Catching Up...

Well, it's not going to be as in-depth and detailed as I would have liked, but here is the recap of what I've been up to the past two weeks.

Two weekends ago, Saturday (6/9) to Monday (8/9) our group from Penn State, which consists of Andrew, Mike, Terrell, Kevin, Caroline, Danielle, Christine, and myself, went to Cape Coast and Elmina for the weekend. We left around 6 a.m. on Saturday. I wanted to kill myself when my cell phone alarm went off at 5 a.m. It didn't help that I was up until about 12:30 on Friday night watching Gossip Girls with Carly and McKenzie. I know what you're thinking...what the heck is Greg doing watching Gossip Girls? I know because I thought the same thing myself. But to be honest, it's really not that bad. This doesn't mean that I have a new found liking for excessively dramatic and cheesy girl television shows, but it does give me something to do in the evenings. Anyways, the drive to Cape Coast was about two hours. When we arrived, we grabbed a quick breakfast at a restaurant that overlooks the ocean, right next to Cape Coast Castle. As soon as we were done eating, we went a couple miles away to join a parade. We were actually in a parade! It was a bit awkward. I felt like an animal on display at the Bloomsburg Fair as little kids and adults alike pointed their fingers at us and laughed/smiled. The guy that we were behind must have been pretty important because women kept coming up to him and fanning him throughout the parade route. He also had an entourage of people to get him water and energy drinks (he drank three during the parade...can't be good for his heart). At one point in time, a television station came up and interviewed him while walking along the street. But, he was a really cool guy and was encouraging us to dance with him. I'm not much of a dancer, but I tried and the Ghanians certainly got a kick out of watching me. The parade was fun for about the first two hours, but after that, it got incredibly hot. I got a sunburned neck and nose because our tour guide didn't tell us that we would be out in the sun for so long, so I didn't put any sunscreen on. After about three and a half hours and 5 miles of walking we finally got to the end of the parade route. The reason for the parade was part of an all-day celebration where all the "sub-chiefs" recommitted themselves to the "head chief" on that tribes new calender year. There was a durbar that the president of Ghana spoke at, but we didn't have time to stay around. We got a quick lunch and then went to Cape Coast Castle. We got a guided tour. It was intense! They took us down into the dungeons where they kept the slaves back in the 17th and 18th centuries. The tour guide also showed us the governor's room, the "trading room" (where the merchants bartered over the purchase of slaves), and the "door of no return" (the door that the slaves were filed through on their way to the boats to leave for Europe and North and South America. After the tour, we had a few minutes to walk around and take pictures. I went back down into the dungeons to get some pictures and I was the only person down there. It was incredibly creepy; I had chills in my spine. I got some great pictures though and I can't wait to show everybody when I get back! We went back to our "botel" (a hotel that is essentially a boat on a huge pond). There were crocodiles in the pond! It was so awesome. We threw bread into the water and a ton of fish would come and start eating it. Then, all of a sudden, crocodiles would lunge out of the water to eat the fish. They are such powerful animals. It was a bit intense knowing that they aren't penned into a specific area and could come out of the water onto the land by our rooms at any point in time, but the staff assured us that there have never been any attacks in the botels 30 years of operation.

On Sunday, we woke up around 9 a.m. after a fantastic night's sleep (I had an air-conditioned room for the first time since I've come to Ghana)! We ate breakfast at the botel and then drove about an hour west of Cape Coast to Elmina (named by the Portuguese in the 17th Century after "la mina" - meaning "the mine" because of all the gold that they found in the region). We went to Elmina Castle. We received a tour there as well. The tour guide there was much better and well-informed. While the dungeons weren't quite as eerie, the stories about the British Governors and soldiers taking advantage of the female soldiers and showing us how they selected their "prizes" was saddening. The castle itself was nicer than Cape Coast Castle in terms of architectural design and restoration projects. One of the coolest things about the castle is that it hosts the second oldest church built in West Africa (the first was destroyed during a conflict between the Dutch and the English over control of "Gold Coast" colony - the old name for Ghana). I got some awesome pictures there as well. After our tour of the castle, we ate lunch and went to a beach resort for the afternoon. The beach was beautiful, especially in comparison to my experiences at Labadi Beach and Ada Foah. There was no trash in the water or on the beach within eyesight. The waves were the perfect size for body surfing (made me wish I had my boogey-board) and they had really comfortable chairs to sit in and just enjoy the surroundings. We stayed there until about 4 p.m., then got in our bus for an hour and a half ride to a remote village in the rain forest. There, we saw a bamboo orchestra play some traditional African music that was accompanied by an African dance ensemble. It was spectacular! One of the coolest cultural experiences I've encountered thus far. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. When we were finished watching the dancers and listening to the music, we got up and joined them in dancing. They taught us a traditional African dance. Let me tell you, it was quite tiring. I give these dancers a lot more respect for what they put their bodies through. I thought dancing to one song was tiring, imagine what dancing to 7 songs is like! By the time the orchestra was finished, it was getting dark and we had to leave right away before it got too dark. The roads here at nighttime are very dangerous because of all the potholes and drop-offs on the side of the roads. We all wanted to stay and see the village, so I guess I'll just have to make it a point to go back there at some other point in time this semester. We went back to the botel and went to bed.

Monday morning we went to Kakum National Park around 10 a.m. and went on the canopy walk tour. It was a pretty tiring trek up the side of the mountain to get up to the canopy level of the trees below. Once we got to the canopy, my excitement quickly turned to sheer terror. Now, I'm not usually that afraid of heights, but if you saw how primitive looking these walkways that were suspended 40 meters (approximately 130 feet) above the jungle floor, you would understand. The park rangers assured us that there have never been any fatalities in the parks history, but that didn't seem to help calm down my nerves. I was okay crossing the first of seven walkways because it was pretty stable and not quite as high off the ground. But on the second walkway, the boards in the middle creaked really loud as we walked across them and I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest. I made the mistake of looking down! Imagine looking down on the tops of trees that are as tall as the tallest trees back in Pennsylvania (and you're still well above them). I got some really cool pictures, but they do the canopy walk no justice. By the fourth and fifth walkways I was feeling as "comfortable" as possible and by the end I was really excited about what I had just done.; walked along 300 meters of a walkway made of rope, a wooden walkway situated on top of an aluminum frame (resembled a narrow ladder), 40 meters above the ground! If you ever get a chance to come to Ghana, I highly recommend spending a day up on the canopy walkway in Kakum National Park. It is a once in a lifetime experience (especially considering there are only 3 other similar canopy walkways in the entire world). We ate a late lunch at the park before driving three and a half hours back to Accra. It was an awesome weekend; the best I've had here in Ghana so far!

Well, I've been working on this for quite some time and I need to do some work for a group project meeting that I have at 5 p.m. today for my history class. Sorry I didn't get a chance to completely catch-up on my life, but I'll fill everybody in on this past weekend and my trip to Kumasi sometime soon. Tomorrow is my busy day, so I probably won't be online, but I will try my hardest to post the rest on Wednesday, seeing as I am going out of town again this weekend. We're leaving Thursday morning and returning Sunday, so I will be without Internet for a couple of days again. If there is anything you need from me for the next week or so, make sure you email or facebook me by Wednesday, otherwise I won't get it until next Monday. Hope all is well with everybody back home/at school!

Let's Go State (3-0),
Greg