Thursday, December 16 It’s about quarter to six, so it will soon be dark. I woke up more than twelve hours ago, out of habit not the alarm on my phone. My first overnight stay in Africa except my home in the “Palace”. Yesterday my second travel out of Accra was to Cape Coast, the most visited place in the southern half of Ghana and about four or five hours trip. Happily I had company, Lynn Tawiah is the fifth grade teacher and has a family here but I think she felt sorry for me when my companions changed their itinerary and couldn’t go as planned. Again the Crosby’s driver, Issac, drove us in the school van and I was able to relax and enjoy the trip. The two sites to visit near Cape Coast are the slave castles and the Kakum National Park which houses one of seven canapé walks in the world.
Elmina Castle is the first known European structure of fortification in Ghana, built by Portuguese in 1482 as a trade center for ivory, gold and later slaves. It’s tragic history reminded me of some scenes at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. Although the castle is in sad disrepair, the sense of the tens of thousands captured and sold into slavery pervades. I was interested to learn it was the Portuguese and Dutch who began and profited in establishing the international slave business. It existed long before America bought any slaves, but we allow ourselves to take most of the blame. Thousands of captives of the Asante tribe were sold by that tribe, hundreds put into a single room with little or no ventilation or sanitation, and fed little. Later the other tribes captured enemy tribes and sold them on a regular basis. Female slaves were separated from the males, and the foreign “governor” of the castle selected any he chose to use for the night. At least the pregnant slaves were taken to a separate house where they were allowed to give birth and nurse their children; the children were “released “ into the general population and today account for the lighter color of much of the area’s people. “Problem” prisoners were put in a separate room where they were starved to death and dumped into the ocean. There was nothing humane, and the hypocracy of having a Christian church in the midst of the courtyard was never questioned. Eventually the Portuguese were defeated by the Dutch, who continued the lucrative slave business, and eventually the British defeated the Dutch in Ghana and abolished the selling of humans. The English used the castle as a training center for their military presence, and are credited for beginning the basic education of children in southern Ghana. The tribes in central and northern Ghana were able to keep the English from gaining control of their areas, and today those areas remain poorer and significantly less educated. Seeing it for myself made it a poignant history lesson, so I’m attaching two photos of the castle. One shows a school group beginning a tour, the other shows my smiling face in one of the last days here.
Next we went to lunch; I’ll tell you about the restaurant another time. We didn’t appreciate our good fortune in having a big meal at the time; we were not so lucky at dinner time; and an interesting rural setting right off the main road to the National Park. The Kakum National Park, more specifically it’s canopy rope bridges were not to be missed. I have never had a fear of heights, and it is more inclosed than I expected, perfectly safe and quite an adventure. I’ve had a hard time selecting just a few pictures to put in this blog entry; it was so very high up, and most of the time when I did look down I couldn’t see the ground anyway. Although it is a rain forest, it was not as humid as I expected, and of course there were no animals to be seen in full daylight. My friends were very disappointed in the extreme rise in prices in the last few months (eliminating possibly of future class field trips), it was worth it to me. I wore out a set of new batteries taking pictures this week, and will have to get more before my trip Saturday and Sunday to the Volta region.
As said earlier, we stayed overnight in a hotel. The roads on the trip there were all riddled with severe potholes, and driving in the dark can prevent avoiding them. It’s about a four hour drive, and we went to a hotel one of the other teachers recommended. It was not at all like American standards (even a Red Roof Inn), but tried to charge American prices: another story to tell later. Food was equally expensive, so I ate little except the cookies I brought from home, and we left shortly after the sun came up. It’s not like you see large clean restaurants along the road, and Issac did not feel it wise to buy much from the local vendors except bottled water. By then I was worried about having enough money to pay for the gas and Issac’s time, so we pretty much drove straight through except for several traffic standstills. We got home safely well before lunch, so all was well. I’m already making more cookies for Saturday’s trip, and have gone to the bank to get plenty of money since the whole cost of this one will be for me alone to pay. You can’t buy memories like this, and I’m so grateful for the company I’ve enjoyed on my first two trips!
Well, it’s almost time for my internet connection to open, so I’ll just copy this Word document and paste in the selected photos. What a wonderful way to end my time in Ghana: sightseeing I can never repeat!
Enjoy your Christmas activities, and keep me in your prayers as I hold you in mine.
God bless us, every one!
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