My Week in Dixcove and My weekend back in Accra!

Hey guys, It has been more than a week since I have blogged . . . so this may be a long one! I will start with last week’s Friday night karaoke since that is where I left you!

On Friday night I got my passport for Benin back from the guy who said he would deliver it to me. He tried to get to Darkuman, but he called saying his motor bike broke down in Dansuman . . . so I got in a cab and went to meet him because I really wanted my passport back! But I did get the passport with my Benin Visa inside so all was well with that. After that I went to Karaoke by myself, but I met a whole group of Americans at the bar and hung out with them! They were very cool. Karaoke went as usual, but this time I told the host that I was a karaoke host in Canada. He now wants me to try and find him a website where he can download more French songs, and more music in general (I will need Rob’s help on this one). But I sang and everyone yet again loved me, and I had a blast. All the guys at the bar were trying to pick me up because of my voice (which is still creepy but a better reason than because I am white lol) specifically the bouncers lol. But all in all it was a great night,

Saturday morning I got up at 9am and started packing to go to Dixcove to stay with Mike and Julia at their Eco Lodge (Desert Rose Lodge) for the week. I packed and then took off to the STC station for my bus to Takoradi. The bus was actually (surprisingly) on time . . . for Ghana. It was supposed to leave at 12:30, and it arrived at the station at 12:30 so we left at 1pm . . . on time for Ghana! The bus had no problems this time around and the trip was quite uneventful, other than the fact that when we stopped in Cape Coast I got a wonderful meat pie from a street vendor. When I arrived in Takoradi I got a taxi to the Dixcove area and directed the taxi driver on the really bumpy back dirt roods to Desert Rose Lodge. It was fantastic to get there and hug Mike and Julia after a year of seeing each other! It was bliss! I had supper with them that night and this first night it was only me Mike and Julia, so we got to do a lot of catching up about our year. Before I continue on with what I did each day at this Lodge, I am going to take some time to explain this Lodge to you.

Mike and Julia are a couple from Sweden who set out 5 years ago to build a lodge somewhere in the world. They had traveled to India and to Asia together before deciding they wanted to build a lodge, and those trips were what fueled it. They started again in India, but it wasn’t possible to build there, so they continued into Africa. Their plan was to travel most of Africa just to see it, and then to end up in south Africa where they would build their lodge. They arrived in Ghana and immediately felt welcomed and amazed. When they stayed at Green Turtle Lodge (a lodge owned and run by a British couple that is now about a 20 minute drive up the road from them, they have remained very close to this couple as well) they felt a sense of family and loved the villages around the Lodge. They then knew that this was the place for their project! In the past 5 years they have built a very nice eco friendly lodge, this means that there is no electricity, running water, or damaging utilities to the environment, and everything that they have built was built using natural elements such as mud, bamboo, wood, and like materials. Their Lodge is directly on the beach, and it is a private beach shared by the neighboring villages, so there is no garbage in it, and it is very secluded (apart from occasional visits from the village children wanting to get you Coconuts off the tree). They do have solar power and wind power that they have set up their own system for, and it works just enough to run some lights at night in their “hang out area” and run some music. It is very impressive that they built this solar/wind energy system on their own! They have an outhouse that is a self compositing toilet, basically a really deep hollowed out well. They also have a sink right outside that which is pumped from a bucket of water. They have bucket shower stalls (made out of bamboo) where you pour water on yourself from a small cup and you get the water from a big bucket. The water that they have in these buckets is all rain water, they collect the rain water for use which again means that they are using natural elements from nature to run their lodge. In their “hang out” area they have three couches (made out of wicker and bamboo with bought cushions) and a wooden table to sit around and “hang out”, they have a pool table, a dart board, a full bar (every kind of alcohol, including local Ghana brews), two hammocks, and a picnic table. That is a great spot to hang out at night, the whole floor of the “hang out” area is sand, so it gives you a really earthy feel. They have a working kitchen, and they make delicious food, and outside the kitchen they have a dining area with picnic tables where all the guests always eat together with Mike and Julia (this place gives you a real “family” feeling). New this year, they have built a salt water pool just below the “hang out” area. They fill the pool up using a water pump and lots of hose line, they put the hose into the ocean and pump the water from there into the pool (harder then it sounds, we did this on the second day I arrived and it took a whole day to get it working properly). They have one room with a double bed, one dorm room with four single beds and a double bed, one self contained bamboo hut with a double bed, and two wooden made tents with double beds in them. All of the beds have mosquito nets to keep the bugs away at night (and there are a lot of big strange bugs in the bush where they are at the Lodge). It is a really fantastic place with a great concept on preserving the land, and the sense of family that you get when you arrive here is fantastic (I truly believe that this is due to the amazing personalities and welcoming concepts of Mike and Julia themselves). They say they want to keep the Lodge at a 25 person capacity so that it always feels like a place where you can get to know everyone! So that is a little background and description of Desert Rose Lodge!

So on Sunday morning I woke up and had breakfast (fried eggs, bread and fresh oranges) and then I did nothing all day . . . I went to the beach, then I came up to the Lodge and tanned on the bamboo tanning chairs, then I took a nap on a hammock, went back to the beach and tanned some more (I know, that’s the life haha). That afternoon a new couple arrived, their names were Claire and John, they were from London, also a girl from Austria arrived, her name was Ellia. At supper time we had fresh Lobster from Dixcove (the fishing town nearby), and Mike cut them in half and barbequed them and covered them in a garlic breadcrumb crust . . . that was THE best lobster I have ever had (and I am from the maritimes!). That night we all sat around in the “hang out” area and got to know each other, then went to bed quite late!

Monday morning I woke up to Kuso (one of their cats, kitten actually) beside me playing with my hair, he had managed to crawl inside the mosquito net . . . clever! I went outside, showered and had breakfast, then I went to Dixcove with Ellia to see the fort of the slaves there and experience the fishing village! The fort slave was nowhere near as impressive as the ones in cape coast, but still interesting . . . an English couple has bought it and are now living in it, so it was weird to see that. The fishing village was cool, they taught us all about the fishing boats (simple concept really) and how they use their nets to catch the fish and how they cool, clean and gut the fish. We even saw them gutting large sharks that they had caught. After the visit in the village I got a tro tro into takoradi to take out more money then I got a taxi back to Desert Rose Lodge. When I got back to Desert Rose Lodge Claire, John, and I went to go see how the local moonshine called Akpetchi is made. One of the workers at the Lodge took us there, it was about a 5 minute walk from the Lodge down the dirt road, the another 5 minute walk into the forest bush area. It was located literally in the middle of a clearing in the woods. The way it works is they take the local palm wine that they make out of palm oil nuts (it’s like a fermented wine) then they put that in big barrels where it boils for a long time, then tubes from those barrels transport the akpetechi into big pools where the alcohol distills (and gets much stronger), then it gets slowly stiffened out and filtered into bottles. It was very interesting to see how this moonshine is made in the middle of the woods haha. I got a bottle of palm wine and a bottle of Akpetechi from them at this place to bring home!

That night when we were all back at the lodge we had dinner, which was homemade pizza with real cheese! Two other guys had arrived at this point from germany named Sasha and Danial. We then took part in drinking the akpetechi and had a blast of a night being drunk and learning how to climb coconut trees! I have learned that climbing coconut trees is all in the power of your thighs to push forward! You have to hug the tree and grip the tree with your thighs to pull yourself up (valid skill to have I think, it should go on my resume . . . can climb a coconut tree haha). We then braved the outhouse at night together because at night there are HUGE bugs in there, then we went to bed (all sleeping in the same dorm, so that was funny as well).

Tuesday I didn’t do a whole lot which is the point of being at this Lodge. I tanned, swam, napped on hammocks, swam more, and tanned more. For Lunch I had a pasta salad with curry dressing (which I now know how to make from scratch when I get back to Canada) and then we all had supper which was Sweedish Meatballs and rice! We drank 4 bottles of wine between us that night and had a dart tournament . . . yes smart idea lol! It was a lot of fun to hang out with these people and the vibe that mike and Julia set is perfect for that!

Wedenesday I again didn’t do much of anything, Mike Julia and I got the pump working, so in the morning we pumped the water from the sea into the salt water pool and I spent most of the day in there, and tanning! Claire, John, Sasha, and Daniel all left in the afternoon, so it was Mike, Julia, and I alone again for my last night which was great! We had Potato au Gratin (scalloped potatoes) and veggie stir fry for supper then we had a relaxing night talking and laughing!

