Hmm…What to write about?

Well my first week here has been good. I have got a lot of work accomplished so far and I am now officially recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and fishing in Sierra Leone. I have the real certificates to prove it! I have been back and forth all over Freetown doing this and signing that and surely something else along they like enjoying an ice cold Coke from China, fully knowing that I am breaking no pop rules, but hey TIA-this is Africa.

I have been to all my sights and all of land has been cleared, but not yet stumped. I made the payment today to have the first 7 acres cleared and it was only 3.1 million Leones. Seriously what a deal to have all the stumps removed by hand on that much land. We have started clearing the inside of my compound after I went this morning for some new gloves and Cutlasses to the market in Waterloo. Public transport is my means of traveling right now since my container is running behind and I got into my first fight today trying to get a seat on the pota poah- it’s like an oversized van where everyone sits 4 wide and 5  deep-that’s right 20 passengers and lady with a live chicken in a bag. But anyways I may have elbowed an old lady then kicked a small boy but I got that seat on the van. You see transport is so cheap here that people fight for seats in these vans because my 30 mile trip only cost me 50 cents and an hour and a half of my time…

So my Container well that’s another story in itself I have spent a lot of energy fighting to get in the country duty free, but you see they wanted 40 million Leones in just Duties…But with the help of a really great lady named Zainab Kamara it is going to be duty free. The Ministry of Ag signed off on my Bill of Ladings today so now after I signed a few more papers today its look like they are going to be fine.

On another note I went up to Wellington and caught the last half of the service on Sunday and spent the afternoon hanging out with the boys and girls at the orphanage catching up on what happened this summer and when my family and friends are going to come see me so they can meet them. Oxford surprised me with my Driver’s license, I forgot that Jesi and I went to get them earlier in the week. So everyone got a kick out of looking at my driver’s license. 

More to come...