Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Wudup Freetown?

This week I've had a little mini vacation. I came down to Freetown on Thursday for one last meeting with my buddy WMT member Chad before he left to join his family in the States. Since I have to be in Freetown for a meeting this Friday and since the road back to where I'm staying upline is ridiculously long and rough, I decided to just hang out down here for a few days. It's been delightful. :)
I went to the beach yesterday. Up north I am a land lubber....is that the right word? (No ocean nearby). So I went to the beach yesterday for some alone time with my book, my Bible and my journal. I may or may not have ended up having a chat with a guy who told me at the end of our conversation that he wanted to write to my family to tell them that he liked me (which is the first step in the marriage process).
I haven't come up with the perfect responses to these kind of awkward situations so I told him to "trust me, he wouldn't want to marry me....I'm different, I'm weird." (You can talk to my family or most of my friends about the veracity of this statement). Anyway, when he asked what I meant I told him that I've noticed that here a lot of people tend to get married but then have girlfriends and boyfriends on the side. This wouldn't be OK with me. (Note: This is a generalization! I know that this is not how every relationship here is....but it is common.) He said "Ah, you're strict!" Yup. That's me. Very strict. He then proceeded to tell me that I should text him my list of rules and he'll see if he can abide by them. I'm flattered. :)
Today, I bought a car. This was a painful process. Some days I really wish I'd gone to mechanic school instead of nursing school. It was particularly painful because I have a Jeep sitting at home that I bought to ship over here. Fixed it up pretty and everything! Then I got here and realized there are very few Jeep Cherokees so parts are going to be hard to come by. Toyotas are the king of this jungle. So I bought a Toyota 4Runner. It has low miles and has only been in Sierra Leone for 2 years, driven in the city by an NGO worker. All good things. It looks SUPER rough on the outside but my mechanic said the engine looks great so Boris (the name given to the car by its previous owner which obviously I will keep to keep the car from becoming confused) and I will be spending a lot of time together. Welcome to the family Boris. Please be nice to me.
Tomorrow I'm headed back into Freetown to tackle the list of things I need to buy before heading back up country and will hopefully get to see a couple friends.
I'll admit, it's nice to get a little break. It's nice to wear clothes other than scrubs, to fully charge my electronics because I have electricity for more than 2 hours a day but mostly to get a break from the death that seems to be a new constant in my life at the hospital.
That being said, I am excited to go back! Even though sometimes I feel like I'm in the middle of nowhere and I really miss my friends in Freetown, I think God is really giving me a love for this community! Which is awesome......cause that's just how He rolls. :)

3 comments: