Arriving in Sierra Leone...finally.

I’ve now been in Salone for a week and with my arrival the GMin team is complete. But it was not without complications I made my way here.

I flew from Copenhagen some two weeks ago together with Jamie. A few weeks earlier I had applied for Danish citizenship (formerly Swedish) and in the process some confusion took place. The short story is that I flew to London on an invalid Swedish passport, which got confiscated in Heathrow Airport. Angry, confused, devastated, tired and surprised, I managed to get my luggage (so it didn't fly off to Sierra Leone without me). After several hours of trying , I managed to speak to a person at the Danish Embassy in London (assuming that I now had to be a Danish citizen)and they told me they could issue an Emergency Passport the very next day. I called the Sierra Leonean High Commission, who told me that if I was lucky they could speed up the process for issuing visas from 3 to 2 days. (I had to purchase a new Visa since my old one went with my old passport). Finally I managed with some luck and charm to convince the BMI lady at the airport to change my flight (which I at that point had already missed) from Tuesday to Friday without a fee. I spent the next few days in London getting an emergency passport and a new visa for Sierra Leone. At the Sierra Leonean High Commission they asked for a letter of recommendation, but since I didn't have anyone at hand and since I couldn't get hold of the GMin Members in Sierra Leone, I had to produce one myself … It however went smooth and the person at the commission seemed to accept my made-up letter without reservations. Lucky me.

On Friday evening I finally landed in Freetown and made it through the customs and immigration without problems.

On Sunday I finally made it to Sahn where I met up with the rest of the GMin team. We are now all gathered here and is working hard to make the project be as good (and hopefully even better) than the project in 2007.

In general Sierra Leone looks like itself: All the bread we buy are still for some mysterious reason wrapped in Danish newspapers and our main meal still consists of white rice imported from the far east. The distribution has gone very well the last couple of days, and today is the last day of distribution. The numbers of chickens we’ve received as tokens of appreciation cannot anymore be counted on two hands. Likewise the number of Pineapples we’ve eaten is probably in the hundreds by now.

The kids still remember my name from last time, and I can’t walk two meters outside the doors without someone yelling “Jacob, Jacob”.

Tonight we a planned a big party for everyone to celebrate the end of the distribution. Can’t wait to party in Sierra Leonean manner.