Cape Coast- One Last Adventure Before Home

I apologize that the posting of this one is late- we didn’t have internet for 3 days. But in the interest of being thorough, I wanted to post about our sight-seeing in Cape Coast. Especially since we finally made it down there after 2 and a half days!

Louisville t shirt- nice
Skinny jeans- uncommon
Virginia is for Lovers fanny pack- priceless.

 Yesterday (Sunday) morning we had breakfast, checked out, and went to Kakum National Park, where we walked a really tall, very narrow canopy bridge, made of ropes. It was scary because it wiggled a lot and never did feel quite strong, but the view was amazing and apparently hundreds of people walk it each month. 

The forest we had to walk through to get there was almost scarier than the actual bridge. The only thing the tour guide could guarantee us was that he'd never seen an Anaconda there. He made no such promises about vipers or pythons. And if you ask me, a snake is a snake. Yuck!

Anyway, the bridge was really nice and we felt it was worth the drive.

Kakum National Park Canopy Bridge

Sideways view of a very tall tree

Elan played it cool

Always the adventurous one

Chicken, as usual

This guy was just plain crazy- loved him.

Then we headed up the coast to see the ocean and got a chance to see a lot of the boats, fishermen, and just a different part of Ghana. It was really beautiful and the breeze was nice.

We also visited the Elmina Castle, which at one point in history housed slaves. Now that tour was very interesting. It was sad to hear about how much people suffered back then, but the tour guide was great at telling stories about each room and what happened there. 

This hole in the ground is where they used to keep water. When the governor (who lived in the quarters upstairs- the higher floor meant you were of higher status) wanted to rape a female prisoner, the thought was that she had been living in the sweaty, smelly cell for months, so she needed to be cleaned. They would bring the woman out to the courtyard naked, wash her down with water from the well inside, right in front of everyone, and send her upstairs to the governor's room. If she refused or caused any problems, as a punishment she would be forcibly chained to this giant heavy ball, to be humiliated for an indefinite period of time, and also to instill fear in the other female prisoners.

Needless to say, because of all the rapes, there were lots of pregnancies. What typically happened was that the woman was housed in a different cell until she gave birth, and then those children were raised into slavery as well. 

Just when I thought I had heard the worst, the tour guide kept telling us more stories. 

For example, the slaves’ living conditions were truly horrific. The tour guide took us into this room that was about 10 feet by 50 feet and said usually about 100 women would be kept in there for about 3 months until she was ready to be placed on a boat and sold to a master. Now the cell did not have any bathroom facilities, and the women were given VERY little food and water. Many times they would collapse with weakness, which left them lying in everyone else's feces, urine, vomit and blood. After 3 months of staying in quarters like that, many died before they got out. Those who managed to survive were usually stick thin, and were basically pushed through an open window onto a waiting boat.

There were certain cells where there would be 50-100 people in one very tiny room with barely 2 slits for a window, and if they were being punished for some reason, they were simply starved and dehydrated. The rule was, you stayed in there until the very last person died.

Terrible.

We were just speechless by the time the guide finished, but we are thankful that we got to see a piece of history right there. By the time we finished the tour (and warded off half a dozen panhandlers), it was time to make the drive to Accra, where Bertina and I would split from the rest of the group and go to the airport. 

We really enjoyed those last few hours together as a group, and it was hard to say goodbye. Hard to say bye to Jonathan and his brothers (a truly wonderful set of 3 brothers by the way), and hard to say goodbye to Ghana in general. Our time here was over. It was time to return home.

This is the first time I have ever written a blog and I really thank all of you who followed along diligently, giving me encouragement either through comments, or emails or the phone. It really helped me to know others were enjoying it too. I hope that there were times that you felt like part of our group too. My hope is to return to Ghana someday and help some more. I would also love to do similar work in South India, where knowing the language might be helpful.

So thank you again, and feel free to email with any questions or comments :) 

Nanara01@louisville.edu

Love

Nitya