come and sit at the outdoor eating area. She explained that we could do and order whatever we wanted and that they would just keep a running tab and pay at the end. We ordered dinner at 3 to eat at 6. We would see them go out and fish for our dinner. It was a neat idea and had some fun sitting areas and nice atmosphere. But the rooms were so hot. No fan or power and open walls and windows. Just a few tweaks and it could be really neat. One night there was a lizard in the shower and another night a mouse landed on our bug net. Very glad for that bug net. They cleaned the beach each morning and the ocean was beautiful to swim in. We took a walking historical tour of the island that was interesting.
We played a lot of cards and read. Dave and Blake said it was like taking a vacation in the middle of our vacation. We had been told that our MC may not work out there so to bring cash just in case. We had already paid for half of the room so took an estimate of the other half and what the price of our meals had been so far. Added in more for any excursion we might want and then more just in case. We thought we were golden. Our last night there we booked the boat for 10 and booked a car to take us back. I didn't trust looking for a ride in Kent and didn't want to deal with the people on the beach. They took our breakfast order and totaled everything up. It was 2000 SLE ($100) more than we had taken. We had been told the boat was complimentary, it wasn't. Water was more expensive than other places and a few other surprises. We started to panic a bit. Dave tried his card. Did not work. He tried it a few times. Nope. I tried mine. Still nothing. Now we panicked more. We had no way to get money on the island and no idea what to do. Then I remembered when I had paid half the fee they had given me a website to use. I still had that email so found the website and paid there. Nothing. We were sweating and praying at this point. Literally had no idea what to do. Then Dave asked Blake if he had room on his card. He has a very low balance in case it got stolen on his mission. He had just enough to cover it. We literally said a prayer and tried his credit card. It swirled and swirled and finally went through. Oh. My, Heck! the relief. We went to bed, got up and had breakfast and waited until the boat departed. The whole time just a little nervous that they were going to come back and say oh guess what. The driver we booked through the resort was worth every bit. He met us right at the boat and took us straight down town Freetown. We didn't cram in, just the three of us in the car. I was never so happy to get off an island in my life. But now that we know and could do a few things different, it could probably be a nice place to stay. It was beautiful and fun to have fresh fish, I don't even like fish normally, and lots of available activities. It was very relaxing. Just need to be better prepared.
We drove straight to the tailor shop and check on Blake's stuff and then went to our hotel.
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