boy was that sweet! taking the World Food Program (WFP) flight from Monrovia to Freetown to Conakry.

In Monrovia I and 6 other passengers checked in at the UN terminal of Roberts International Airport. Big UN helicopters on the runway. A contingent from Ethiopia was boarding these at the same time. They bring us in a Landcruiser to the plane and the pilot shakes everyones hand to welcome us. The plane is tiny and has only 10 seats. Cessna 208B. It says "Humanitarian Air Service" on the side and UN on the tail. We take off and fly over the Guinean Forests and rivers at 1000m. Beautiful sight.
In 1.5 hours we were in Freetown-- seeing the ocean and the hills of the Freetown Peninsula. It is such a small plane that you can feel the bumps in the tarmac as we taxi to the hangar. We got out for 15 min and took on some new passengers, and then took off again for Conakry. In Conakry, WFP folk were there to help us through customs and immigration and in no time at all we were out on the streets of Conakry. I took a taxi to the hotel. I can't believe how easy that was when I think back to the trip down overland. no dust, heat, infinite border crossings, ...


There is a fuel shortage in Conakry. Taxi's are lining up at the gas stations and the streets are relatively empty of traffic (for Conakry which usually has horrendous traffic). I'm going to get lunch and later try to go to the beach. Friday I am headed to Bamako (by bush-taxi).