Ghana... in love.

Hi everyone! Sorry for delaying the Ghana updates… I’ve been back in class mode and trying to catch up on my school work. Brace yourselves; this is going to be a long one…
Port #3- Accra, Ghana: As of now, Ghana is in the #1 position for favorite country. I absolutely loved it. Every single person that I met was so friendly, welcoming, and helpful. The locals would go out of their way in order to help the tourists, which is something that I have no seen in any other place. When we first arrived we spent the day wandering through Accra, which is the capital of Ghana, stopping at various markets to do some shopping. Everything was SO cheap. Like ridiculously cheap. I’m pretty sure that the group from our ship helped those people to make more money in that single weekend than they would in an entire month or more. It was insane. We made sure to get back to the ship at a decent hour that night because the next day was a busy one.

I was up and on a bus at 7am for another Semester at Sea day trip. This time we took a 3 hour bus ride to a monkey sanctuary where we walked through a small village and encountered tons of monkeys. I even fed one a banana! I held out my hand with the banana and the monkey peeled it right out of my fingers. They weren’t scared of us at all and walked around just like a human would… except they’re much better at climbing trees than we are. From there we went on a hike to the largest waterfall in all of western Africa. I can’t even begin to describe it, so you’ll just have to wait until I post the pictures. It was amazing, the waterfall itself and the hike up to it. Everything was so green and beautiful. From there we went back to the ship where we decided to take the night off because we had another early morning the following day.

On the third day I had a trip to the Cape Coast (formerly known as the Gold Coast) of Ghana to take a tour through 2 slave dungeons and castles. The drive to the Cape Coast provided me with the experience to see how so much of Ghana lives. It reminded me how poor the country actually is. It was the Africa I pictured… dirt roads, grass huts, women walking around with the giant baskets of food on their heads, children weaving on the side of the road, small shacks and vendors that would run out to the bus in hopes of selling us something, and so much more that talking about it doesn’t even do it justice. Yet amidst all the poverty, you still get the feeling that the people there are genuinely happy. They would smile and wave at us as we drove by, and they loved the cameras. When we finally got to the Cape Coast I was shocked by the huge fishing markets that I saw. It was so unbelievably crowded, and what they call fishing boats in Ghana is what I would call a large canoe. It was amazing to see them carry such large nets filled with fish off these tiny boats. The beaches there were very pretty as well. Anyways, back to the slave dungeons and castles. The first one we went to was St. Georges Castle, or the Elmina. This particular castle shipped out more slaves in the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade than any other place in the entire world. The next one we went to was the Cape Coast Castle. It was pretty incredible to stand in those castles and know what happened on that ground in previous years. We walked through the dungeons where they would keep the women and men and saw many of the things that were used to torture them. It was an extremely moving day, and it would be impossible to try and explain the things that I saw. I am so glad that I went. We finally left this part of Ghana at the end of the day and headed back to the ship in Accra.

That evening I went out with a bunch of my friends into town where we went to a place that is considered a favorite by the locals. It was an outdoor spot where a live band was playing “hip-life” music. (Hip-life is the Ghanaians version of hip-hop.) It was so much fun to be able to interact with the locals and talk with them. They were so interested in America and wanted to know all about the music I listen to (of course I was happy to share this information with them) and they wanted to know about each city that every one of us was from. I have quite a few new friends who claim they want to visit Chicago now haha.

The next morning, the last day, I went to an orphanage that was about an hour away. It was so amazing to see all of the children of all different ages. They were so happy to see us, and for many of them, we were the first white people that they had ever seen. They were fascinated by us and wanted to touch our skin, and again, loooveed the camera. They were adorable… but don’t worry, I’m not turning into an Angelina Jolie. Overall, Ghana has provided me with extremely eye opening experiences, and well as experiences that were nothing but fun. I had such an incredible time there, and I am so happy to have seen a country that many are not fortunate enough to visit. I would absolutely love to go back.