Kids, dogs and goats

Every six weeks we have a ship holiday where we get a Friday off as an extra day of rest and recuperation. I was fortunate enough to enjoy one before leaving. Many crew members head for the beach every Saturday and Sunday. So today a bunch of us drove out of Freetown to Bureh beach. There are many beaches here. We arrived in very small village with a "rope" gate. There was a guard who was in charge of the "rope", letting cars in and out of the village. We parked our landrover beside one of the local's home, who later charged us for "watching our vehicle". We were, of course, greeted by many friendly locals - the adults looking for business and the kids looking for friendship.

It was a gorgeous beach. Very fine sand, nice huts, NO GARBAGE, and the best part MS crew had the entire beach to ourselves! (Where can you ever find that in Toronto?) Lunch here is made and prepared in the local's home and brought to the huts for us. Food here, although takes a long time to make, was very tasty. We had barracuda, sweet potato fries and rice with onion sauce, plus a bottle of coke all for a low price of 33000 leones (=$8.25)

I brought a towel, music, and book ready to enjoy a quiet, sunny time out. Little did I know there would be company! First, as I laid on my back reading a young boy comes and lie on my towel wanting to hang out. Another girl comes wanting me to "snap" her and a third uses a stick to flick sand on me! I was not in the mood to play with them=( So a friend and I decide to walk away and around the beach. Second, not too long into our walk half a pack of dogs come out of no where and started heading towards us! (ahh.. I'm scared of animals btw.) These poor dogs, I believe, fight against each other hence they have blood on their bodies. Thankfully we discovered they never come at us for affection. They will only lay down near you as you read or eat lunch. You can motion them away by flicking your arm and saying "pass pass". Third, since I am in Africa, goats like to hang out at the beach too. None the less it was still really great to finally dip in the ocean instead of the deck pool.

TIA!