Cape Coast

I haven't had the internet since last Wednesday! We did some cool stuff this weekend, so read away!

Aug. 22

Another day of class. Today I had class from 8:30am-7:45pm with a two and half hour break at lunch. The day felt like an eternity.

We did have our first African Drumming and Dance class. We drummed for about 50 minutes. It was so much fun. Our instructor taught us some basics and then had us do some cool rhythms together as a group. Dancing was okay. I don’t really love to dance, but I did enjoy myself. We did some traditional name learning dances that local children like to do.

Confession: The past two days have been hard. My classes feel stressful and I don’t get a lot of time to just be by myself. I get energy from having time alone, so never having that time is really exhausting.

 I’m really craving a sandwich right now. A real one with sliced bread. (Weird, I know) My diet here so far has consisted of fruit (mostly pineapple), small loaves of bread, and white rice. If I really want ice cream—which is always, I buy this stuff called FanChoco. It’s basically a fudgecicle in different packaging. It’s pretty good. It feels weird craving things from home after only 2 weeks away, but it really feels like I’ve been here for much longer. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it here, but there are times when I really just want to eat a vegetable or something. Like tonight, I had bought French fries for dinner because ketchup sounded awesome.

Aug. 23

I had orientation at the Community Hospital today. It’s a pretty nice place. Interestingly, 2 journalists and a businessman established it and it’s a for-profit hospital.

I’m a little bit disappointed in my placement. I still don’t entirely understand what I will be doing there and I’m not sure how helpful I’m going to be to them. I’m going to talk to Roland about it later to see if there is something else I can do.

Also, while at the hospital, two offers of marriage were made to me. Unfortunately, I had to decline. ;)

Aug.24

We headed to Cape Coast for the weekend early this morning. It’s a small town on right on the Gulf of Guinea (basically the Atlantic Ocean). Today, we took a walking tour of the town and toured Elmina Castle. We learned that the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British have at one point occupied Cape Coast and Elmina Castle. The castle was used for several different purposes at different points in time, but it’s most famous for it’s role in the Trans Atlantic slave trade. After slaves were captured from villages, they were taken to the castle to await the ships that would eventually take them to the Americas/Europe. It was a really fascinating tour. We walked through the dungeons and governor’s quarters as well as a chapel located just above the dungeons. Anyways, if you ever happen to be in Cape Coast, I recommend walking through it.

 

We’re staying in The Almond Tree Guest House just outside of Cape Coast. It’s really quite pleasant. A family from Jamaica runs the place—my room is the Bob Marley room. :) After our tours today, I got to take a shower. The water has been out in my dorm room at the university for the past day and a half, so the shower was very much welcomed. Not only did the water in the shower work, but there was hot water as well. I’m not sure I can describe how wonderful that was. I'm starting to appreciate water more than ever. We tend to take it for granted in the States because it's always available, but here we're learning to live well without constant access to it. It's kind of nice in a way.

We ate dinner at a small restaurant (using that term loosely) across the street from the guest-house. We ate a local dish called Red Red. I think it’s made up of beans, gari (a grainy, white powder), and a red sauce. We also had fried plantains, salad with avocado, and white rice. It was delicious. Loved every bit of it.

I bought some FanChoco to satisfy another ice cream craving and then we visited a beach resort down the road. I’ve come down with a terrible cold, so I went to be early.

Aug. 25

Today was wonderful. I think it was my favorite day in Ghana so far. This morning we woke up early to go to Kakum National Park. It’s a tropical rainforest area that has suspension bridges that take you over that canopy of the forest. I’m scared of heights, but I loved it.

After the canopy walk, we spent the remainder of our day on a beautiful, empty beach. We got to relax in hammocks, swim, soak in some sun, and on top of all of those wonderful things, we were fed the most amazing meal of my life. We were served different kinds of rice, French fries (I know that sounds weird, but they are way better here than at home), chicken with vegetables, calamari, fried plantains, lobster, and the most delicious fish I ever tasted (I don’t know what the name was). 

I also talked to Roland about my internship placement. I think I’m going to be moved to a different organization, but I don’t know which one yet.

 

Anyways, I loved every bit of our time at the beach. We left around 4pm and didn’t get back to the university until 8pm. We hit some crazy traffic.

Now I need to focus on the pile of homework that I have to do for Monday.

Happy birthday today, Dad! Glad I was able to talk to you for a minute this afternoon.

Aug. 26

I’m sick. The cold that I came down with this weekend will not give in and on top of that I think I have a minor digestive issue, so I stayed home from church today to rest. The good news is that I’ve spent the day doing homework. I don’t get internet in my room, so I don’t have anything to distract me. I got most of it done, but my computer is also malfunctioning right now. The mouse is acting on it’s own. So when I type, it moves around and clicks on random things and deletes sentences, etc. It’s been extremely frustrating. Just typing this is taking way longer than it should because of the issue. Anyways, I’ve done what homework I can.

We have our first group bible study tonight. I’m hoping to go and make it through the whole thing. Hopefully I can manage it.