Tag Archives: Tiwai

Bo, Sierra Leone

YOU can tell a lot about a country from its airport.  Lungi International, stranded a wide river mouth away from Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown, is at first sight a steamy, chaotic mess. The crowded baggage area – much smaller than it seems to need to be – blazes with the colours of bright fabrics and brighter chatter.

Time passes in fits and starts as odd bags arrive erratically from the aircraft sitting a short distance away on the tarmac. In the meantime I am entertained by women hawking sim cards, men selling water taxi rides to Freetown and by my fellow passengers.