Lynne in Sierra Leone: Second Annual Freetown Photohunt

Sunday 17 March 2013

Second Annual Freetown Photohunt

In life you have to make your own fun or if you are really lucky someone else organises the fun for you. This is what happened a couple of Saturdays ago when a bunch of lovely people expended a great amount of effort to organise a Scavenger Hunt. This included creating a web page for the event. Click here to have a look.

They had drawn up a list of items to photograph with points being awarded for the level of difficulty involved in capturing the shot in the 3 hours allowed. This included painted images of the president, particular slogans on poda podas, specific pieces of graffiti, statues, sitting on cannons, buying strange carved items, the list went on and on.

My team mates for the event were Jess, Vafa and Ed. Here we are on the Freedom Steps.

We had great fun driving across Freetown ticking items off the list. You had to keep your eyes peeled at all times and be ready to snap. I failed at this a few times for example when the taxi with the WhiteBoy slogan in the back sped past.

The organising committee had a quiet 3 hours as the 14 teams scoured the city but boy they worked hard when everyone returned with memory cards in hand. The photos were transferred onto computers and then each team had to sit with a judge as photos were allowed or disallowed – much fun and games at that point as people became rather passionate about their entries. This process took a few hours but the teams didn’t mind as there was a pool, kegs of beer, a sound system and bbq. A perfect combination.

Eventually the results were announced and the winners crowned – not us I must say as we came 13^th – but hey it the taking part that counts! The organisers pulled out all the stops as a white sheet was hung between a couple of trees to allow the projection of the best photos. Much laughing and exclamations of surprise at people’s ingenuity.

Here’s a selection of our entries. Enjoy!