Thursday I spent the morning I spent in the salt water pool and tanning which was very relaxing, then I showered and packed up to leave for Takoradi to get a bus back to Accra! A taxi came and picked me up at the lodge, and he was really great since it was a local friend of Mike and Julia’s. He let me drive through the dirt roads in Dixcove since there’s not a lot of traffic, he said that it was so that I could say I have driven in Ghana, and on Ghana bad roads haha, boy can I ever say that! It was like off roading times 10! This was very fun, then when we hit main roads he drove again. When I got to the bus station they told me that there were no buses for the next 3 days to Accra because they were all full. I asked a taxi driver if there were other stations and he said he’d been to them and the buses there were full as well with big crowds . . . This was a frustrating moment for me! Then this worker at the bus station told me to hang around and he’d see if there was room after the people with tickets got on the bus . . . well there wasn’t, so I pulled a very bad girl move that I am kind of embarrassed about . . . I stood there and made myself cry, sure enough there was a lady that started waving me onto the bus from the bus window, so I fought with the driver and got on the bus, when I got on the bus this lady said you can sit in the seat we bough for our three year old, as long as she can sit on your knee the whole way to Accra . . . I was thrilled with that and said sure thing! So yes, I got on a bus to get back to Accra, but I am a little ashamed about how I did it . . . haha. That was quite a bus ride with a chatty 3 year old on my knee, but she was very very cute!

I got back to Accra at about 8pm and was very excited to have power again so that I could charge my dead phone and have a fan . . . but this is Ghana and nothing ever works in your favor . . . so when I got back to the hostel I arrived to no power, and there was no power all night . . . so I just went to bed because there was nothing else to do!

Friday I woke up very early to go to church, it being good Friday and all, and I couldn’t go to the Methodist church with aunty and uncle because the service would have been in Twi, so I decided to go to church with Eunice, the Laundry and cleaning lady here at the Hostel. Her church was called assemblies of God . . . it was the craziest church I have ever been to in my life . . . take a Pentecostal church from Canada and dial up the crazy by 20 (you know with all the speaking in tongues, fainting, dancing around like lunatics, shouting fire and brimstone, being possessed with the spirit . . . yeah all that). I was terrified and finding a lot of comedy in this (I didn’t show that I found it funny because they might have made me go up there and start talking gibberish too). They were getting people up there and the pastors were putting their hands on the peoples heads and shouting at them in tongues (which I still believe is gibberish . . . I stand by that) and then they started talking in tongues, then they were fainting, and they kept saying they were full of the spirit . . . but it seemed like they were full of something else if you ask me! They kept yelling God gives us the power, then May the fire of God come down on us . . . then there was more wacky dancing and tongues. This is NOT my kind of church because I do not believe tongues is the language of God, and I do not believe that God wants us to make idiots of ourselves to worship him, so all in all for me it didn’t feel like a good Friday worship ceremony. They were too happy and not mournful enough.

I went back to the Hostel and went to my room and watched the Passion of the Christ, then I felt more like it was good Friday! Then in the afternoon I went to meet my Guide that will be taking me to Benin on Monday, we talked about the plans and details and such, and talked about ourselves to get to know each other . . . He is very handsome, this may be a problem . . . self restraint haha! In the evening I came down to the common area and hung out with everyone for awhile and then there was a very creepy black man from America with dreads that came wandering into the hostel, he was talking to himself and scared us so we got Uncle. Uncle talked to him for a long time and then eventually got him to leave. Uncle then told us that he stayed here 2 years ago and was fine for awhile with his girlfriend here, but then she left him and he started doing heroin here and got crazy (like he was this night), so then they had to kick him out of the hostel and deport him from the country. Now that he’s back, Uncle says that he is so delusional that he thinks he is friends with aunty and uncle and wants to stay here again . . . he has come back to the hostel a lot this weekend and so now they have locked everything in the hostel and we have to ring a bell to get in (understandable). We then decided to go to Karaoke! Karaoke was fun Bruno got ill from alcohol so he had to leave early, then pilar, Linnea, and I were left and we sang our hearts out and drank until 2am! At this time we got a taxi back home, only problem was the taxi ran out of gas halfway to our hostel so we drunkenly stood on the street waiting for another taxi (took a long time at that hour of night) and eventually got one. When we got back to the hostel pilar and Linnea couldn’t get into their rooms because aunty had locked the house, so we all went up to my room and watched glee and had drunken girl talk until 6am when they could get back into their rooms!

Saturday we all woke up quite late because of the night before. We then had lunch and went into the darkuman market to buy fabrics. I bought lots of fabrics for myself and for Linda to make dresses with and then we bought some mangoes and came back to the hostel. I ate the mangos (all three . . . yeah I am going to miss mangos when I get back) and then I went to get money from the bank for my Benin trip. When I got back it started to downpour so Linnea, Pilar, and I got in our bathing suits and started running around the hostel in the rain, getting soaked and splashing in puddles . . . it was fantastic, it was the first time in Ghana that I felt cold (very welcomed feeling)! It rained for about two hours so it was a long splashing session. After that we got changed and had dinner, then the creepy man came back and Uncle kicked him out again! After that Pilar, Linnea, Kamal and I went up to my room to watch Glee. Kamal had never seen Glee before so we introduced him to it and watched the first six episodes. He said that it was Ok, and “good in a guilty pleasure for a guy kind of way”. So that was another fun night!

Sunday Morning I slept in because I had no interest in going back to the church of crazy! I celebrated Easter here by eating Belgian chocolate eggs that Linnea had brought to Ghana, and having a noodle stir fry for lunch. That brings us to this point where I started writing this blog. So there you have it. Tonight I am going out with about 10 people from the hostel to and Indian restaurant, then I will be packing and preparing for my trip to Benin tomorrow! In Benin I am set out to learn all about Voodoo, I even have an appointment on Tuesday morning for a one on one sacrifice ceremony with a voodoo fetish priest, and also a planned visit to their Python Temple where I can have the Python’s draped around me! I will blog when I return to Ghana on Thursday! Thanks for reading!

My Week April 11th - April 15th!

Ok, so I left you all on Monday afternoon, after my Kokrobite weekend, so now I will tell you all about my week.

Monday night I didn’t do much of anything, I got pork from Grace at the pork stand down the road. She calls me Akosua because I was born on a Sunday. See in Ghana, you have a second name based on the day of the week that you were born. Here is a chart so that you too can find out your Ghana first name:

Sunday –        (male): Kwasi        (female): Akosua

Monday –       (male): Kojo          (female): Adwoa

Tuesday –       (male): Kwabena   (female): Abena

Wednesday -  (male): Kwaku       (female): Akua

Thursday –     (male): Yao            (female): Yaa

Friday –          (male): Kofi           (female): Afia

Saturday –      (male): Kwame      (female): Ama

So there you have it, Now you know what your true name should be (the key is going back on a calendar to your birth year to find out what day of the week your birthday falls on then). They use those all the time, they tell you their given name (like Melissa) only when they know you very well, but always introduce with their Ghana name! So that’s kind of fun now when I met people to tell them my name is Akosua, then they know I have been in Ghana for a long time!

But the rest of Monday night I did nothing, except play Uno with Eric, Toby, and Kamal of coarse (tradition now)!

Tuesday morning I woke up and went to the school, the kids were feeling a little better on Tuesday, but not by a lot. So they had a doctor come and give them Cholera medication. Faustina was back from the hospital, but still resting, so it was another school day of taking care of sick kids (with less vomit though)!

Tuesday afternoon I came back and took a nap at the hostel because I was worn out from looking after sick kids (it’s a lot more draining then looking after healthy kids).

Tuesday Evening I went to get some pork from Grace again and while I was down there a lady named Mercy told me I had nice breasts . . . compliment I guess haha! Also a man asked to Marry me, and when I said no he asked for my phone number, when I again said no he said “ahh adain (why) it’s nice to be nice einh?”. Now in Ghana that is THE biggest catch phrase ever! They say it when you are being nice and they say it when you are apparently being mean to encourage you to be nice! I’ll probably come back to Canada and start saying “hey, it’s nice to be nice!”! Other then that I did nothing really, I again played Uno and went to bed!

Wednesday morning I went to the school as usual, and surprisingly most everyone was cured of the Cholera! So the drugs the doctors gave must have been good! I had a normal morning with the kids, and they were doing their exams!

