Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Long Journey Home

We had an absolutely glorious day today at the Team House!  It's at the Swiss Embassy and we were invited for lunch, tennis and a swim!  

Swiss Embassy
In between shish ka bobs, our kids had a blast swimming!

Elliott, Deborah and Micah
But as they say, all good things must come to an end, so at 2:00 we loaded up the vehicles and started home.  The next portion of this blog is dedicated to our good friend, Olly Peet, who is probably in need of a good vehicle story right now, which is, of course, exactly what we have!

As we were preparing to pull on the main road, Patricia (my driver) noticed a road block up ahead.  (Note:  everything Patricia says should be said with an English accent.)  She said, "We can't go through that.  I have to back up.  I don't like to back up."  Well, she did it anyway - all the way to the next "road".  She said, "Do you think we can make it through here?  It looks like an alley, not a road.  I don't think we should go."  And, she did it anyway.  It got narrower and narrower and narrower and she said, "I don't think we can make it.  Nissan's are wide.", but she did it anyway - after we pulled in the side mirrors.  With inches to spare, we made it through this back alley, when we saw the ditch in the middle of the left side of the road.  She said, "I don't think I can do this.  What if we fall in?"  Which we did!  The Nissan was stuck!  With seven kids and me inside!  So she tried to go forward and backward and everyone ran out to give advice and help, but I gave her the best advice - let Sam drive.  So after being rocked back and forth and back and forth and not budging, Patricia, the kids and I got out and Sam got in.  He put the Nissan in four wheel drive, the Sierra Leoneans rocked the vehicle, mud splashed everywhere and we were out!  At least out of the ditch!  Sam's super skinny Land Rover made it through just fine and we found the main road and we were ready to be on our way home when we discovered traffic - mind numbing, not moving traffic.  We were going no where.  At one point Sam radioed us and said he'd rather get lost than spend another second sitting in traffic, so he pulled off in an unknown direction.  Patricia, being a bit more cautious, saw a day worker in the crowd she knew, asked the way home, turned the Nissan around in the middle of the road and we were off!  Wouldn't you know - we ended up on the same road as Sam about ten vehicles behind him (we were going down a hill and spotted his Land Rover in front of us).  We waved - they waved - they arrived at the ship - we arrived at the ship.  All told, it was two hours and fifteen minutes to go what had been 45 minutes on the way there!  It was a lovely day - the kids did not complain - and we were ever glad to be back at the ship!  Until tomorrow . . . Margo (:  


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