We touch down at Lunghi International Airport 17.00 PM late afternoon. Our contact has shown up, and we are whisked through Immigration, Customs with unusual speed, considering our location.
Chauffeur, car awaiting us in the parking lot and we take off to cross the lagoon that separates Lunghi International to Freetown.
Once we arrive near the Hovercraft Ferry, docked at the port, we take seats in a reserved space. And this moment I catch the striking image of the young kids squatting on the craft's deck sideways from the main cabin.
I hadn't noticed them when we entered the Hovercraft. Now I can feel the sadness, the endless misery, the emptiness in their faces, the pain that those kids had gone through, for they are victims of Fodeh Sankoh's Rebel Militias.
A senseless, barbaric horde of brutal criminals, who showed no mercy inflicting the pains on these kids, maiming and injuring them for life. I recall the looks in their eyes as if occurring today. An everlasting impression one can not forget, for those kids were without arms, or wrists.
Fodeh Sankoh, Rebel leader who never admitted to his crimes, his guerilla fighters would ask his captives the gruesome question :'Short sleeve or long sleeve ...'. Any comment would be superfluous describing the agony suffered by those who fell into the hands of their captors.
After the Ferry ride we continue to Freetown where another car waits to take us to our Hotel, the Cape Sierra Hotel , the only decent place run by an Italian businessman, Paolo. During the war the Hotel became a command post for the Rebels, then for the troops of the O.A.U , the CIA, the U.N.
Upon arrival we are greeted by the Italian owner, who arranged our contact in Sierra Leone. We are here to negotiate a contract with an International Company to sell our Packaging Products. The room is what one would call 'a room with a view', overlooking the Emerald sea, about hundred meters below us.
Really magnificent to see the waves breaking below your window. After dinner at the Continental Restaurant we meet other guests, amongst them one who works for the U.N.H.C.R. We get to know the Mercenaries present, French Legionaires who now execute covert operations for the CIA.
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One guy in particular arises my interest, I am told he is a Helicopter pilot, he looks the stereotyp 'Soldier of Fortune.
French, in his mid forties, you can see that he is different from the others.
He appears with a Jute sack in his hand and removes the neck rope which is wrapped tight around it. The bar dames are all too curious and come all to see the what's in the sack. Reaching into the sack he retracts his hand out fast, giving the impression a serpent bit him.
The girls all scream and run in all directions. He repeats the whole show a few times, much to the curiosityof thosepresent. The spectacle ends when he empties the sack and nothing appears. All laugh, after the girls reappear, and punish him for the scare he put onto them. A welcome distraction, for we are still in the middle of a Civil war
It is dawn, before 06.00 AM, and I hear a distinct whirl of Rotorblades, the whining sound of a turbine engine very rapidly.approaching the Hotel. I am up at once, reminiscent of my Army training, and rush to the window, just in time to see a 'Bell' Military Chopper approaching low over the stormy sea, at full speed, then - at the last moment the chopper swerving up almost vertically - right in front of my room windows..
The airshow lasts a few seconds, yet it shows the great skill of the Pilot.
Hovering sideways like a swing in a Fun park, the Chopper stalls almost idle in the air; after its fast upswing, and then drops rapidly, veering left, flying low over the sea..
The howling of the Turbines still in my ears, I see the face of the Pilot and recognize the daredevil I saw the previous night at the bar.
A stunning display of piloting skills, dangerous, but done with a precision that leaves no room for error. When I walk down for breakfast I am told this is his way of waking up the other guests lodging at the Hotel. ...................................................
next : Business and Departure .
- More from a turbulent past in Africa - Lance Corporal Halidu Gyiuwah
- Longans, Lychees and Pagodas - adventure in Southern China
- The great Hunter - hunting in the African Savanna
- Room with a view - Sierra Leone during the Civil War
- Alarm on Pyla Plateau - a Sub-Lieutenant with a mental issue
- Encounter at dusk - Close encounter with a Forest Leopard
- Chateaux de Saint Sabine - France, Burgundy, a fairy tale
- Jouney to the Tibetan mountains
- Meeting in no-mans land - Guinea Forestiere - African rain forest
- Dangerous road, the forest is unforgivable
- From Ghana to Guinea - a 5000 miles journey through West Africa
- Everready on the Pyla Plateau, Cyprus
- Carcassonne, L'Aude, France - time in history
- Where the river turns black - Sankarani River, Guinea, Mali
- Laos - Kingdom, past and present - journey to Laos