Wednesday afternoon I set out on a mission with the help of Nana to find Three big canvases and powder paint to mix with glue (for Thursday for the kids). Nana was convinced that we could find these things in Darkuman where we stay, so for an hour and a half we walked through the town of Darkuman asking every shop if they sold it, or knew where we could find it. After everyone (and I mean everyone) in Darkuman said they didn’t have it, I convinced Nana that we best go to the art market across town (where they sell all the souvenirs, woodwork, paintings, and such to ask them where to get it. When we got to the art market a man took us down the road to his house where he had lots of paint and glue, and his brother made blank thick canvases. So after an hour of haggling the price down I got three Canvases, 5 colors of paint, glue, and paint brushes for 40 cedi! That was a much different experience then going to a craft supply store in Canada haha! Then Nana and I came back to the hostel and I went to a bank.

Wednesday night I didn’t do anything yet again! But there were new girls that arrived here from the Netherlands and they had this great card game called set. The cards had different shapes on them and you lay twelve out on the table and have to collect sets of three (harder then it sounds, it is a logic game). So I thoroughly enjoyed that for hours then went to bed early to prepare for an early morning of painting with the kids the next day!

Thursday morning I woke up early at 7am and went to the school with Nana for 8am. When I got to the school I announced to the kids that “today we are going to messy paint”. They didn’t quite get it so I then said “We’re going to paint with our hands”, they all looked at the teachers like “are we allowed?” and the teachers knew before hand, so they encouraged the kids that it was ok haha! So Nana and I began to mix the paint colors with glue and water (this makes sure that the paint won’t crack when I roll it up to pack it) and then we bagan calling children up to get their hands painted. So we had an assembly line, myself and another teacher were putting the paint on the kids hands, then Nana and another teacher were stamping the kids hands on the canvases, then another teacher was writing the names of the children with pen underneath their handprint. This took about four hours, it was very fun though! After that the kids got back into the paint and started painting each others faces with tribal marks . . . of coarse I couldn’t get away from them without being painted up as well, so it was a fun messy paint day! I think that the kids were just excited to be allowed to be messy, because the teachers told me that they have never heard of finger painting before this! So after all was said and done I left one big Canvas for the preschool to post on their wall and I took two to post on my walls (when I get my own place) for myself! They are beautiful and I can’t wait to show them to you all! Walking down the street covered in paint with these in mid afternoon was quite funny though!

Thursday afternoon I went to run quite a few errands (after showering the paint off of coarse) and the main errand being getting my Visa for Benin! I got in a taxi and headed for the embassy. Now all the embassy’s for every country are in the same area of town, so it took the taxi driver a half an hour of driving through this area to find the Benin embassy. Every couple meters he would be like “here’s an embassy” and it would be to Egypt or Libya or something, so I had to keep telling him to keep looking! I finally got to the Benin embassy and they were closed at 2pm for Visa’s, frustrating, but they let me fill out the forms and give them my passport so that it could be done the next day. Only problem was that I needed passport pictures, so I went in a taxi down the road to get some passport photos taken. Once that was done I went back to the Benin embassy to give him those, then he said he would have my passport ready for me by 7pm tomorrow (Friday). So then off I went after all that hassle (I wanted to go to the bank to get money off my mastercard for a start at paying auntie at the hostel but I couldn’t without my passport) so my next errand was going to a VIP bus station to get a ticket for Takoradi for Saturday because I am going to dixcove to stay with Mike and Julia and the eco lodge. When I got there they said their busses only go to Kumasi . . . so then I had to go to an STC station . . . back in another taxi I got. When I got to the STC station they had closed their till at 4pm, but said that if I paid them they would write my name and attach it to a ticket and write down Takoradi bus 12:30 on it, and I could get my ticket and be guaranteed aspot if I went to the station at 11:30 on Saturday, so that is what I did. Then I went to melcom (supermarket) to get a notebook and candies for the kids for the next day. Finally after all that hassle of everything I came back to the Hostel exhausted! Frustrated and a little homesick I called Linda, who made things much better!

Thursday night I didn’t do anything (to be expected after my day). I played Uno and Set with the hostel gang and went to bed.

Friday (today) I went to the school early again at 8am because they were having their last day party before vacating for two weeks for Easter! It was very much like the “party” school days we had in elementary school for things like Halloween or Christmas. They didn’t do anything and were allowed to just do whatever, they had a DJ come in and play music so they were all dancing, they had biscuits and candy and pop for the kids and at lunch time they had roasted a whole chicken for the kids to share (special to them because they usually just have rice and sauces). So it was a day of lots of fun! The teachers even got me dancing with them to the music haha! The day lasted until 1pm when the kids were sent home with baskets full of candy, treats, work from their semester, and report cards! Faustina filled me in today that the new preschool they are building will be built while the kids are still in school at their old location, and even when the new school is built the old school will run at the same time until that group of kids are all graduated from the preschool (but they won’t be accepting new children at the old location). The new location will run at the same time recruiting new children (because it will be in a different neighborhood) and they will start to build attendance that way. So this is a project that they have wanted to move forward with for a long time, and it will take more money then what I have fundraised, but I think that we can do it (yes I will need help lol). It will be a long term project and may take up to five years before they can vacate their old location and move to their new one (while transitioning both), but it will be worth it to know that I made it possible for them to build a new school! It was sad saying goodbye to the kids for two weeks, but I am hoping to extend my trip until the 4^th instead of the 2^nd of May because they start school back on the 3^rd, this way I will have the 3^rd morning and the 4^th morning to say goodbye to the kids!

This afternoon I didn’t do much of anything, I felt kind of sickish like I had heat exhaustion from being in the sun dancing all day, so I came back and took a nap. Then I washed some Laundry to be ready for the week in Dixcove ahead. And after I finished that I started this blog! So there we are! I am going to meet the man with my Visa very soon (plans for Benin are coming together well and today the travel company did me a favor and reduced the price to no profit to them because it is such a short trip and are only giving profit to the guide . . . so it is now affordable for 4 days at 200 cedi), and then tonight I am going to go to Karaoke for a bit with some people from the hostel! I won’t be writing for awhile because I will be in Dixcove at Desert Rose Lodge with Mike and Julia from tomorrow (Saturday) until Wednesday (no internet connection in the middle of nowhere) so I will update you on how that trip went when I come back. Again thank you for reading!

Kokrobite weekend :)

So, let’s start from my Friday afternoon, seeing as that is where I left you off!

On Friday afternoon Linnea and I went to Zoo Zoo’s (talked about this place in the last blog) and we had delicious falaffel’s and Shwarma’s! They also had fresh Mango juice which was delicious! I had two men (both waiters) try to pick me up and ask to be my husband . . . . so yeah pretty much the usual lol! After we finished there we came back to the hostel and packed to go away to Kokrobite for the weekend. Once we were packed we said goodbye to Ann who was leaving to go back to Germany . . . that was sad, and we presently miss Ann. After packing and goodbyes Kamal, Linnea, Thao, and I set off to find a tro tro to Kaneshie. We got on the tro tro to Kaneshie and once in Kaneshie we had to walk around the market for a half hour to find a tro tro going to Kokrobite! It was very hot, and I don’t like crowds of people in markets because you can hardly move and they’re all grabbing you . . . so I was not in a great mood after that experience. We finally got sat into a tro tro headed to kokrobite and luckily we all got window seats (very important on tro tro’s because they are so crowded and get hot quickly . . . you don’t want to be in the middle of people). The ride there took quite a bit of time due to the traffic because we left at about 6pm.

