Cape Coast, Baby!

One of the things I've totally wanted to do before leaving Ghana was visit Cape Coast, but I didn't think I would get the chance because it's quite far and I had no way to get there and no one to got with.  But...Terry went to school at the University of Cape Coast, so he invited me to go along with him to visit!

We ended school on a Wednesday, and on Thursday we left in the morning.  When he came to pick me up, I felt incredibly over packed.  He had one backpack, and I had a small suitcase, my huge brown duffel-purse and another bag = /  We waited for a car for awhile, but when we couldn’t get one (he said that since it was Easter weekend, everyone would be traveling and it would be hard to get cars (cars as in trotros) we caught a taxi to Madina Station, I think (at this point in the trip, I still didn‘t know where we were half the time…I‘m doing much better now = ).  From there we caught a car to Kasoa (it was about a two hour ride) to stop by his house, and from Kasoa we caught a car to Cape Coast (it was about a five hour ride).  Trotros are not the most comfortable mode of transportation - even my short legs can’t fit without my knees being pressed up against the seat in front, and you’re packed so closely to the people next to you that it gets very hot when you’re not moving…which, with the traffic here, is pretty often - but I totally enjoyed the ride! = )  There was so much to see; we were on open road for the most part, so we had a nice, cool breeze; when Terry and I got to sit next to each other we had a fun time chatting; and when we couldn’t be next to each other I got to listen to my music.

Once we got to Cape Coast, it was exciting walking through the hustle and bustle of the city center.  The architecture of the buildings made me feel like I was walking through Lahaina crossed with somewhere in Europe (a mixture of rusted, partially-rotted buildings with historic charm).  The streets were packed with automobiles and pedestrians and vendors…and we snaked our way to a station to catch a taxi to the University of Cape Coast campus.

Then we found our way to his friend‘s, Abo Abo‘s, place.  It was amidst a maze of huts and homes in one of the villages that skirts the campus.  The place was a duplex of sorts, although each “home” was just a small, single room.  Inside our room was a small table with a chair, a propane tank and two burners, a bed, and another mattress on the floor (the couch, I suppose).  Outside, was a large dirt area.  On the side closest to us was a little wooden stall with a toile-type thing (that didn’t flush of course) and on the far side was another wooden stall with a moldy, concrete floor for bathing.  At first it was a bit of an adjustment, but the first night that I bathed indoors again, I missed the company of the moon and the wind.  It was like, we had everything we needed, and not much more, and life was so simple and wonderful.  Don’t get me wrong…it would be difficult to live that way for long, and I totally admire the family that lived next door…but there’s something beautiful about the simplicity of having your necessities met without worrying about all those other things that get in the way that are really of little importance.

The kids who lived next door were so beautiful and warm and friendly and loving!  It was actually really hard saying good-bye to them at the end.  Since their place was so small, they were usually outside.  There’s something intimate about brushing your teeth with someone and walking to and from the toilet and shower in front of them (especially when you can see them over the tops of the doors…haha) that allowed us to really bond.  I especially fell in love with the girl, Abigail, who was extra friendly, and the baby Kukua, who was SO cute!…and fell asleep in my arms on the last day.  It was amazing watching how happy they were, even with having so little.  The boy, Samuel, was playing with a large knife/small machete, cutting a can the first day I met them, and the girls were just standing around, all in their underwear or tattered shirts.  And yet, each time I saw them, they greeted me with as much excitement as the first time I met them!

Okay, so after dropping our stuff off, he wanted to take me on a tour of his campus.  It was HUGE!  It’s like divided into three sections.  We lived near Science (the three sections are Science, Old Campus and New Campus), so he took me there first.  It was really nice.  There were some older buildings like UH’s law school and some new buildings that were really beautiful.  Campus was really open and clean and cool…I liked it a lot.  Then, I can’t remember if we walked or caught a taxi to New Campus.  I think we walked because I remember walking for a long time…but I also know that the three sections are really far from each other…so when I started writing that we had walked, I had to stop because it felt like I might be lying.  Anyways…at New Campus he showed me the halls.  They’re HUGE - like HUGE!  He brought me into one so that we could play pool, but the pool table was locked.  From there we caught a taxi to Old Campus, and he showed me where he lived and where he used to hang out and stuff.  Then we got food and went back to where we were staying.

