Being A Tourist

 The last three days I spent in Ghana I spent being a tourist! I just got home about an hour ago, and I didn't have reliable internet the last few days, so I didnt get to finish blogging! But I LOVED being a tourist and seeing the sights and what not. I'll tell you evvverrrrything.

So we woke up early on Sunday and drove to Elmina, which is a town on the coast right next to Cape Coast, which is one of the biggest cities in Ghana.  Elmina has a slave castle, and we got to tour it.  It was absolutely incredible hearing about what Africans went through with the slave trade, and actually standing where they stood. Along the coast, there are lighter skinned people, and some of them have European names because the soldiers there would rape the women, or marry them, and they would have mixed race kids.  There would be 600 males and 400 females in different dungeons.  It was all stone and pretty creepy, and it really smelled bad, but I dont know if thats because of all the death and nasty stuff that happened, or if its because its right on the ocean.  But many people died there - they would starve to death or get diseases.  They all went to the bathroom on the floor where everyone else was and they were given the minimum amount of food to survive.  Some people committed suicide by not eating at all.  They weren't allowed to bathe, unless a woman was chosen by the governor for him to have sex with.  Then she was given a bath.  If anyone acted up and tried to fight back, they would be thrown in a room with no light that had a skull and cross bones on it and were left there to starve to death and die.  For all the people that died, they would just throw them into the ocean.  The strategy was for the strongest to survive so only the strongest would be the slaves, but Africans were stronger than white people anyways. They would pack people on ships and trade them for goods and ship them to another places.  If they died while on the ship, and many of them did, they would just throw them overboard.  It is estimated that the migration of sharks changed during this time in history as they ate the human bodies.  It was really sad to be standing there where those people stood.  This slave castle was mainly run by the Dutch and the Portuguese and it went on for hundreds of years.  It was incredible.

In the middle of the castle

View from the castle

Afterwards, we went to Cape Coast and had lunch at a pretty Americanized restaurant that was pretty good.  From there, we checked into our resort hotel.  It was BEAUTIFUL. It was in Elmina, and it was literally on the ocean.  Palm trees everywhere, sand, everything.  We stayed in little bungalow type things, and we had 3, so 4 people stayed in each.  When we got there, we immediately checked out the beach.  The waves were big - probably the biggest i've ever seen! And you can tell that there is an immediate drop off.  We noticed that no one was really on the beach or playing in the sand.  It was probably 6pm ish and we were in our suits ready to get wet, but some guy from the resort told us we werent allowed to play in the water.  So, we went for a little walk to the beach area where the resort property ends and played in that water (: the water wasn't warm, but it wasn't freezing like the Pacific! It was definitely bearable.  An interesting thing about the ocean there is that locals don't see it as a cool, beautiful thing to play in.  They see it as a source of food.  So we found TONS of shells on the beach, because no one goes down and looks at them and picks them up and wants to keep them like at American beaches.  The sand there wasn't even really sand - it was more like crushed up shells.  We found some cool ones! And the sunset was absolutely gorgeous.  I loved getting to see this side of Ghana (:

The resort - Coconut Grove

Me & the sunset on the beach

Pretty!

The beach has shells everywhere!

The next day, Monday September 4th, we did a canopy walk over the Kakum Rainforest! It was definitely one of my favorite things that we did.  There is a bridge type thing from tree to tree in a rainforest, so we literally walked above the rainforest.  It was the coolest thing ever.  I added it to my bucket list just so I could mark it off! Haha.  There are only 5 like it in the entire world, and we got to do one! After the walk, I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in my entire life.  So scary. But anyways. It really was awesome.  It's hard to put into words. When I first saw it, I was like "oh, this wont be bad at all!" But as soon as I stepped on it and realized how much it shakes, it was pretty scary. No one has ever fallen though, so we were safe (:

The beginning of the walk

Craaazzyyyyy

Me walkin. Taken by Leah

On the bridge! Scott, Me, Paige, & Kim in the background. Taken by Leah.

HUUUUUGE trees

Kakum Rainforest

After the walk, it started to rain pretty hard.  We went to lunch at a restaurant that was basically on top of a Crocodile Pond.  Since it was raining, the crocs didn't come out much.  One of the worker people did throw some bread into the water so the fish would swarm towards the bread and the crocs would swarm towards the fish and eat them, and Reika & I did see a huuuge crocodile open its mouth and get some fish.  It was soo cool and soo scary.  Apparently, the crocs there are friendly and are usually out more so you can actually pet them, but since it was rainy, they stayed mostly underwater.

The Croc Pond

Crocodillio

Tuesday, September 5th, was my last day in Ghana.  We drove a few hours to Accra to spend the day before I had to catch my flight at 10pm that day.  Yaw took us into his home in Accra where his family made us lunch! They were all so stinkin sweet. Yaw seemed so happy to see his family after being stuck with us the past 3ish weeks, and they were all so cute.  He had a super nice house - one of the nicest i've seen, and he had an awesome view of the city.  His wife and daughters cooked us an authentic Ghanaian meal.  I was super happy to have atleast one more Ghanaian meal before leaving Ghana.  She made more Red Red (fried plantains with beans), Banku (The weird corn ball & soup with tilapia), Jollof Rice, normal white rice, and she also made FuFu.  I had heard a lot about Fufu and had seen many people making it in the villages while we were conducting water interviews.  Apparently, the pound up Cassaba (i dont know how to spell it but its like a yam) and plantains until it forms a dough type stuff.  Then they have it in balls and they eat it like Banku - with soup and they take a chunk out and then dip it in the soup and slurp it down their throat.  I tried it and it was pretty flavorless to me - Yaw says thats why you don't chew it, you just swallow it, cuz otherwise you wouldn't like it.  The soup had meat in it, which I ate, and then later found it IT WAS GOAT MEAT. I didn't freak out that much, but it was still pretty weird, especially because it tasted good.  The lunch was really good and I'm really glad I got to meet Yaw's family.

From there, we dropped everyone's luggage off at the Alma house except mine, and that's when it started to hit me that I was leaving that night, without the group.  We went to a market where I got to do my last minute shopping.  I had a lot of money left over that I wanted to spend and I did a pretty decent job at spending it I think.  Sort of.  I lent 50 cedis to another student though. So I guess I still had quite a bit left.  But whatever.  From there, we had dinner at the Accra Mall, and then I was dropped off at the airport.  Saying goodbye wasn't my favorite, especially to Yaw, who I really liked and may never see again :( I had never flown by myself before, and flying internationally, from an African country, was kinda scary.  But I made it (: And here I am.  I'll post one last blog in a few days reflecting on my trip.  Until then, thank you to everyone who supported me and read my blog! It really means a lot, and I think you can tell that I really did have the trip of a lifetime.