Once we arrived in Kokrobite (pronounced Kok – Row – Beet – Eh) at Big Milly’s Backyard (name of the hotel beach lodge) we walked into very loud cultural music and dancing. We were shown to our “rooms” (if that’s what they call a room. Our rooms were two double mattresses (for four of us) on top of a roof with mosquito nets . . . no fan or anything . . . and also no privacy. We had to keep all four of our bags in a very small compact locked box and dig through that every time someone wanted something. All four of us were not thrilled to see our arrangements lol! They also don’t provide the lock so Kamal went back into the town to buy one  . . . yeah. There were about 8 matresses on the roof so we had lots of company! We made our peace with what was and then went down to the bar to enjoy the cultural dancing and a bottle of wine! This is where we met horrible man Francis. He seemed nice and normal at first, so we let him hang out with us. He was a member of the circus act that went on at the end of Friday nights and at the first of Saturday nights. He had dreads and such so we knew he was what they call a “Rasta” (even though to actually be a practicing Rastafarian you have to be vegan and not drink alcohol . . . they don’t get that in Ghana I guess and still call themselves “Rasta” because they like reggae, have dreads, and smoke weed). So he hung around us and asked for a glass of wine (should have been clue #1) while he waited to perform. We watched him perform and then after everything stopped we went to sit with a group of obruni’s that we had met at the alliance Franais in Accra weeks ago! This was nice to sit and chat with them about what we had all been up to since we had met before and laugh about culture here in Ghana. Linnea and I then decided to venture to find a bathroom before bed . . . we found one but in Kokrobite there are no flush toilets . . . they look like normal toilets but you have to pour buckets of water into them after you’re done to flush them, also you cannot put paper into them so you have to put that into a garbage bin . . . interesting for sure! After our bathroom experience we went to bed (completely sweaty and dirty after the day, but it would have been a lot of effort to take a bucket bath at that point since there were no showers). When we got back to the “loft” where we were sleeping we changed quite publicly (no privacy) and got onto our double mattress (with no blankets or pillows) and put down the mosquito net to try and sleep . . . the power went out at this point so it was kind of scary to be in the pitch black on a roof with a little mesh protecting you from bugs. It was a very restless, hot, and sleepless night.

The next morning Kamal and Thao decided to go to a fort monument in town, and Linnea and I opted to stay at the beach all day. So Linnea and I got breakfast and freshly squeezed mango juice, and then headed to the beach! We swam for most of the morning, then at noon we went back to the fresh juice bar, got more mango juice, and went up to the roof of that building and took a nap on the hammocks! At about 2pm we decided to go tanning on the beach, which turned into swimming quickly because it was so hot, and we swan until about 4pm! Then we ventured off to take a bucket bath (because now we were salty from the water AND dirty from the previous days) There was no privacy for this either, so we gathered buckets of water from the well and brought them to a kind of secluded place and washed ourselves in our bathing suits. Still didn’t feel clean, but better then before. It is a lot of effort to take a bucket bath, carrying the water, and rinsing soap and sand off by pouring water on yourself is harder then it sounds! After the shower we switched rooms, so that Linnea and I were sharing a single room with a double mattress with a fan and a door that closed YAY! So then we took turns changing in a room with privacy!! After that we met up with Kamal at the bar (Thao went a separate way) and decided on what we would do for supper . . . Francis came up to us and stupidly, we told him our plans for dinner and he came and joined us . . .

We all went to the Gardenia restaurant (outside of the hotel, just down the road) for Italian food. The food was fantastic; we had pizza, pasta, real cheese brochette, and chocolate cake with bananas! Up to this point we had realized that Francis was very interested in me . . . not good. He went to the street to get Palm wine and came back with that  . . . palm wine is home brewed wine from the palm nuts . . . it tastes very different from wine, don’t know why it’s called wine. He shared that with us and we shared some pizza with him. It was a very awkward supper, because he kept staring at me weirdly and every time he’d get in a picture with me he would start touching me, I did NOT like this. So then I started talking about my boyfriend (I don’t have one, but in this case I definitely did), unfortunately he didn’t seem to care. He then went off to get ready for his show. After we were finished eating we went back to the hotel for reggae night . . . unfortunately we had to sit through an hour of circus type things before the reggae band started. Francis and his friend were the Circus people who did lots of balancing tricks, eating glass, laying on the glass then being walked on, eating fire, burning themselves with fire sticks, and other stupid things. Francis actually tried to pick me up by using his “hey I can eat glass line” I said “That’s nice” but I was really thinking . . . “that makes you stupid then” LOL! After the circus act was over the reggae band went on, it was at about this point that Kamal and I discovered that one shot of 65% rum was only 1 cedi . . . . so the drinking began there (you can probably figure out how happy we were feeling from that price haha). We drank a lot and were thoroughly enjoying the reggae music and the dancing, that is until Francis tracked us down again . . . I told him several times that I did not like him touching me, dancing with me, hitting on me, or getting to close to me because of my “boyfriend” but none of this worked! He kept arguing that I was in Ghana so I needed a boyfriend in this country . . . He also argued that I was being rude to him . . . . . and He argued that in Ghana everyone touches everyone in that way. I yelled at him some more and he got frustrated and went away. I wish that was the end of our experiences with Francis . . . Kamal, Linnea, and I started drunkenly dancing again for awhile and then all of a sudden I feel someone grab my hips and my butt and start grinding on me . . . yup you guessed it . . . Francis. So immediately I slapped him and pushed him off of me! He then argued with me for a half an hour about my hitting him and how I had no respect and was not being “nice”. I told him that he’s lucky all I did was slapped him because in my country what he did was harassment (he did not grasp this concept at all) and I said that he was being very disrespectful to me by not listening to me when I said I did not want him touching me! This argument went nowhere, but he finally left from frustration. Again, I wish that was the end of Francis! After Francis left we got much drunker, had a great time and danced the night away until 2am to reggae! Kamal and I were loaded, Linnea went to bed after the band stopped, but Kamal and I heard the band say beach after party, so of coarse we were like hell yeah! We got to the beach and immediately ran into the water with our clothes on and everything. Of coarse at this point we were tripping and falling face first into the water with every wave . . . but man that was soooo much fun! It will go down as the best drunken experience of my life . . . drunken swimming on a beach in Ghana with waves and our clothes on at 3am! Very fun! After all the running into the water and tripping around was done we sat on the beach with a bunch of really cool obruni’s! We laughed and partied with more palm wine sitting in the sand until very late. Now Kamal met a girl named lela from England and they were hitting it off really well, I met a guy named Corey from Australia and we were hitting it off really well. It was so romantic too we were flirting and whispering things and getting to know each other. Both of these people we were hitting it off with lived in Accra like us, so there was even a chance of continuing this, that is until Francis showed up again (Ugh I hate this man). He came down and sat with us and immediately sat next to me with his arm around me, and I told him to sit on the other side of the circle or leave (I wish he left), so he went to the other side of the circle. Then he started asking Lela (Kamal’s new found crush) why she didn’t have children at 30 and she should be ashamed of herself (he was 35 with no children so this was hypocritical) then he started touching her and she got angry as well, then he started telling her that she is not a good person because she didn’t believe in God! This of coarse got her all upset and she started to cry and she walked away down the beach. Then Corey (My new found crush) went to comfort her (as a friend at first) on the beach. While the two of them were gone, we tried to explain to Francis that what he did was very wrong and disrespectful, but he did not understand (as always with him) and we tried to explain that Lela had been in Ghana for  a year and when we Obruni’s are here for that long little things can set us off and make us homesick. He didn’t understand that either and kept talking about how things are with touching in Ghana . . . stupid stupid man! By the time Lela and Corey got back to our circle they had their arms around each other and were all lovey dovey! Soooooo . . . Francis took away the opportunity for both me and Kamal to have any chance with our new found crushes (bad person and a love block!) We were NOT happy! For the next 20 minutes Francis kept trying to apologize which he somehow turned into arguments with all of us, so we all got up and went to bed, fed up with Francis. He was the ULTIMATE buzz kill! So I got back to my room and went to sleep at 5am then I woke up at 9am.

