Castles and Cape Coast

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Wren writing:
Rachel had a nice surprise this morning when she found a large bite out of one of her sneakers. Ralph comforted her by saying, “Oh yeah, that’s rats. For sure.” She was not so happy. And then, as I was walking to breakfast, I stepped over a short wall and because of rain, my foot slipped which caused my other foot to smash into the rock wall (ouch!). “A scar to remember Africa by,” said Ralph. Good thing he’s always here to cheer us up!
After breakfast we went to see Elmina Castle, where the Dutch held slaves that were to be sold to the Americas. The rain and the cold of that morning made the huge, white castle, which has seen so much cruelty and suffering, even gloomier. On the tour, they told us about the women constantly being raped, slaves were packed into tiny rooms by the hundreds, and terrible forms of punishment and injustice. The realization that really made us angry was that they did this for over 400 years and no one ever tried to stop them. Sickening.
We then drove to a restaurant in Cape Coast. The streets in Cape Coast are covered with posters and billboards that say “Akwaaba Obama!” and “Yes, Together We Can” with pictures of Obama and the Ghanaian President, Mills. We walked around Cape Coast for a while and took pictures and bought some food for our bus ride home tomorrow. We saw a great store called Oh Jesus Phones. On the way home Rachel, Ralph and I had a fun time singing along with some of the crazy songs they play on Ghanaian radio. Our favorite is a rap song that goes “Stop being a girl, stop being a girl (pronounced like “Stopbeeeen a gehl”). We will be together like ants on a hill (pronounced “hehl”).” We also heard a Spanish version of “If I were a girl” (if that’s what it’s called) and have been singing it ever since.

Rachel and I would also like to share with you some of the funny things Ralph does/says that we like:
- He says “Tink you” (thank you) all the time even if it doesn’t really fit. Ex. “I’m going to make you this bracelet so that you can have it in the US. Tink you.”
- Before everything that involves his opinion he says “I, myself” - “I, myself, I don’t eat snakes.”

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