The next morning, we set off for Kakum National Park.  I won’t bore you with the details of all the transportation, but just know that every time we went anywhere it was a whole process of getting to the right place to catch the right car, hoping we’d get one, waiting for a long time at times…and the whole time I was just in awe of how he was able to navigate it all!…trying to learn as much as I could at the same time = )

At the park, we got our tickets, I used the bathroom (that’s one thing that’s nice about going to places that have a lot of white people - they usually have bathrooms with toilet paper, sinks, and sometimes even soap), and we waited for our tour to begin.  When it was time, we hiked up to the canopy bridge (it wasn’t very far and wasn’t a difficult hike at all…but it was so hot and humid that I was already soaked with sweat!)  The canopy bridge was so cool!  It was a rope bridge in the tops of the trees…well, actually it was a  series of seven bridges…and they started out quite tame, but got a lot steeper and more wobbly as we went along.  In a place or two I was a little…scared’s not the word, maybe startled…but more than anything what I felt was motion sick…like sea sick almost.  And even after we got off the bridge, I felt like I was still rocking a bit.  On our way down there was a rest-stop selling coconuts and cocoa.  The coconuts were yummy…but the cocoa was SO good!!!!  It’s kinda disgusting looking, but you suck the sweet, slimy stuff off the seeds and the flavor is delicious!  After resting for quite awhile (I think we were the last ones to leave), we hiked the rest of the way down and exited the park.

On our way out we were stopped by a guy who was trying to sell us stuff…and he took us to his little place across the street and entertained us (he was so friendly and hilarious and crazy!…haha = ) while he made us bracelets with our names on them.  He also told us about a wild monkey preservation down the road where we could see real animals since, in the park, we hadn’t seen any.  So after having a nice little rest on his porch, he caught a trotro for us and we headed to “Mrs. Doolittle’s.”

Here we met another wonderful, crazy man = )  The owner of the place was from Holland, and he ran it with his Dutch wife and a couple of local guys.  After our tour, we sat and talked with them for awhile.  They said that they moved here 8 years ago and haven’t been back since…and don’t miss it one bit! (except for their family and friends) because they’ve become bush people = )  But really they are…the wife introduced us to the littlest monkey they have, who sleeps in bed with them because she lost her mother, and to two other monkeys that can’t be out in their preserve yet…who currently reside in her kitchen!  As for the animals we saw on the tour…there were such cool animals that I’d never even seen pictures of before!  There was a bush cat and a bush dog that were both really freaky!, lots of wild monkeys, beautiful birds, an antelope, I think he said, turtles and tortoises, crocodiles (that he said don’t bite humans!)…and that’s all I can remember.  It’s really cool because a lot of their animals are endangered, so they’re working on breeding them there and then gradually sending them out into the wild.  The monkeys have mostly been rescued or sent to them by people who’ve rescued them and won’t be able to go back into the wild because they’d be shunned once the other monkeys smell the scent of humans.  But yeah, they’re mission seems to really be one of saving the animals, which was really neat!

After that, we went back to the main town, and he showed me the castle (we couldn’t go in because they had already stopped giving tours).  But it was neat…we took pictures around the outside and enjoyed the view of the ocean.  Then we went to this nice restaurant and got drinks and kebabs and watched some street performers dance traditional dances.  It was SO fun!

The next day was our beach day! = )  Abo Abo came with us, and we went to Morrie Beach.  It was hard to get there because it’s really off the beaten path, but we eventually made it = )  It was so cool, too…on our way in we passed where they carve their fishing boats.  They’re like these GINORMOUS canoes!  It was amazing!  We also passed a bunch of people of all ages walking with these similar containers on their heads.  Terry said they were fetching water.  I can’t imagine having to watch such great distances, up steep hills, just to get water each day.  Man, am I ungrateful!

So Morrie Beach is actually a small beach resort.  It was beautiful and quaint.  There were about ten or so little beach bungalows, a food counter, tables with thatched umbrellas, wooden pool chairs (the kind that you can lay out on), showers and bathrooms (a totally luxury!) and a beautiful white-sand beach = )  We played in the water for awhile (the waves were really big! and really strong!), showered, and ordered some food, and enjoyed the scenery and people-watching.  Then I laid out on one of the pool chairs (the wood’s really not very comfortable and I had some pretty mean markings on me afterwards…haha) and got my tan on while the boys talked.