When I woke up at 9am I was quite hungover, as was Kamal. Hangovers in Ghana heat are dreadful, you feel dehydrated, overheated, and sick. So Linnea, Kamal, and I decided to go for breakfast to see if that helped, it did but we were still very tired. After breakfast we all went to the beach to go swimming. When we first walked onto the beach Francis came up to me and started touching me while he said Hi. I slapped him again and told him I would report him to the hotel if he touched me again (he didn’t understand this concept either and kept trying to apologize). The apologies turned into arguments again and my head couldn’t handle it anymore, so I told him I’d had enough of him and he left, saying I wasn’t nice (I really didn’t care). Then we went swimming for about 2 hours which was nice, and tanned for an hour. After that Linnea and I went to take a bucket bath and got changed into dry clothes. We then went to the bar and started planning our trip back home to accra. When I got to the bar the Bartender told me that Francis had charged a beer to my room and said I wouldn’t mind, I told the bartender that I did mind and the bartender said that was fine and that he would make Francis pay later . . . (ugh what a guy). Then while making our travel plans to come back home to accra, Francis came up and said you guys live at crystal hostel in Darkuman right? . . . we said yeah (very nervously . . . don’t know how he got that information) and he then said “ok, I live in Kaneshie area so I will go on a tro tro with you guys” we didn’t know how to get out of it so we just said yeah yeah sure . . . Luckily the next thing he said was “ok I am going to film my act with another obruni so I will be back in 30 minutes to come with you”. As soon as he left we grabbed our bags, checked out and hightailed it out of there to a tro tro as quickly as we could! Luckily he missed us and we haven’t seen him since! But we are all very nervous knowing that he knows where our hostel is . . . but we have told Nana, Uncle and Auntie about him and shown them pictures, and they said that they would take care of him if he shows up here! What a horrible awful no good person . . . I have never met anyone that relentless in my life! Now it’s a big joke around the hostel that anytime anything bad happens to us in Ghana we can call it “getting Francised” LOL! But other then Francis I quite enjoyed Kokrobite and Big Milly’s. It’s a very relaxing place with great parties at night! But relaxing on the beach and partying got boring after one weekend, so I have come to the conclusion that I could NEVER go to an all inclusive beach resort for a vacation because I would be way to bored and there’s no culture . . . you wouldn’t learn anything and hey, I can drink and be on a beach at home, if I go to another country I want to learn the culture and mix with the locals!

Once we got back to the hostel on that Sunday afternoon it was about 3pm. All of us were exhausted so we all went to our rooms for naps and woke up around 6pm for supper! We ate supper and then told our stories from the weekend (good drunk swimming stories, and francis stories) to everyone, played some uno and went to bed at 9pm because we were all still very tired!

Today I went to the school in the morning and walked there with Nana because he wanted to talk to Faustina about a tree building project for the kids. When we got to the school we were told that Faustina was in the hospital being treated for Cholera. So Nana left. I stuck around and helped the teachers out by watching a room full of vomiting children, the teachers didn’t know what they were sick with . . . but It is likely that it was Cholera as well. There were 13 out of 55 children in that room vomiting. It is a shame that they don’t stay home when they are sick in this country, that’s why things spread! I left the preschool at 2pm (long day) and went to look for some things at Melcom, but didn’t find them, so I came back here and thoroughly showered myself after being around all that sickness, then I began to post pictures onto facebook. I did that until super time.

After supper, I hung out in the common area with everyone and played Uno for the night. Then I came up to my room and started writing this blog! That brings us up to now.

I am still working on a plan to get to Benin at the end of my trip, but guides are quite pricy. I am going into the office tomorrow to see if I can’t get a lower price from the guide company. If I can’t Nana has offered to go with me, so that may be the route I take! I am going to keep you all updated throughout this week on my events and occurances and so be sure to keep reading!

My Week so far! April 4th - 8th

Okay I left you all off on Monday afternoon, so we’ll start from Monday night.

Monday night I really did nothing, I uploaded photos from Cape Coast all night while playing Uno with people from the Hostel and then went to bed!

Tuesday morning I went to the school and helped out with the kids as usual and while I was at the school I found out that their last day of school before their 2 week Easter break will be on Friday, the 15^th of April. They cal that “Our Day” and on that day they will play games, celebrate Easter together, have a nice meal ordered for them, and have a dance! So that will be a lot of fun, the way the school here works is that they take three 2 week breaks a year. Two weeks over Christmas, two weeks over Easter, and two weeks in August, so it is different then our schools where we take 3 months off at one time.

Tuesday afternoon I did a little shopping around the market areas and bought 2 beautiful and colorfully decorated wooden maps of Africa! They will look great on my walls when I get an apartment. They are the exact size (but flat) of my suitcase, so that’s perfect. Things I buy here are generally for the decorating of my future apartment . . . so when people come over it will be like walking into Africa! Later in the afternoon, Jose suggested that we go to the beach because he really wanted to swim, so Kamal, Linnea (a girl from Belgium) and I put everything else (like washing clothes) on hold and went to the beach at about 3pm. Once we arrived on the beach we walked across the beach for 10 minutes so that we could be in a deserted area with no people selling things and hassling us! It was fantastic to have that part of the ocean to ourselves to swim in and a table area to ourselves. We swam right up until it got dark (and for awhile after it was dark, because it gets dark at about 6pm here). The waves are huge . . . all the time, I remember when I was young my cousins and I would wait for a rainy and windy day so we could swim in the “big waves” . . . here the “big waves” are bigger, more fun, and there all the time . . . it’s fantastic! There was a man on the beach that kept whistling at us to get out of the water, telling us we were too deep and it wasn’t safe, so we got out and then told him we all knew how to swim . . . and then he said ohhhh if you can swim then you can go back in haha! Ghanaians as a rule cannot swim, so they assume that no one can lol!

At night we went back from the water to our table area at the beach and two of Linnea’s local Ghanaian friends came to sit with us around the table (with a bonfire next to us). They talked to us all about the culture of Ghana and told us how to do a lot things here, how to deal with people without looking like a tourist, and a lot of the gestures and sounds to make in conversation to fit in as a “true” Ghanaian. It was fantastic to be sitting with these two guys, they were hilarious, but the real treat was that they just wanted to hang out with us and teach us. . . they didn’t want anything (no being hit on, or being sold something), so we could hang out and learn from them as equals (that happens rarely, this is the first time in Ghana I have talked to a local who didn’t want to marry me or sell things to me). They taught us a lot of Twi (the local dialect of their language here) and it has been very very useful over the past few days. While I am here in Ghana this time it is my project to learn as much Twi as possible. I can already hold a basic conversation with some of what I learned, so that is a great start! Here are some of the words and phrases we learned:

 Aitesen – how are you

Aye – Good

Enko yie – Things are not going well

Me yah – I am going

Wo yah – we are going

Me yah – also means I am

Yah frema – My name is

Mefree – I am from

Eeceoh – water

Me yeh ejumah – I work at

Wakachili – I am late

Mima Atche – good morning

Nanti ye – goodbye

Meda asi – thank you

Meda asi paa – thank you very much (can be used sarcastically when someone pokes fun at you . . . like “yeah thanks a lot”)

Seado – You’re welcome

Forso yenesa – continue (do that again) . . . (we were warned that this is usually only used in bed . . . so it’s like keep doing that hahaha)

Medawasi – means talking to one person

Kolo – crazy

Meia den ako – how do I get to

Ehyah heiyeh – how much?

Bo sa womme – clap your hands

Mekwaba – I am coming back

Oh mamei – Swear word . . . means “your mother” aka who raised you (this is a huge insult when said with a raised voice)

Ohchina – I’ll see you tomorrow

Oh mamei a denkchim – your mother is a crocodile (also quite an insult)

Me woe – I have

Pokchina – pork

Akwaba – welcome

Adein – why? (very useful with the kids at the preschool when they fight or laugh at

 people)

On a side note I also got a book from the roadside with sentances (140) translated from english to Twi, they are all ridiculous sentances that I'd never use but they are funny! It will be brough home with me so you can all see it then!

We also learned very bad hand motions to go with the swear words. If you put your left hand out with all of your fingers spread it basically means “F*** you). If you make a lighter or thumb war type motion with your hands, it means your mothers crotch (same Idea as “I slept with your mom” lol. So I am learning the basics of the language! This was my favorite night that I have had in Ghana so far (including the last trip) because I learned so much! Now around the hostel the hand motions that are bad are a big joke and we all use them as a joke to greet each other lol!

I feel like this time around I am immersing myself into the culture a lot more than the first time, I don’t feel like a tourist anymore, I genuinely feel like I am learning to be a Ghanaian, as if I have moved here. Probably because I am taking more risks, saying yes to every opportunity of being with locals, and putting more effort into learning about the people here instead of just sight seeing!

After we finished our hang out session on the beach at 9:30pm we went out of the beach and got a taxi back to darkuman! Very fun night that we discussed over the hostel table then went to bed!

Wednesday morning I went to the preschool and faustina gave me new dresses for free, a nice change to her gifts of Papaya which I don’t like lol. I helped out with the kids and used my newly learned Twi words on them and they were very impressed! When I said ahh Adein to them, they were shocked! The kids are actually listening to me more now because of the Twi, so finally I have a little bit of Authority over the children and I am not just an Obruni to them (and to think all it took was speaking some Twi for respect!).

