Mepe Ghana paa!

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Well hello again avid readers! Well, today is my 4 week anniversary with Ghana but it wasn't as romantic and special as I had hoped. I was sick so I ended up reading and sleeping all day. The last 10 days, since our last communication, have been...hmmm..hilarious and amazing. Last weekend we went on a trip to Cape Coast. There was a festival to 'remember the past.' While none of us really know what that means, we assumed that it had to do with the fact that Cape Coast was one of the hot-spots in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. It took us about 3 hours to get there by bus, but the ride was beautiful and fun. The minute we arrived, the rain started. I only point this out so that instead of me reminding you, you can safely assume that the rest of the stories about this weekend include us being COMPLETELY soaking wet, not just damp.
On friday, we went to an old slave castle. It has traded hands many time in the last 300 years, as has Ghana. Once the slave trade was abolished, the castle was used as a school, tradibng center, military fort and tons of other things. As we see it now, it's a museum for people like us to come and visit. Once we arrived, we split into 2 groups, as the African-Americans in our group wanted a seperate tour. Part of the festival included taking a cow into the dungeons where slaves were once kept and sacrificing it. Our tour left out that area of the castle. Viewing the dungeons was heart-wrenching and unforgettable. The rroms were dark, damp and lacked any air. We were told that upto 300 men were kept in each room; this rooms was 3/4 of the way full with 25 of us standing comfortably. Our group of normally very cheery people, quickly became somber and tear-filled.
At the bottom of the castle is a door that leads to the beach. The beach, which once once full of European and American ships, is now a busy fish market. The door is called the "Door of No Return" because it was said that once a slave was forced out the door, never agin would they return to Africa. In the restoration of the castle, the doors opposite side was named the "Door of Return." It is a welcome gate to many people wishing to return to thier roots in Africa. Needless to say, it was very symbolic. At the end of our tour, a Ghanaian man asked the question, "Now that we've seen this, what are we suppoed to think?" It turned into a conversation aboutrace, blame and opinion. At the end we decided that it's a history that needs to be remembered, but not held so tightly that we cant move on. It was good to see everyone think about this.....
That night we spent at Hans Cottage Botel. Yes Botel. I guess it's called that because it's on a lagoon, but we're still not too sure. There is a bar sort of built on the lagoon, and we passed the night throwing food to the crocadiles, swimming in the pool and drinking gin. Just in case you've forgotten, it's till pouring rain. Well, in the next part of this story I wasn't sure whether or not to include the copious amounts of alcohol we consumed, but I'm going to. So sorry if this gives you the wrong impression, we don't normally drink this much.Saturday morning we wake up, have the normal breakfast of deep-fried bread, eggs and coffee that tastes a bit too much like fish. Here's the day from there on out.
9:00 am - We are told, that despite the pouring rain, the festival is still happening so we load onto the buses and head into town.
9:30 am- we get into town just in time to find out that Ghana has just won a soccer match against Brazil. People pour into the streets and the patry starts.
10:30 am- We finally find a place to sit our of the rain and order our first beer of the day.
11:00 am- A girl from a different program buyts a bottle of Strawberry Vodka. We start taking shots.
11:30 am- I decide to buy a bottle of whisky and a round of beers. Mind you, the beers here come in liters.
1 pm- 4 or 5 beers later, the parade starts and we begin dancing in the rain. drinking whisky and drawing way too much attention to ourselves.
****Note, the locals were drinking too, but I don't think to such an extreme****
1:30 pm- me and Jenna get seporated from the rest of the group but decide it's ok, mostly because it's too much a hastle to try and find them.
2:30 pm- We're pretty drunk and I'm convinced that Im the best dancer alive. The women dancing in the parade love me and I end up dancing with them and all the chiefs.
3 pm- We find our friends, the whiskys gone and the parade is ending. We buy more beers and go to the beach. We dip our feet in the water and laugh with all the little kids who are scared to. At this point my friend John, covered in glitter and standing on a jetty, is convinced that he's Poseidon, and we all kind of believed him.
3:30- we meet up with our Ghanaian friends from school and discover that they have another bottle of whisky. We drink it.
4 pm- We have to get back on the bus to go to the botel. Everyone is drunk and soaking and being haggled by guys to buy stuff. We find out that everyone had been robbed. Mostly of cameras and phones, but some room keys had been stolen as well. Luckily, I hadn't brought anything with me. Good job Halley.
6 pm- I wake up in my botel room, go find everyone, order dinner, and yes, a beer.
9 pm- We decide, after a quick dip in the pool, to go back into town and check out a bar/club called Oasis.
10 pm- After a taxi ride full of bad R&B and traffic, we arrive. It's right on the beach, equipped with palm trees, covered bars, and dancing. We met up with our Ghanaian friends and get started.
3 am- We decide it's time to head home, so our friends find us cabs, and goat kabobs and send us off. Once we get to the hotel, John falls asleep in the hallway with no shame. We all realize that we have NO DRY CLOTHING left. Whatever, I guess I'll sleep in this.
Needless to say it was an amazingly fun day, and a good bonding experience for the whole group. I had to tell the story, because it's not a cultural experience, it was one of the most fun days of my life. I wish I had pictures, but everyone who brought cameras got them stolen.
So on Sunday, we woke up early and headed to a National Park. This park is a Mecca to toutists in Ghana because it's home of the 'canopy walk.' The canopy walk entails climbing a mountain in the rain forest, then walking for 45 minutes on rope bridges that are suspended 200 feet above the forest floor. It was completely mind-numbingly terrifying, but fun. The rain forest was amazing, plus the fact that it was still pouring rain really added to the effect. We hiked up through the most beautiful, densest forest I've ever seen. There were exotic birds, crazy insects, and what sounded like monkeys. I wasn't really scared of the canopy walk until I put my first foot on it. It started swaying from side to side, the wood was slippery and my knees started shaking. Some people turned around, but since I had been talking about how completely not scared I was, I just kept on walking. The bridges are each about 100-150 feet long, and just rope and wood hung from trees. Between each bridge is a wooden landing that we would all stand on for a few minutes until we built up the courage to continue. Hopefully the pictures can relay exactly what we were feeling. Anyway, It was a great weekend.
Last week was spent going to classes. I know, it's 4 weeks in, but classes are just starting. They all seem like they'll be okay, but only one seems like I'm going to love it. It's medical geography, which is exactly what I find interesting. So far we've gone over all the different types of epidemics, pandemics, and things like that. It's just really interesting and the class is really interactive. My prof is setting me up with an internship at the AIDS Comission doing research on the physical layout and distribution of AIDS/HIV in Ghana. It should be interesting, but hopefully not all just paper work. Some of the other students are working ni refugee camps, orphanages, hospitals, national parks, almost anything you can imagine. It's good to hear their stories since I can't do everything.
What else, Last weekend we went to our friend Ali's home village. It's called Mankessim and it's about 2 hours from us. The boys(our Ghanaian friends) rented a van and we took off on fiday afternoon. We didn't get there until night time because, in true Ghanaian style, we stopped about every 30 inutes for another beer, to make a call, to pick someone up..blah blah blah, but we've gotten used to it. When we got there, we were informed that the festival was canceled because the two chiefs were fighting, so instead, there was a huge concert happening in the courtyard of our hotel. OK, not what we expected, but ok. The weekend was full of surprises. The twon was small, and exactly what one would picture West Africa. Beautiful people in a fairly run-down setting. As not many white people ever go to that village, it would take hours to walk around. We were surrounded by dozens of giddy children holding our hands, women asking to be our friends and then Ali's entire extended family. The town was so welcoming and we even had an old historian tellus the history of the 'Three Princes' who settled Mankessim. That night we met some of the biggest stars in Ghana and watched them preform. It was a regular party, interspersed with elctic shocks. See, everytime we leaned on the banister, we would be electricuted. It wasn't to severe, but it would sober you up and make you pissed off that you forgot again. We still don't really know whay the railing was electric, but hey, This Is Africa!
Anway, I hope you all enjoy reading this. Just for the record, this is the third time I've written it, as it keeps getting erased by computers, but I'm just that dedicated! I hope you're all happy and healthy. Until next time, Halley
PS- I would also like to apoligize for the aweful spelling. There's no spell check on these computers, and I happen to be the worst 22 year old, college senior, speller that I know!

