The Coast

Africa » Ghana » Central » Cape Coast
June 17th 2006

Published: June 17th 2006

We arrived in Cape Coast yesterday morning and it was an experience getting here. We were hoping that Frank was going to be able to arrange a car for us to take but he got busy with Assembly business and couldn't work it out. About the only other affordable way here is to take a tro tro...and I'm glad I'm still alive. You have to show up at the tro tro station and the crack of dawn, you buy your ticket and sit in the "tro tro" or really crappy van until enough people have bought tickets to fill it up. We waited for about an hour...and you won't believe how many people they can fit into one van. It takes about two hours to get here but took us a lot longer because it would stop and let people off and also pick people up. Our driver looked about 12 and they have another little guy who sits in the back, hangs out the window and flags people down. As we flew down the road, I was just hoping that the thing wouldn't fall apart, we were sure that the door was going to shake off the hinges.

I picked the WRONG time to come to the internet cafe. Ghana is playing football right now and we just scored again. People are going CRAZY!!! You would have thought that the entire room just won the lottery. People take it VERY seriously over here. All the grown men are hugging and jumping up and down.

Cape Coast is a great city. Yesterday I took a tour of the castle that is here and it was really interesting. It was built by Europeans for the slave trade and we walked around in tiny rooms where they put hundreds of slaves. It was pretty tough.

After the castle and exploring a little bit, we all met at this restaurant that went out to the water. It was beautiful. We all sat around and talked for a while and listened to the ocean. It was a very nice night.

I don't think I've talked about Samuel yet. He's a Ghanaian boy (he's 16) who takes care of us while we're at the house in Oda and Pratt has sort of adopted him and pays for his school and stuff. He's super-sweet, really smart, and we've all grown very attached to him. Sometimes it's difficult here, we have to be careful because you never really know what someone's intentions are. It's great to be around Sammy though because he's so genuine and and helps us so much. Pratt found out that he'd never been to Cape Coast before so he invited him to come with us. He's had such a good time and is just in awe of everything. It was so cool when he saw the ocean. When we're in the house he dances and sings and I let him listen to my iPod the other day and he LOVED it. He's very religious and LOVES gospel music so I put it on Kirk Franklin for him...he danced and sang around the house all night. Gretchen and I decided that when we get back to the states we're gonna save some money so we can send him an MP3 player. He'll be so excited.

A few of us left the hotel EARLY this morning so we could head to Kakum to do the canopy walk. We got a tro-tro and the guy told us it would be 8,000 cedis apiece. We argued with him because it sounded high (even though it's less than a dollar!) and the guy would only go down to 7,000. When we got in and got going down the road...once again I was praying for my life...Sammy asked one of the Ghanaian ladies how much it should be and she said it should only be 5,000. When he told her that he tried to charge us 8 the lady FREAKED out! She started yelling at the little window guy and said that if he charged us more that 5,000 she would take down the car number and report him. It was awesome. All in all, the people are so nice and want to take care of us.

Okay, for real, the game is over, Ghana won and there is a parade in the street!!! A band and everything. I think all of Cape Coast is walking through the streets yelling and cheering. I took some pictures out the window but am scared to go down, I might get trampled.

So anyway, the canopy walk was amazing. It's a network of bridges suspended above the the rainforest about 200 feet from the ground. As we were walking up to the platforms I kind of broke away from the group and walked by myself. I was enoying the quiet and almost felt like I was at home walking through the woods. I had to remind myself that I was in the rainforest in AFRICA!! I hafta admit that I did kinda freak out a little bit while I was on the bridges, cause it's suuuuch a long way down and they bounce when you walk on them. Sammy broke his femur this past year and had to have serious surgery and we could all tell that his leg was hurting him. He cried when he got to the top...I think it was a combination of being a little scared too. We all felt really bad for him but he said he had a good time (as always).

Well...I've got a lot more but I'll have to do it at the beginning of next week because my time is running out. Take care...

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