Wednesday afternoon I went to a little pizza joint (yes pizza but nothing like our type of pizza) for lunch, which was delicious, and then came back to the hostel to do laundry. I had so much laundry built up from the weekend that it took me 3 hours to wash and rinse all of the clothes by hand and hang them up! So that took care of my afternoon!

Wednesday night we stayed at the Hostel and played Uno and other games while drinking wine. We drink lots of wine at the Hostel due to the fact that a bottle of nice (good quality international wines) wine is only 5 cedi (about 2.50 canadian). It is nice to just sit around the hostel table and get to know everyone’s different cultures in their countries. I am learning a great deal about Europe here! After all the games, wine, and conversing were over we all went to bed!

Thursday morning I went to the preschool and taught them a song. I taught them the “this little light of mine, I’m gunna let it shine” song. The teachers loved the verse about not letting satan blow it out, because currently they are teaching the children about the devil and how to avoid him and being tempted, also the concept of heaven and hell, so they said that song will help! The kids loved this song as well, so overall it was a hit and they were eager to learn and sing it! I really really wish that religion was still a part of schools in Canada, the kids at this school are so respectful and well behaved because they are taught to follow Jesus’s teachings. For example when they fight, the teachers always say “God says we are brothers and sisters, show respect to your brothers/sisters, no fighting” and they get the message right away. Also anything they do well they thank jesus for, and when they receive candy from me they thank god for bringing them me! Wish our Kids were so grateful for what they have and receive every day! They know that the consequences of misbehaving and doing bad things is more then just “getting in trouble” they know it is bad morals of them. The kids at this school are also taught to honor their parents . . . never see that in Canada at schools! I do remember when I was in Grade 2 school was like this, and I was a very well behaved child, then when things changed I still was because of my home moral teachings, but other children slid because they could get away with things . . because really how bad is sitting in a corner? But I can’t change Canada, so I shall enjoy the teaching methods in Ghana while I am here!

Thursday afternoon Anne and I decided to go to the beach (it was 42 degrees so swimming was a great plan) because it was anne’s last day here in Ghana! So we had a girly tanning session at the beach and got up from tanning every hour to go swim. I got hit on 7 times in the water . . . that’s not unusual but a tad annoying lol! But when you’re tanning you can pretend to be asleep and then the sellers won’t bother you! So that was a great afternoon, followed by a horrible taxi ride home. We wanted to stop at a Barclays bank on the way home to get money out, but the taxi driver drove around on all the back roads for an hour and claimed to not be able to find one. So we had to tell him to get on a main road (which took time for him to get the concept of) and then sure enough there was a bank . . . I think he had rocks for brains  . . . why would you look for banks on rural back roads . .  . stupid man! Then when we got back he tried to charge more money and we said “oh maamie, dabbi dabbi” which means “general insult” and no no! He then changed his tone and took our original price (felt cool to swear at someone here though)!

Thursday evening we all went to a restaurant called zoo zoo (not far from here) to have a few drinks and say goodbye to Jose and Anne who were both leaving on Friday! They had a great atmosphere with hookah and great food (we couldn’t try either because it was too late, but it will be done in the future). Then we all came home and went to bed. We did find mango’s fallen from the tree and ate those as a snack before bed . . . mango eating is so messy, but sooo worth it! You peel it with your hands and it is all gooey and juicy and you suck all of the fruit (messily) off of the pit! Great night!

This morning (Friday) I went to the school and it was one of the children’s 5^th birthday, so they had sweets for here on a table and a photographer came to take pictures of the celebration for her. Esther was very excited about it all! They also had champagne for her (yes they give a glass 5% alcohol champagne to children on their birthdays) that I shook and opened so it did the fizz out thing! I have pictures of all of this to put on facebook! A 5^th birthday also means that it’s their last birthday at the school before they move on, so they make a big deal of it! After celebrating that, Faustina and I went to one of the children’s family’s house to visit them because the child from the school in that household was sick with cholera and hadn’t been to school all week. Faustina explained to me that when a child from the school is sick, it is a teachers responsibility to go and visit the family. So we did, and I was amazed at the living conditions, there were open sewer type rivers all through the community (pictures to come) and garbage and goats everywhere . . . wasn’t surprised about the cholera. When we got to their house, it was a group house where many of the student live so all of the parents were very happy to meet me (considering how much their kids talk about me to them) to know who “auntie Melissa” was. The child looked very ill, but we sat with him for awhile and he (and the family) seemed very happy that we came! Much more personal with the children then we would be in Canada for sure, but it is very nice to be that close to your students and their families! Puts new meaning to the very common phrase in Ghana “It’s nice to be nice”.

This afternoon I came back to the hostel, had some mango’s and wrote this blog! This afternoon I am going out to lunch to zoo zoo’s (to try the food and smoke the hookah) with anne and linnea to send anne off before her flight. Then later on Kamal, Linnea, and I will be headed to Kokrobite (hour away) for the weekend. It is a beach lodge called big Milly’s so our goal is to have a relaxing and fun beach weekend! I will tell you all about it on Monday!

Thanks for reading I will keep you all posted J

Slave Castles and African Atlantic Slave Trade

Okay here is a blog about everything that we learned at the Slave Castle’s. It is a little emotional and upsetting so be aware while reading!

First we went to the Cape Coast Castle. Cape Coast Castle is a fort in Ghana built by Swedish traders. The first construction of the Castle was in 1653 for the Swedish Africa Company named Carolusborg after King Charles X of Sweden. It was later rebuilt in stone.

In April 1663 the whole Swedish Gold Coast (what Cape Coast was called in that time when Ghana was just an “area” of Africa) was seized by the Danish. In 1664 the Castle was conquered by the English and was extensively rebuilt by the Committee of Merchants (whose Governors administered the entire British colony) in the late 18th century. In 1844, it became the seat of the colonial Government of the British Gold Coast.

The Castle was built for the trade in timber and gold. Later the structure was used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade (which is mostly what I will talk about in this blog). The Castle, or Castle and Dungeon, to give it its official name, was first restored in the 1920s by the British Public Works Department to be a memorial and museum of what happened during the slave trade.

When we first entered the castle we started our tour. We learned that Slaves were not just randomly round up within Africa. When Africans were sent to these castles it was because they were criminals and had been caught for something in their area. For men most were theives or they were trying to overtake governement officials, rebels basically. For women it was mostly adulterers that were sent to the castle. Once they got to the castle (after grueling and torturous journeys from their area’s of africa, where along the journey they were often brutaly beaten) they were evaluated on whether they were weak, strong, or sick. They had different set of three letters for each category. Once determined if they were sick, strong, or weak they were then “branded”. Branded means that the governors of the castle would take a hot metal cast iron with the initals as a stamp on the bottom of it, they would make the stamp part of the metal cast iron pipng hot, and then they would scorch the three respective letters onto the persons back so that they could be identified while they were in the dungeons. Once they were branded there were separate dungeons, 3 male dungeons and 3 female dungeons, the strong were kept in the same room, weak in the same room, and sick in the same room (male and females were separated).

The first set of dungeons on our tour through the Castle were the male dungeons. These dungeons were about the size of an average persons living room, but there were on average 550 slaves kept in each dungeon. The dungeons are all underground and in each dungeon there was only a very small window close to the ceiling for ventilation and light. They were just empty rooms all cement bricks and so people were shackled and chained to the floor at their ankles, neck, and wrists in sections by the letter of their first name. All along the walls about a 2 feet up from the floor were letters of the alphabet that encircled the room to separate people. The guide told us that at most times these two feet from the floor was filled with the slaves own urine, feces, and vomit. This really hit a hard spot for me because to imagine people living for months on end before they got a slave job to do, they were living in a dark cell in a pool of their own waste . . . . It sounds horrible I know, but standing in that same room made it even worse. The guide turned off the lights (that were not there at the slave time) and closed the dungeon door while giving us all this information so we could get a feel for how it would have felt. They were fed yam, rice or fish once a day, and were given water once a day, but a lot of the emprisoned slaves tried to starve themselves, and if they were caught doing that they were immediately traded to be a slave in another country where “the white man” would be brutal to them. The slaves that were traded of to the North American Countries were generally the men in the “strong” dungeon room, then it moved to the “weak” and the guide said that the sick normally died in their respective dungeon. The “weak” dungeon room had a door of no return where people tried to escape but ended up dying. Also in this room there was a room the size of a closet where they put the sick to die! Directly above the male “strong” dungeon the castle governor built a protestant church. This was often refferred to as heaven and hell (heaven being the church, hell being the dungeon below) The female dungeons looked very similar and worked the same way.  

