While he spoke, pedestrians walked along the sidewalks hauling parcels and bags. The sounds of motorcycle engines roared as drivers darted down the roads. A rattling white trotro minivan zoomed past in the opposite lane.
Jerry continued describing Aberdeen and the driver quickly verified our final destination. He emigrated to the United States after residing in the United Kingdom. The viewing was, in his opinion, the completion of a full circle experience of filming videos in significant places in his life β the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sierra Leone.
Yet, Chosan still wanted to film a video in Freetown and return to his birthplace. Chosan showed viewers the city center where people were hurriedly walking. Other shots from the video depicted rows of corrugated metal dwellings and the stretches of dirt roads in between them. Additional shots showed more spacious homes as well as some of the newer hotels that were constructed for the growing number of tourists visiting the city.
There were coconut water vendors, fishermen pulling in their nets, women carrying babies on their backs, and crowds squeezing their way through the city marketplace. The video revealed the seemingly endless flow of interactions in Freetown β a city which I had not been to in more than three decades. There were endless hours of playing with my cousins on the veranda at our family home.
I also had lingering memories of staring at the towering cotton tree out of the rear window of a car during a trip to town. However, these scenes felt as if they were steadily fading. Chosan admitted that there were several unexpected aspects of the video shoot. Moreover, he only had two days to film across all of Freetown. Nevertheless, Chosan was able to capture scenes from most parts of the city. His enthusiasm and excitement recounting the experience made me want to plan a trip to Freetown.