Too soon it was time to go.  Luckily, the taxi that dropped us off that said it would pick us up really did (otherwise I have no idea what we would’ve done!…but it’s common for a taxi-man to say that he’ll pick you up after he’s dropped you off, only to not be able to get a hold of him, or even just to have him flat our lie and say he’s on his way and never show up).  We headed back to town so that we could tour the inside of the castle.  But we got there too late again! = (  Terry decided to just check if we could still get in, and they let us join the last tour that had just started! = )

Gosh…talk about feeling guilty for being white!  Going on that tour was honestly a life-changing experience that I wish everyone could experience.  It’s so sad, and almost unfathomable, to think what human beings have been, and are, able to do to each other.  We learn about how awful slavery was once the slaves came to America, and the terrible conditions on the ships coming over, but I never even realized what hell they’d already experienced before they even left their own soil.  The tour guide explained that men and women were brought there from all over Africa (which, of course, meant that they arrived absolutely exhausted after walking hundreds of miles) and then forced to live in these dungeons with no windows (which means no light or fresh air), no toilets (the waste on the bottom of the dungeons was like a foot thick), no beds - nothing humane.  There was a separate cell for the women who refused the white men, where they were kept in even harsher conditions (hard to think it possible) as punishment and to serve as an example to the other women.  In contrast, the quarters that the white folks lived in were bright, open, clean, and beautiful.

I didn’t know this, but many African Americans (include Michelle Obama) trace their roots to Ghana because the majority of slaves came from Ghana.  They were such a warm, inviting people, so when the British came and asked for something, they gladly handed it over.  Rather than being grateful, they took advantage of the hospitality and enslaved the Ghanaian people.  It’s a wonder that the country is as strong as it is, considering that, not too many years ago, all of the strong, able-bodied men and women who could build up the country were shipped out.  It was explained that, while the Ghanaians are still such a warm and friendly people, they’re not as trusting as they once were.

The worst part, to me, was the way that they got the slaves.  They turned family against each other, tribes against each other, and countries against each other by trading guns and ammunition for slaves.  Up until that point, the wars had been fought with old-fashioned weapons.  But the British introduced guns, exacerbating the death and damage of the wars already in effect.  They also caused an explosion of new wars as clans tried to conquer other clans so that they could trade those conquered for more weapons.

So indicative of the type of people they are, the tour guide still cracked jokes here and there (I didn’t see any white people laughing, but some of the Africans did), and I didn’t once feel like I was being judged or hated for being white.

After the tour, we visited the gift shops, got kebabs from the same place, and walked through the town, before heading home completely exhausted.

The next day it was time to leave = (  I packed my things, bathed, ate breakfast, and spent some time with the kids.  It was Easter Sunday, so they were all dressed to the nines.  I was so humbled knowing how little they had, and yet seeing the effort they put into presenting their best to God.  They looked beautiful!…and I was so glad that Abo Abo said he’d take pictures of us because those are images I want to have in my mind forever - “’Til we meet at Jesus’s feet.”  After seeing them off to church, we walked up to Science to catch a taxi, and said bye to Abo Abo there.

We wanted to catch a tro tro on the road, but there were none with empty seats, so we eventually caught a taxi to town to see if we could catch a bus.  Terry found one going to the right place, so he bought our tickets and we got on (it’s lucky we got on when we did because we got the last two seats together).  It was so hot!…so I told Terry I’d save the seats while he could go stand outside.  Of course, he came back soon after with chilled water and frozen yoghurts = )  We still waited for a long time…but eventually the bus was off.  We were in the very back, so we had the sun beating on us the whole time, but once we started moving and had some breeze, it wasn’t too bad.  I guess I hadn’t slept well during the trip because I was really tired and slept almost the whole time.  I don’t really remember much else from the bus, except that Terry got a call while we were on the bus that his cousins had prepared food for us, so we were going to stop over at his house and eat before going on to the Eastern Region to visit his step dad.

So we got off in Kasoa, and went to his house.  However, lunch turned into 2 days…haha = )  I’ll explain that in a bit…but first, it was so fun to meet everyone!  I met his cousins, Gloria, Mary, Pandora, Diana, and Paa Kwesi.  I met his Aunty Ama, his Uncle Albert, Albert’s wife, Akos, and his Grandmom and his Granddad (as well as seeing Linda and Esther again, the two I‘d met the first time I went).  It was so fun, because over the course of the two days I got to really have a bonding moment with pretty much everyone.  When we first arrived, it was Gloria that I talked to for a long time while Terry (Br. Kwame or Kwame to his family) said hi to everyone.  She’s teaching class 2 right now, and is absolutely beautiful!  Then I talked to Grandmom for a long time, and Ama joined us for part of the conversation.  It was a true talk with a grandma = )  She taught me a lot about Ghanaian customs and such, and taught me all of the names for the different days.  Somewhere in there we ate, and I found out that the reason why we were staying was because his cousins wanted him to drive them to the beach the next day…haha = )