When they were traded they were sent through the “door of no return” which was the only door leading outside to the coast in the castle, and it was the height of about your waist, and it was a very slender door. So they (while still shackled) were made to crawl outside of this door into sunlight for the first time in months to years, where they were immediately greeted by the North Americans and beaten while they were put on boats for them (aka us). A lot of the slaves were blinded and experienced blindness for quite some time after being outside because they had been in the dark for so long, the North Americans (us) usually beat them the entire way back on the boats trying to “beat the sight back into them”. Now imagine being me as a white person going through this tour and learning about how brutal and horrible we were . . . . I felt like crying most of the tour but I managed to hold it together . . . but it was like “foot in mouth” syndrome embarrasingly multiplied by hundreds L!

The next day on Sunday we went to the Elmina Castle. Elmina Castle was built by Portugal in 1482 as São Jorge da Mina (St. George of the Mine) Castle, also known simply as Mina or Feitoria da Mina) in present-day Elmina, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast). It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, so is the oldest European building in existence below the Sahara. First established as a trade settlement, the castle later became one of the most important stops on the route of the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch seized the fort from the Portuguese in 1637, and took over all the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642. The slave trade continued under the Dutch until 1814; in 1871 the Dutch Gold Coast, including the fort, became a possession of the British Empire.
By the seventeenth century, most trade in West Africa concentrated on the sale of slaves. São Jorge da Mina (Elmina Castle) played a significant part in the Atlantic Slave Trade. The castle acted as a depot where slaves were bought in bartering fashion from local African chiefs and kings. The slaves, often captured in the African interior by the slave-catchers of coastal tribes, were sold to Portuguese traders in exchange for goods such as textiles and horses. The slaves were held captive in the castle before exiting through the castle’s infamous “Door of No Return” to be transported and resold in newly colonized Brazil and other Portuguese colonies.

So in this castle the slaves mainly went to Europe, Portugal, and South America. So that wasn’t us, but equally as bad.

In this castle I found there was much more authentic untouched antiques and materials. It is less renovated (than Cape Coast Castle) and so you can see markings, stains, evidence of struggles, and original cement bricks and wood. The Dungeons and the basic structure of this castle was the same as cape coast castle, as well as how they branded slaves and the conditions that they were kept. In some of the dungeons that we saw here there were still embeded fingernails and evident scratching marks of the prisoners trying to claw their way out of the dungeon, or if they were suffering while dying . . . It was a hard thing to be standing in front of! Also they had three of the original prison bars that were laid against they wall and in the rust you could see the finger prints. We also saw the actual shackles that were used at the time with blood stains still on them. Very heartbreaking, looking at this raw evidence and material brought a lump to my throat.

There were also cells for prisoners at the castle. There were two side by side. One was for foreigners (north americans, europeans, and south americans) who did crimes and they only stayed in that cell for a day. The cell beside it was called the death cell and it was for the slaves within the castle that disobeyed, or for slaves that were deemed useless once the “foreigners” got them and sent back. Above this cell was a skull and cross bones to signify death. This is because when the slaves were put in this cell for whatever reason they never came back out. They were given no food or water and starved to death. The bodies were only cleaned out of this cell once a month, so most prisoners in this very very tiny cell were surronded by dead bodies, a prediction of what they would soon be. We saw shrines to the dead prisoners and some of the bones which we were not allowed to take pictures of . . . understandably. But the only ventalation for these two cells was a window on the top of the wall in between the two cells, so the foreigners could hear the slaves dying. Pitch black cells.

At this castle there was a “door of no return” to the outside coast to be traded that is very similar in size to the Cape Coast Castle. The same type of situation happened as well.

At the top of each of these Castles there was the Governers Chambers which were ridiculously nice in comparison to the rest of the castle . . . quite disturbing really.

At the end of the tour there was a big plaque saying how they remember those who died and they are doing everything in their power to make sure that this kind of injustice never happens again.

The slave trade is sometimes called the Maafa by African and African-American scholars, meaning "holocaust" or "great disaster" in Swahili. Some scholars, such as Marimba Ani and Maulana Karenga use the terms African Holocaust or Holocaust of Enslavement. After being inside of these castles and learning what I did, I can understand why they would refer to it as the African Holocost.

I hope that you enjoyed learning about all of the things I learned at Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. Please check my facebook for the photo’s  . .  . They are more shocking then all of this information was . . .

My Weekend In Cape Coast!

Now, time to tell you all about my weekend trip to Cape Coast!

Friday afternoon Kamal and I set off for the STC bus station, when we got there we had to wait an hour and a half for the bus to show up (it was 45 minutes late . . . right on time for Ghana Maybe time) then we got on the bus. When we got on the bus, the bus reversed about 10 meters and then made a loud noise and started smoking . . . sooo we all had to get off the bus. They assured us that another bus was coming right away, 2 and a half hours later a bus came. People were so angry during these 2 and a half hours, they were yelling in twee and and flailing their hands about . . . that was very funny to watch. The real funny part was that at the station there was a full lot of perfectly good buses, we had a driver, but no they didn’t use one of the buses sitting right there, they called a bus already on the road and waited 2 and a half hours for it to come to the station full of working buses . . . . logic at it’s best! Kamal and I turned on the mp3 player and started jamming out to some music, the angry people laughed at us quite a bit, then went back to being angry lol! Finally we got on the bus that came for us, Once we got on we just sat in the first two seats we found, then some guy came on and said we had to get up because we were supposed to be sitting in our assigned number seat. Stupidly we did and he took our seats, when we went to find our numbers two people were sitting there and said assigned seating was not followed here, so at that point we knew we had been screwed out of seating haha! So we stood there on the bus while for 20 minutes the Ghanians argued in twee about where to sit the Obruni’s (they said obruni a lot and were pointing to us and seats so we knew that was the case) eventually people moved and told kamal to sit in a seat at the back and me to sit towards the front by the window (again logic at it’s best). People here argue over every decision they have to make among themselves . . . stupid really haha! Then we were on the bus and on our way to Cape Coast! The bus ride was fairly uneventful, except the man next to me saw on my mp3 player the name of the song “she thinks my tractor’s sexy” and he wanted to know what a tractor was, so I explained and he listened to a bit of the song . . . . I still don’t think he understood, but it was very funny!

We arrived in cape coast at 9:30 then immediately got a taxi to the Hans Cottage Botel where we were staying. The Taxi driver wanted to come back in the morning for us but we knew it would be expensive for a taxi driver to escort us around all day so we said no and opted for tro tro’s! So when we got to the botel it was 10pm and we sat in the restaurant area and listened to a live reggae band while eating and drinking African wine! The food there is fantastic, they had stroganoff, curry pasta, cheeseburgers, steak, and even cake for desert! That night we went back to our room (we opted for the cheap style room, which was two twin style beds in a small room with a fan, and shared public bathrooms and showers outside) to go to sleep, and found it very hard because the crickets were soooo loud, I have never heard so many crickets so loud! The sleep was good though, after such a hectic travel day!

Saturday we woke up at 7am and got some breakfast, they have a buffet for breakfast there. The service at Hans Cottage Botel was terrible, they took forever to come take your order, took forever to get you the food, and made you get your own drinks . . . so a buffet in the morning was nice because it meant no waiting! We ate breakfast and met up with a guy that we knew from the hostel previously named Leon, he’s black, 6 ft 8 and is from Texas. He was new here so he wasn’t familiar with taxi’s ripping you off, so he got a taxi to come for him in the morning, we told him to ditch that and come with us on tro tro’s! We walked out towards the road and the taxi driver said it would be 44 cedi for the day for him and we quickly said no to that, but he kept bugging Leon saying that even if he didn’t take the taxi that Leon owed him 10 cedi for driving out there, we thought that was crap and told Leon to keep walking and ignore it . . . . but for some reason he paid it . . . craziness! So then went out to the main road to find a tro tro to Kakum national park. This took some time because the main road was pretty empty (in the middle of nowhere). We got to Kakum at 9 and started the canopy walk tour at 9:30. I did this tour last year but Kamal really wanted to do it so I went again. This time around it was very hot . . . it was about 38 degrees on Saturday and so climbing the hill up to the canopy bridges caused a lot of sweat! But we got up to the canopy bridges and walked over top of the rain forest on those. They are roped bridges that are quite narrow and shaky . . . it is an experience for sure! The bridges are 40 feet from the top of the rain forest . . . so they are pretty high up there. We saw no wildlife while we were in Kakum this time, last year I saw snakes and things, but I think this time it was too hot for wildlife to be close to the trails! At the end of the 7 bridges we realized that our guide was in the reggae band that plays at the botel at night, so that was funny! That’s all I really have to say about Kakum, there’s a lot of trees and the bridges were high. . . . yeah.

