Liberian adventure

Well here I am in Liberia!!!!

I was supposed to be on a helicopter flight (my first ever) this morning, but they got the flights mixed up and so I am still here in Monrovia. Apparently the next plan was for me to go by road which is about 12 hours, so I have begged them to let me check my emails and have a coffee first. I have now bought my own bag of Java coffee with me and it is fast becoming my most prized possession!!!
Ok...it now turns out that I am not going by road now due to various factors so the logs manager here is now trying to ensure that I am on the chopper tomorrow.
It is quite good really as the place here is FANTASTIC! I am sitting in the PD’s office (she is away at the mo) and I can see the waves crashing on the beach!!! LUSH! And it also means that I don’t have a 12 hour journey in front of me which was gonna be an adventure, but mostly long, boring and very bumpy!!! (I am getting too old for these sorts of adventures I feel!) So now just pray that I get on a chopper tomorrow otherwise I won’t get to go to their field site which would make my visit here a little pointless.

Oh, and I have just heard that my new tenant has moved into my house! Hurray!!!

And this evening I could go for a walk/run along the beach and a swim…hmmm…

So my travel here was also long as I got to the flat in Nairobi around 3pm on Sunday and then went to Yaya Centre, looked in the supermarket for a few things and then went to Java house and read my book and had yummy food and things and then went back to the flat, watched a film, a hot bath (!) and then went to bed around 8:30pm!!! Lush! I have been feeling really tired recently – I think I have a stomach bug similar to one I had in Ecuador when I was just completely washed out by it.

Then was up at 5:30am to get to the airport in good time for my flight at 9:30 and then it was delayed until 12:30 (hmphf! could have slept in longer!) and so I didn’t get here to the compound till around 7:30pm local time (which is the same as UK). But I did get through immigration which was a miracle because I had totally forgotten that I would need a visa until late Friday evening and the guys here managed to get that all sorted for me and I kept my cool with the immigration officer and he managed to find the visa form for me which was great. Plus there was another guy on the flight from Tearfund coming from Ghana where we stopped over so that was great.
So things are working out and probably just the way they are meant to! Oh, and they don’t have the ‘no alcohol’ rule here which is great – a glass of wine with your meal, or watching the sunset over the ocean…)

Still, think I am feeling a little homesick as when I was in the airport in NBO, I heard the announcement for the flight to London and I really really wanted to get on it – I didn’t realise how much I was feeling stressed and how much I have been wanting to see people and also just be in my ‘normal’ surroundings until then!

But it is a beautiful day and maybe I can crack on with some of the urgent work I need to do especially as a result of intense meetings and things I had last week!