Fabric Street & Craft Market

The new Gateway group got here about a week and a half ago, bringing two new receptionists with them. Our team is losing one member but also gaining two. In addition to Tori, James, Michelle and myself, we now have Sara and Jim, both from Florida. Since there are now 6 receptionists, one us has to be the day shift worker, and our boss chose me! This means that I now only work 8:30-5:30 Monday through Friday, with every weekend off. I’m so happy that I get to work this shift now because even though it feel like a longer day, I don’t have to adjust my sleeping schedule every two weeks for night shift, and I get weekends off! This weekend is a ship holiday. We get one ship holiday a month, which means a 3-day weekend. This is because the ship has so many nationalities on it that we can’t possible celebrate every single holiday from every single country, so every once in a while we get a long weekend.

Today is the first day of our ship holiday, so with my day off I went to the fabric street and the craft market. I went to the fabric street earlier this week with fabric I had already purchased and my local friend took me to his brother, who is a tailor. Today I picked up my new skirt and dress made with African fabric. This fabric street is basically a long stretch where all the stands around sell beautiful and colorful fabric.

After picking up my new clothing and looking around, my friends and I went to get shawarmas on the street. They are put on a tortilla and have lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, street meat, chips (fries), some spice, and some sort of sauce. I never really like spicy food before I came but this is delicious. Even though my mouth feels like it’s on fire when I eat, it’s so worth it; especially with a cold bottle of coke from a stand down the street. When buying something with meat though, you always want to make sure you see them cooking it in front of you. If not, you never know how long it’s been sitting out and how many bugs have touched it. I tend to never ask what sort of meat I’m eating because I’m not sure I necessarily want to know the answer. I know friends who have eaten rat and dog, and I just don’t want to know if that is the case. I’m pretty sure the meat I had today was goat, which is all right with me.

After taking a lunch break, we trekked on to the craft market, which is basically a flea market. Walking through the craft market can be a little stressful because everyone grabs you and wants you to look at what they have. The craft market is in a big building with two levels. On the first level they tend to have wooden figurines, straw hats, and more carving sort of things. They also sell necklaces and bracelets made out of typical African beads, and coins and shells. The upstairs of the building has more jewelry, shoes, purses, and fabrics. My bargaining skills have definitely improved after taking a few trips there. Today my friends and I brought one of the Sierra Leonean day workers from the ship with us, in the hopes that he could help us with the prices, but he mostly just watched.

On another note, the pier the ship is located is gated and guarded by Sierra Leonean men and women. I always enjoy have a conversation with the guards, who are so friendly and always willing to help.

Sahr and Abu, two of the guards