After we finished at Kakum we took a tro tro to cape coast, which was hot and over crowded as usual. We got to Cape Coast central area and got a taxi to the cape coast castle. The cape coast castle is where all the slaves were kept, and all the trading of them happened. This was a very very emotional tour, and I learned a lot about the slave trade and the time period that I didn’t know . . . It made me ashamed of our past as a North American culture, and feel really sorry for the culture here. I will be writing a separate blog after this one to tell you all about the slave castles because there is so much to tell! It was very hot at the slave castle throughout the tour so by the time it was done we were drenched in sweat and completely overheated. So then we went back to the Botel.

Hans Cottage Botel is a funny place, it is on top of a lake which is filled with tame crocodiles that you can pet, there are naked statue children everywhere, it has a fancy pool, and it is called a botel . . . I’ve heard of motel’s and hotel’s but never a botel. I think it is supposed to be a play on words between boat and hotel . . . but if that’s the case shouldn’t it be boatel?? Who knows lol! So when we got back to the botel we immediately went swimming in the pool, it was quite crowded with Ghanaians (because they can come into the botel and pay to swim for the afternoon) but luckily people from Ghana cannot swim, so they were all crowded in the shallow end, so Kamal and I had the deep end to ourselves! It is very funny to watch Ghanaians swim, they try, but the use so much force when starting off that they sink and then just stand up and splash water on themselves or sit in shallow enough water and stay there. I don’t think I have ever seen a black competitive swimmer though . . . just not their thing haha! Then after that we went for a walk around the botel to find crocodiles and we found lots, but we couldn’t touch them because they were resting on ground to close to the water, and the staff said that they might have gotton angry, so we kept our distance and just took pictures! After that we went swimming again, then went to the restaurant for supper (which took 2 hours haha). We drank more wine and listened to the reggae band, but had a very early night because we had a very hot, long , and emotionally draining day. On the way to our room to go to bed we found a centipede the size of my foot (look for the photos on facebook soon), which was kind of frightening. Then we went to bed.

Sunday we got up early at 7am again, had another breakfast buffet while watching the birds (there are lots of herons, pretty yellow small birds that resemble humming birds, and other sorts) then Kamal and went out to the street to find a tro tro to Elmina. On the tro tro to elmina there was a lday who got on that was carrying a live chicken by it’s wings and it was clucking bloody murder haha . . . once she put it on her lap it was quiet though . .  I got a picture of that! Once we were in Elmina we went on a tour of the Elmina castle (another slave castle). This was just as hot of a tour and was very similar with slight differences to the Cape Coast castle (I will write about this one as well in my next blog). After we finished there we walked out to get a tro tro back to the botel. On our way out we were hassled by locals selling things quite a bit, but I was more hassled by a man wanting to be my “friend”. I told him that was fine but I had a fiancé back home (I don’t but it works), but he said that didn’t matter here in Ghana because my fiancé was not here, so he said that we should go talk somewhere . . . I was very ticked off at him at this point and Kamal was ticked off at people trying to sell him things so we just got in a taxi. Once we were in the taxi people started yelling at him for being rude and not buying, and this guy kept asking for my number, I told him I didn’t have a Ghana phone and my Canadian phone didn’t work here. At that point a bunch of his friends started yelling at me for not being nice and for lying about not having a phone. . . . ugh so I said that I thought he was being very rude for asking for my number when he knew I was engaged and he should be ashamed, then we told the driver to go! What a hassle!

We got back to the botel and went swimming for and hour from 11 – 12 and had the whole pool to ourselves! Then at 12 at the botel they feed the crocodiles and they all come up to shore, so we went to do that. For 2 cedi they let you feed raw chicken to the crocodiles on a stick, so we did that and got lots of pictures and after they were fed we could touch them and take pictures! That was really fun, I felt kind of like the crocodile hunter lol! After that we met some girls from the states who were staying in Accra as well doing a medical rotation here, so we went to the STC bus station with them to catch the 3pm bus back to Accra! It was a long wait there because we arrived there at 2 to ensure we got seats and the bus was late yet again and arrived at 4. We ate at the restaurant there though and got to know each other. We finally got on the bus to come back to Accra and were all squished in the back seats for the ride home! This would have been great, but we got as far as the city limit of Accra right where the city starts and the bus broke down . . . we were cursed with buses this weekend I think. They told us another bus was coming to pick us all up and to wait, but we opted out of waiting because god knows how long that could have taken . . . so all 5 of us got in a taxi and were dropped off at our own area’s of the city. Because the university (where 2 of the girls were) is on the opposite side of the city we got a nice tour of Accra! The city is much bigger then Toronto or Montreal . . . so it takes a long time to drive around it. We finally got back to the hostel at 8pm.

Once we were home at the hostel we told everyone about our horrible STC bus adventures and our wonderful Cape Coast adventures and then went to bed!

Today I just went to the school in the morning and then came back to the hostel and started blogging!

Be sure to read my next blog which I will be starting now about the Slave Castle’s . . . but be warned it is eye opening! Also tonight I will be posting pictures of the entire weekend including pictures from the Slave Castles on facebook!

Pre Weekend News :)

Ok, I have a lot to write about, mainly about my weekend, but we’ll start with Wednesday night where I left you off.

Wednesday night we were going to go to Reggae night at Labody beach, but we were all very comfy here and kind of lazy so we just stayed at the hostel. It was good that we did because we got to meet more new comers to the hostel, Toby and Eric from Sweden. We got aquainted with them and played more Uno and went to bed.

Thursday I didn’t do a whole lot of anything. I went to the preschool in the morning and helped out as usual, then in the afternoon I went to the bank and bought STC bus tickets to cape coast for the weekend, then came back and hung out at the hostel all evening with everyone here playing 20 questions and talking.

Before I get started on the weekend trip, I will go over Friday morning at the preschool for you.

Friday morning I went very early to the preschool and brought them toffee’s for their game time. First though, they were having their worship time, singing songs and this particular morning they were learning about the story of Joseph (I really wish I brought the musical for them to watch). This was a very fun morning of games after that, they even got me dancing in one of their games haha! The big news I have however I was told about on Friday . . . so I will fill you all in!

The money that I and my church has fundraised towards the school was supposed to go towards building a classroom for the four year olds. The bank draft of all this money that I gave Faustina is still in the bank because in Ghana they hold these cheques for 6 weeks (so in 4 weeks when I leave Faustina will have access to the money). Right now Faustina is renting the lot that the preschool is on from a landlord, now this landlord is not gung ho on a new classroom being built on his lot, and he has a lot of restrictions on what the kids are allowed to do as to not damage the property. Uncle (minister at the church that owns the preschool, and owner of the hostel I stay at) has bought a new bigger piece of vacant land about 3 blocks from where the preschool already is, and he is giving that to Faustina as a gift from the church here. Faustina has asked if it would be ok if when she gets the money that we fundraised if she uses it for the construction of a completely new school on this new land! I said that was a great idea, this way she will own the land, not have to pay rent, and have more freedom with the kids. It also means that the childrens monthly tuition will go down from 9 cedi a month to 5 cedi a month because she won’t have to cover rent, great for the kids and their families! So with all that being said, my presentation when I get back will be very short, because things won’t start happening until I leave. But that also means that I will have to come back for about 2 weeks to see the new school and paint the churches name and my name on the wall. Uncle and Faustina have promised me that they will keep me updated on the progress of everything while I am in Canada, and they will let me know when it is finished (which Uncle predicts will be late September or early October) so that I can come see it! I honestly think that this will be better for the school, and am happy that I have made it possible for them to build a new school and get away from the situation they are in now! This of coarse may mean more fundraising when I get back!

There’s my pre weekend summation for you all I will leave this post at that and put my weekend adventure in my next post (which I am writing now so it should be up within the half hour of this one!)