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Photos

Coast
A view from the Castle of the Coast

Fishing
This is the beach where boats used to come to pick up slaves, not its a functioning fish market

Castle
This is where they used to keep slaves, in the dark, for weeks before they were shipped off.

Festival
Just a shot of what the festival was like. Now picture me and Jenna in the middle....

Rain Forest
This is what you see if you try and look up while in a rain forest

Canopy walk
Here's a shot of us on the canopy walk, 200 feet above the ground. Hopefully it shows the terror

Boats
Just a picture of some fishing boats on the beach

AHHH!!!
This is what your legs will look like if you forget to wear bug spray for one night.

Anthill
At first, we had no idea what these were, they're all over campus.

Market
At the market, I bought this hat to protect me from the strong afternoon sun. It turns out its not that practical.

Friends
This is me with Ali and Igwe, two of my good friends, both from Ghana. They're very kind and have gone above and beyond in order to make sure we're always having fun while in Ghana. PS-this is at the end of the 15 hour drinking night.

Comments

[Uncle Marco]

200 feet!!!
Of all the crazy things! You could not pay me a million dollars to walk on that rope bidge. I'm glad you did it though.

[Kelsey]

Halley~ It sounds like you are having the most amazing experience! The castle must have been really difficult to go through but it is so wonderful that people are taking time to remember and reflect. I can totally picture you dancing in the middle of that parade, gosh you're crazy and I LOVE it. The pictures of the rainforest and you on the rope bridge are incredible. Keep us informed I love these journals! Love you, Kelsey

[carrie]

you're living it
halley! reading your travel journal is so amazing- thanks for taking the time to rastle with ghanian computers to share your stories! as the days to the wedding draw closer, it is nice to live vicariously through your adventures! much love from dave, me, and especially bo!