Days 11, 12, & 13

"Out there things can happen & frequently do

          to people as brainy & footsy as you.

                   And when things start to happen, don't worry. Don't stew.

  Just go right along. You'll start happening too."

I had a very eventful weekend followed by a pretty lazy Sunday. I guess that's how I usually do things at home so not too much has changed. Thursday night we went to our welcoming party & had a blast! The place was packed with University of Ghana students & we danced all night long. Everyone was moving like crazy, so carefree. With that many people & the high temperatures outside, you can only imagine how hot it was. But we danced & sang along through the heat anyways.

Friday morning we woke up & began our trip to the Cape Coast. It was a little under three hours in our bus but I was so engaged in scenes outside the window that I really didn't mind the trip at all. There is more poverty the farther we get outside of the city. This is where you see huts made of mud & straw but also people working incredibly hard to make a life out of the small resources they have. All the people who are outside wave & smile at us as we drive by. I don't think they've seen so many white people before!

We stopped for lunch when we arrived in Cape Coast & then went to the Cape Coast Castle which was by far on of the most heartbreaking things I'd seen in my life. The castle took 300 years to finish building & was in use for slave trade for 400 years. The amount of lives lost in that amount of time is unbelievable.

A model of the outside of the castle.

We had the same tour guide as President Obama did when he & Michelle made the a trip out to visit the castle.

The British ruled the castle & brought in African slaves to work there. They said most died within the first 6 months of being there & none lived longer than about 4 years.

This picture was taken when we were inside the male slave dungeon. The dungeon was build to hold 1,000 slaves but as the demand for slaves increased they fit about 1,500 slaves inside. They turned a light on for us while we went through the tour but he shut it off to show us the conditions that those men lived in. They were basically on top of one another in the dark with very occasional food until they died. Any who tried to escape were brought back down into a separate room where they were chained to the wall.

I believe this picture was taken when we were entering the woman's dungeons. There was such a dark & evil feeling throughout the entire castle. almost like the pain & fear had never left those rooms & I think we all could feel it. There were separate dungeons depending on whether or not they accepted sexual advances from the soldiers. He told us rape & abuse were very common weapons used against both woman & children. If the women fought back then they were put in a dungeon with worse conditions until they died. Many of the slave women would become pregnant in the castle & they were taken upstairs until the baby was born & then the mother was thrown back into the dungeon if they survived. If any woman became pregnant out on the ships then they were thrown into the ocean to drown.

If the salves made it through this door, they were likely to never return to the castle. They were taken out on the ships where they told them they would be as comfortable as they would be in their own coffin, meaning they had to lie there naked & stiff as a board side by side for a weeks on end. Every few weeks they would tell them to get up & dance for exercise so that their muscles wouldn't lose all their mass completely.

I saw this quote at the end of our tour & it gave me goosebumps. I do believe that Africa is on the rise & I feel so blessed to be here & see them coming back into the world as a stronger power than they ever have before. There is no way to justify the terrible way that they were treated & yet they aren't looking for revenge. All they want is equality between all people & all nations & that is a truly beautiful thing.

Our friend Alex likes to take a lot of candid pictures of each of us without our knowledge so here is a couple that he took when we were at the castle. The first one was taken before I entered the castle & the second was somewhere along the row of canons surrounding the building.

After leaving the castle we went to our botel. I'm not sure why it is called a botel rather than a hotel, but they are basically the same things. We got our rooms & my roommate & I ended up accidentally taking naps, later waking up to the rest of the group playing marco polo in the pool. We got dinner that night & enjoyed the music of a live band. When the band was finished, a few musical people from our group took the stage & we all sang along as they played "Lean on me" & "My Girl."

The restaurant at the botel was on a body of water filled with several crocodiles. While I was accidentally sleeping a group of the kids got to touch the crocodiles with the trainer, so I was a little disappointed that I missed that, but I still got to view them from a distance.

There were lots of pretty creatures surrounding the water.

Saturday morning we woke with HOT showers!! It was a great way to begin the morning. Then we had breakfast prepared for us by the botel restaurant. I had my first cup of coffee since being here & it was surprisingly delicious! I think I like African coffee more than American coffee.

Then we packed up our van again & took off for Kakaum National Park. This where we did the canopy walks in the rainforest. It is the only canopy walk on the whole continent of Africa. They are built with ropes & boards about 1,200 ft above the ground. There were 7 walkways total. The heights didn't scare me, but the first time I went I had both hands full of stuff so it was little freaky to walk along without being able to use my hands at all!

 

One of the girls & I stopped into the museum and were getting all kind of looks. I don't think people that far out of the city see white people very often. They were asking to take pictures with us & of us & the little kids were touching our skin. There was a woman with an adorable baby boy named Prince at the end of our walk so I talked to her for a little while & got to hold the baby for a little too!

We took off for home which was a little over three hours this time & spent the evening visiting, looking through each others pictures, & watching tv shows we have downloaded on our computers. 

When I woke up for my run this morning I realized all my friends back home had probably just began their Saturday night festivities. The time change still blows my mind a little bit. When I was finished jogging I went to church with a few kids from the group & a couple of our leaders. African church is pretty awesome! It reminds me of the southern gospel churches I've seen on tv. Everyone was singing & dancing, clapping along to the music & praising Jesus! It was pretty incredible to see how much they celebrate The Lord when they truly have so little. Church is a big celebration for them, yet it's a burden to most Americans who have so many more things. I think people are much happier here than most of our population & I guess that just goes to show that the little things we buy & own can never truly make us happy.

After church I took a long nap & hung out with a few of my friends. We're just now heading to the night market to grab a few things & then I'll be off to bed in a couple hours & starting my first day of classes tomorrow! Love to you all!

Kasey