Category: Banana Island

Does it feel odd being back in Britain, where everything is familiar and I don’t have to worry about whether the milla tank holds enough water for everyone’s needs until the next full moon*? I’ll be honest. It doesn’t. It almost feels like those five months on a tiny island… Continue reading

I get most of my news second- or third-hand from guests where I’m volunteering in Sierra Leone. I’ve seen a television set once in my four months here (the headline on the screen was ‘Trump Victory’), and heard the comforting sounds of the BBC World Service just twice, from other… Continue reading

A week may be a long time in politics, but sometimes a day of Banana Island politics can feel like more than a lifetime’s worth. At times it is as if Dublin village, just five minutes from the guesthouse I am volunteering in, is enacting a modern day version of… Continue reading

Not many people head to Freetown to relax. Africa’s capitals, its cities even, and those of West Africa in particular perhaps, have a reputation as big, dirty and chaotic masses of humanity. And they are. In the same way that London or New York could be so defined. And yet… Continue reading

I have become a father. Only not really. Genetically, the offspring will not be mine; genetically they are not even the same species. By being vaguely kindly towards it (by not beating it), I have accidentally adopted one of the stray dogs that roam between Dublin village and the guesthouse… Continue reading

When the phone isn’t ringing or the guests are on the beach or in the jungle and I have a spare few minutes, I find myself making lists: things I need to do on my next day off, places I want to visit, emails I want to send, animals I… Continue reading

A few days ago one of our boats sank. Anchored on the water on a busy Sunday, the stern took on water from a freak swell which tipped the balance between buoyancy and submersion. Without anyone aboard to grab a bailer, it overturned and slipped beneath the surface, stern and… Continue reading