The way we live in Freetown, Sierra Leone

If we think about our life’s we only remember moments, sad moments, and happy moments.

Life is about moments.

Some live in moments and some create moments.

I do both.

Everyday is a challenge and everyday is different here in Freetown on the 

AFRICA

MERCY

Able to live in a moment brings happiness. -Ville Patrikainen   

Yesterday the Bosun who is my right hand man, stopped me and told me that his girlfriend is in critical condition in a hospital. That happened around 19:00. So I offered to take him to that hospital and so we went. Here in Freetown the traffic is horrible and there are no rules, traffic lights or street lights and because of all that, is always a challenge to drive here. We arrived to our destination but it wasn’t a hospital, it was her home. She lives up onto mountains about 45 minutes drive away from the ship. Anyway we finally got there and we stepped off the car, it was pitch dark and we were somewhere in the city…We had to walk between houses, downhill, on the slippery road and it took us about 15 minutes to get to her house. We found her lying in her bed, shivering; I think she had a fever. How Bosun described me her condition was like she was dying!! Luckily she wasn’t. We prayed for her and Bosun had two bottles of olive oil with him. Yes, olive oil. First the olive oil was put on her forehead and then Bosun and she drank it. Yeap, they drank olive oil. The purpose of doing this was that his faith was in that bottle and he could transfer the power of heeling from the bottle to her. Interesting! It was really WOW. It is strange to put faith in some kind of form but I think it was a good thing. If a person really believes that something can heel her or him it will help. The power of believe can be really strong. She was working today; she is one of our day volunteers so maybe the olive oil helped!

Another interesting event happened to me on last weekend. I was riding a motorbike taxi and while riding on it I was thinking the fact that most of the drivers are ex-child soldiers, who got their bikes from the government that they could be integrated to the society! Hmmm…is it really safe to ride on those?? While I was thinking that brakes got broken and we hit a tree!! Amazing!! I got into accident in Africa, it wasn’t the first time but that is a different story. Okay we hit a tree but I managed to jump off the bike before we actually hit the tree and at the same time I grabbed and pulled the driver off the bike too so nothing really happened to us. The bike got little damage but that’s it. It was really funny at the end because I was holding that guy and he was hanging like being in a hanger from my hand. I don’t know why I grabbed the guy, everything happened automatically. It was just funny!! J

Also another exciting event happened like a week ago. I got called in the evening that there was a boat in distress; they ran out of gas, just next to our ship, we tried to call the port authorities but they didn’t respond so we lowered our rescue boat to help them. I went down with couple deck guys and we tried to tow them ashore.

We tried…

...and we tried!!! J

Our small rescue boat wasn’t strong enough to actually tow the boat so we just ended up going circles and further away from our ship!! We were useless!! J Finally the local pilot boat came to safe the day, they took over and towed the boat ashore. It was a good exercise for us. Exiting event!! A rescue operation!! J

Today another boat had problems with his engines and she was drifting next to our ship. We called the pilot and they responded promptly which is great. The pilot boat towed the boat away!! All good!!

All these events were moments, moments which I will remember rest of my life. Amazing moments! Happy moments!

We should create moments or at least see the moments as a special occasion that we could remember them rest of our lives. For me small things have been most memorable like drinking wine with amazing people in candle light, listening good music. Simple but happy moments!

                                                                         I love life, I love moments.

If I think the time here in Africa I remember the challenges and one of my biggest challenge has been the people here on the ship. For me it is hard to believe that people are people were ever I go. I am dealing same kind of issues here than I have been dealing on the cruise ships. I thought that people here would be different. No, in general they are the same. Of course here are some amazing people who are doing amazing job but still here are some individuals who behave like jackasses in the name of God. I have been having some difficulties to understand these people. Why they are here and why they are behaving the way they are? I came here with an attitude that we can change the world and I thought everybody else are here thinking the same. NO, Ville, no. Sometimes I think I am just a young kid who thinks the world is perfect and everybody is nice to each other. Again and again I found that is not the case. The world is not perfect!! Why I still believe the goodness of people? Why I still believe that we can change things? Because I want to!!!
I want to live in a perfect world. My world is perfect. The world we are living is not perfect but I love my life and it is perfect. I don’t want to become miserable old men who don’t believe in anything and complains about everything. I want to believe and I stand behind my believes. I want to live in my world which is the perfect world for me. That makes me happy. I want to believe in love, in people and in life!! I believe that there is only one life, one opportunity to enjoy all the beauty in this world. I don’t want to waste my time here, I want to enjoy!

Happiness is to enjoy the ride, ride of life. –Ville Patrikainen

RIDE ON!!!