PC Blog 4: Training in a Bubble

Note: This blog entry was first posted on Wednesday, October 5. The names of those involved have been changed unless permission was given to use their actual names.

Our last Peace Corps blog post ended with our final arrival at the Lungi International Airport in Sierra Leone (after much trial and tribulation) and being loaded onto a fancy new Peace Corps bus. It was a short trip to the hotel, but with the lights fully on and music blaring, it was no secret to anyone in at least a kilometer radius that 16 new Americans had just arrived in Salone. I remember one of the other trainees, whom I’ll call Emma, commenting that it felt like we were in a fishbowl. I hadn’t really realized it until she mentioned it, but with all the windows lining the side of the bus, we definitely were.

First selfie on the bus taken by our Training Manager. Photo courtesy of Peace Corps Sierra Leone.

This theme would continue throughout our time in Lungi, although not so much in a fish bowl as in a bubble, because unlike prior years when trainees would stay at a hotel in Lungi for at most one night and then proceed on to their training site elsewhere in Salone (previously in Port Loko, I’m told), we were to stay at the Lungi Airport Hotel for a full week in semi-isolation as an added COVID prevention measure. Which, in all honesty, was completely warranted in my opinion - Salone has maintained a fairly low COVID rate, so we didn’t want to be bringing any disease in with us, infecting the people we were trying to serve. That night, we were given another COVID test, a bag full of Salone-styled masks, and our new med kits, complete with Malaria prophylaxis (prevention medication) to be taken daily (which reminds me, please excuse me for a minute while I go take mine…). Thankfully, even though we were already a full day behind schedule because of our unexpected Turkish Delight, they started the first session the following morning a little late to let us sleep-in a little.

The Lungi Airport Hotel. We were at least able to walk around out front during breaks.

My hotel room, complete with balcony!

The sessions themselves focused mostly on Safety and Security or Health, with the former led by our Safety and Security Officer, who is a retired police officer and a very kind man with a deep, gentle voice that could rival Morgan Freeman’s, and the latter led by our two Medical Officers, who together could rival any classic comedy duo with their straight man/funny man routine, mostly telling stories about the medical antics of previous volunteers. A few sessions were even led by our Training Manager, who has an infectious laugh and has worked tirelessly throughout our training to keep everything running (relatively) smoothly.

All of us in the meeting room for our sessions. This was the 'proof-of-life' picture to our families and friends after our arrival. Photo courtesy of Peace Corps Sierra Leone.

Socially distancing didn't stop us breaking out into small group discussions during our training sessions. Photo courtesy of Peace Corps Sierra Leone.

The Lungi Airport Hotel was very nice by Salone standards, with running water, 24/7 electricity (well, it would randomly go out for an hour or two at least once a day, so more like a solid 20/7), and WiFi (near the lobby, at least). The bed was decent, complete with mosquito net, though I was glad that I brought my own pillow, and like many other beds I’d later see in Salone, a sheet to sleep under didn’t seem to be standard, so I was also glad to have brought a sleeping bag liner to sleep under. It was located in a pretty beautiful location with some of the best landscaping I’ve seen in Salone (just look at some of the pictures I took). It’s apparently pretty close to the ocean (as is all of Lungi, to be fair), but frustratingly we weren’t allowed to leave our quarantine bubble to go see it.

The back garden of the hotel. It was magnificent.

The hotel catered three meals a day for us, which were a sort of mix of American and Salonean styles (certainly much more Americanized than most of our future meals would be). We also got to know some of the hotel staff while we were there, which was our first real exposure to (non-Peace Corps) Saloneans (especially since we weren’t allowed to leave the hotel). One, whom I’ll call Nelson, even gifted us some Salone bracelets and sweets before we left.

View of the back garden from my balcony. The below porch was just off our meeting room.

Four or five days after our arrival, all of the lost bags were eventually located by Turkish Airlines and brought back to us. The trainee whom I’ll call Captain Thorlord, was extremely overjoyed at this news, as BOTH of his checked bags had gone missing and he had been wearing the same outfit, which had already grown stale from travel, for several days by this point. Around the same time, which was about half-way through our stay, we noticed that there were a few uniformed military and police officers around the hotel. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, but later that day, we were gathered together for an unscheduled meeting during our break (which also happened to be during one of the unscheduled blackouts I had mentioned) to tell us that, apparently, a large group of Saloneans were leaving on the Hajj (one of the Five Pillars of Islam, to visit the Holy City of Mecca on pilgrimige) and that the government was trying to arrange for them to stay at our hotel… which would then no longer have room for us. As weawaited the negotiations among those who made well above our pay grade (we’re volunteers after all) to decide on whether we would need to move to a different hotel, I was fully anticipating that the discussions would not go our way and we would need to relocate, just based on how our travel experience had gone up to that point (but in keeping with the precedent I had already set, I still wasn't going to re-pack until the last minute). However, everything worked out in the end, and we were able to stay at the Lungi Airport Hotel for the remaining few days we had planned before our departure on Saturday. But you’ll have to wait for next time to read about that adventure, which I promise you is just as thrilling as the last one!