Party time

On Saturday, it was World Aids Day. I went with my friends Grant and Davina and took part in a march through Freetown and spent the morning listening to various speakers talk about Sierra Leone’s approach to HIV and AIDS. One of the speakers was the new president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma. It’s quite strange to think that I’ve been closer to the president of Sierra Leone than I have been to any prime minister in the UK. It also made me realize how little we consider HIV and AIDS in the UK. It’s shocking really that this is the first World AIDS Day event that I have attended.

In addition, on Saturday night we had a big party at my house, to say farewell to my flatmate Krystle. We borrowed a generator and so we had electricity in our house which was pretty exciting, and we had a DJ who played some great music. Lots of people came to the party, as Krystle has made many friends here, including ALL of my colleagues, which I was really proud of. It was a great party and despite a few organizational traumas, we had a lot of fun. There are pictures on my facebook site!

Krystle flies home on Monday and many of my other VSO friends will be traveling to the UK for Christmas also, so it will be a strange time. However, myself and 3 other VSO friends of mine Diya, Grant and Julian (see you have a mention now!) have plans to take a trip to Banana Island for a short break, so I will be spending Christmas Day on the beach. Can’t complain at that!

Time to get back to work now… I’m working at the moment on designing a label for the honey that is produced through a community project my organization is running. Hopefully we’ll be able to sell quite a few in the run up to Christmas to help generate some income for the beekeepers. In fact I hope none of my friends here are reading this or they are all going to guess what their Christmas presents will be!