Well, we had a nice, leisurely morning.  I had the most delicious, beautifully presented breakfast laid out for me = )  Terry cut Pandora and his Granddad’s hair (the kid just keeps surprising me with his many talents!) while I sat out on the porch and relaxed with them.  I walked with Diana to buy phone credits (they were sold out in the first two places, so we had a long time to chat…and she is such a sweet, bright little girl! = ), tried to learn from Mary how to make banku…and helped a little = ), tried to learn from Mary how to hand wash clothes…and helped a little = ), and watched the Adjustment Bureau with Terry and Pandora.

Then it was off to the beach.  Terry drove, his uncle sat in the passenger seat, and Gloria, Mary, Pandora, Diana, and I squished into the backseat.  The traffic was CRAZY!…so it took us years to get there…haha = )  Oh but, goodness gracious, I was so grateful to have a car because there were TONS of people walking…and it was FAAAARRRRRR!!!!  When we finally got there and parked (oh my gosh…I could write a whole page just on getting into the parking lot and parking…but suffice it to say I was already exhausted by the time we arrived), we ate the delicious lunch that the girls had packed for us, and made our way to the beach = )

The beach was SO crowded!!!!  Every inch of sand and water was teeming with excited people.  I’ve learned that guys at beaches here just don’t understand boundaries…so that got really tiring!…but we still had fun = )  We found a group who were passing a volleyball in a circle…so we joined them, and that was really fun!  And we played in the waves for a long time.  And then when we were pretty tired and ready to get out, Pandora and Diana told us they wanted to go in…so we went back in with them.  I had a great time with Diana!  She was really daring…and got us caught in a wave once that almost took us out and got a whole bunch of water up my nose…haha…but just seeing her childlike excitement and joy of being in the water was contagious.  We had a blast! = )

When we were totally exhausted (at least I was…haha), we made our way back to the parking lot.  They were turning one of the buildings into a club that night…so we hung out at the truck and danced and stuff for awhile.  We even attempted to go in…but as soon as Terry saw that it was mostly guys inside…he turned us all right around…haha = )  Poor guy…trying to protect all five of us girls = )  But we still couldn’t leave because we were blocked in…so we waited in the car for a LONG time…until we finally got an opening to get out.  But getting out of the “parking stall” didn’t mean getting out of the “parking lot”…we still had a long wait and had to fight our way out.  And then getting out of the “parking lot” didn’t mean getting onto the road.  We still had to wait for a really long time.  And then getting onto the road didn’t mean that we were moving.  Basically…it took us FOREVER to get home!…but along the way Terry made a stop and got us all frozen yoghurts…so that cheered us up = )  The poor girls (Pandora and Diana) were so tired and kept trying to sleep…but they couldn’t get comfortable in that packed car.  I kept trying to help make them more comfortable because they looked so miserable…especially poor Diana whose head kept falling and jerking back up.  Oh yeah…and it was so sweet!  On the way in, Pandora just grabbed my hand (I think she saw how stressed I was becoming by the traffic) and held it the rest of the way = )

Well…we finally got home (again…I was really grateful that we at least had a ride…because I so didn’t envy the poor people walking the whole distance!), and the shower felt SO good!  Then we ate the banku that we had prepared, with fish and pepper (yum = ) and crashed!

The next day, we packed our things, loaded up the car, and went with Linda and Akos to the hospital for Linda’s baby, Blessing’s, 2 week check-up.  The hospital was really far, so it was nice to get some time to spend with Linda and Akos, because they were the ones that I’d talked to the least there.  Akos was rarely around and I hadn’t really had the chance to talk to Linda.  But by the end of the trip I felt more bonded with them…and Linda actually said she hoped to see me soon = )  But yeah…the scenery on the drive was breathtaking!  I kind of felt like I was on the northwest side of Oahu…it was so green and mountainous, and unlike anything I’ve seen in Ghana thus far.

After the hospital we got dropped off at Kasoa Station, and made our way home.  What an amazing adventure!

(We took tons of pics...too many to fit here.  So check out Facebook to see them = )