I’m the farthest west I’ve ever been in Africa. I arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city, tonight, which proved no small feat. I waited pretty much all day to fly in from neighboring Liberia – planes around here take off when they want to, without a scheduled departure time. Freetown’s airport lies across a river (with no bridge – ferry is the only means of transportation) and two hours of snarling traffic through the downtown area to the nearest decent hotel. Hence, I had time for some visuals. One observation I’ve made is the similarity between Freetown and Haiti’s Port-au-Prince and Gonaives, with the rolling hills of the teeming cities’ leading down to the waterside and old wreckers lodged aground in the harbor. But unlike pre-quake Port-Au- Prince or Gonaives with buildings old and decrepit for lack of funds for repairs, the buildings here have been bombed or burned out during the 11 year civil war that ended in 2001. I’m here shooting for BRAC. I was in Uganda last week on a similar job, but I’m still working on those photos.
