Day 10: A long way home

Our final day in Sierra leone started with a quick three hour packing session. Then after that we went for one final meal at Papaya where mostly everyone had about half a pizza. When we had finished, our travelling began and in a spectacularly stressful way we quickly found out that the boat tickets we had bought were the wrong ones. After roughly an hour of solid arguing, threatening and pleading, Mr Bowen, Mrs Nash and Mrs Ralls finally managed to convince the seamen that we had actually bought tickets and we were allowed on the ferry. Special mentions go to Mrs Ralls and Mrs Nash who both later told me they were ready to throw hands. During this aggressive confrontation, Mrs Nash's face changed colour from white to burgundy and visible signs of frustration were seen as she almost vibrated with anger. However, everything was slowly sorted and the boat ride to the next bus calmed everyone down as we were given spectacular views of Freetown. The bus journey from the boat to the airport felt like we were in a kiln whilst being in a severe earthquake at the same time. Nevertheless we all made it in one piece and got through airport security fairly quickly. The downside to this speedy process was the ‘random security checks’ in which most of us felt the uncomfortable gloves of security pat us down at least a couple of times. After coming through this traumatic event we patiently waited the many hours it took for the plane to arrive and set off feeling confident we'd not have to have rice again for several months. This dream was quickly squandered as we found out that dinner that night would be chicken curry, but in true Sierra Leone form we pushed through and made it out of the other side of that long 9 hour flight with most of us getting about a quarter of the sleep we wanted. We arrived in Brussels very early and with four hours to kill before we needed to board the plane, most of us got some food and well needed rest. Boarding was on time and we were all finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. That is until the Pilot became ill and we had to wait another hour before we took off for a new one to come. The flight was nice and short however and when we finally entered Heathrow we all felt cheerful if not a bit tired. Mr Bowen didn't snore once (which was good as I was somehow sat next to him for all of the flights). Mrs Nash's and Mrs Ralls’ pet chimpanzees made it through the journey with no scrapes or stains and Mrs Deans was one of the only people who looked like she had fully slept. Finally, I just want to say a big thank you to Mrs Nash, Mr Bowen, Mrs Deans, Mrs Ralls and Mrs Williams for making this trip so amazing and for being with us when we weren't all feeling amazing. This trip really couldn't of functioned without them and we all grateful for the amount of hard work and support they have all given us throughout this once in a lifetime opportunity. Thank you. Written by Gabriel