A very intense, historically based, day

August 15, 2011

Coach busses in Ghana are awesome.  Tro-tros are scary, but the coach bus we took to Cape Coast was/is awesome.  It has air conditioning….and seat belts!!! We were all very excited.  I sat with Davida as my seat mate which is always a fabulous time.  When we got to Cape Coast, we stopped the bus to eat our boxed lunches from Afia.  Mine was a very tasty bacon sandwich, though it was more like ham.  We took a quick stop at Barclay’s for some people to change money, then it was off to the Castle.

Cape Coast Castle is a very intense experience.  It is one of three castles in Ghana that was used for the slave trade.  While it is the youngest of the three castles, there were still millions of Africans shipped on slave ships from within the dungeon walls.  President Barrack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama came to the castle in 2009, they came because the First Lady is a descendant of one of the many people shipped from there.  They put up a plaque memorializing the place and its significance, alongside another plaque that hopes we will never see atrocities like this again.

**On a complete side note: Everyone in Ghana is absolutely in love with/obsessed with President Obama.  When they know you are from the U.S. they instantly start talking about how wonderful he is.  There are billboards with his face on them.***

Inside the dungeons we lead through the living quarters where 200 men would live (in each of the sections) in a space smaller than my classroom.  They would be there being fed once a day, not bathing, and having no access to a bathroom.  You could almost feel the suffering in the air.  The most intense part of the tour was in the cell.  There was a cell where captured Africans who tried to fight back were placed.  They were literally locked in this room with no food, water, light, or air until they died. When we went in, it was instantly sweltering, when the guide turned off the lights, you could almost imagine the torture these men and women went through.   A few of us went shopping in the center within the castle after the tour.  I got a lot of fun things for some people at home J

After that we went to check in at the Anomabo Beach Resort.  This is the first time we all had our own rooms.  Personal space is a much more valuable asset than we give it credit for. The rooms walk right out onto the beach.  Picturesque…and I am sure make it very clear as to what I will be doing while I am here!