Anyways, yesterday we took a break from the bustling life of Accra and took a day trip to Cape Coast, which is absolutely beautiful (perhaps I'll spend Christmas there...). We did a tree-top walk at Kakum National Park, which was great. It was a very thin rope suspension bridge (um, I don't actually know if that's how you're supposed to describe it), and I couldn't decide the entire time if I was scared or not. I was too busy sweating to really think about it. After that we got lunch, which took forever, as it always does. And finally we went to Elmina to visit Elmina castle which I think is the most amazing thing I've seen since I've been in Ghana. It is one of three castles left from the slave trade and one of the oldest buildings in sub-Saharan African (524 years old), built by the Portuguese. We walked into the quarters where they packed hundreds of enslaved women waiting to be shipped on the Middle Passage and the whole atmosphere felt heavier. To make it even more intense, we suddenly heard this incredible gospel music from a couple floors up (a lot of the building is open air). So this sad, powerful gospel singing was echoing through the building while we were looking at the iron bars and the ball and chain on the floor and the "door of no return" where the prisoners were sent before they entered the slave ships. It was really intense and if you ever go to Ghana, you must go there. I can't really do it justice in a one paragraph description of it.
In other news, the two courses I'm doing right now will wrap up in about two weeks and then we'll take a ten day trip to the north, stopping at Kumasi and then continuing on to Tamale. We'll be looking for NGO's to work at during that time. I'm really excited to explore more out of Accra because I know the northern regions are really different, and I've been told that you haven't experienced Ghana until you've been to Kumasi. I'll be sure to bring my camera along. I stupidly forgot it yesterday, but I'll steal some of my friend's pictures and post them.
Posted by lib at October 19, 2008 05:39 PM