Ghana: Snails, Slave Dungeons, Street Soccer--Sensational

Day 1: I get off the boat at 11am with a group of friends. We start walking in the direction of “downtown” and within a few minutes the humidity and sun take their toll and everyone is sweating. But no less excited. I think a lot of us were excited because we knew the price of everything was going to be a fifth of what we are used to paying, and because we are finally going to get to see Africa the way it is depicted on T.V. But no television show or movie could have prepared me for the real thing. It was a long walk into town but well worth it. The sweat in our hair and dirt on our skin was actually probably a good thing since it made us stick out just a tad bit less. Granted I have blonde hair and white skin in a country where Black is black, not the mix of races we are used to seeing in the US. So yeah I stuck out. It reminded me of Europe when I was younger and the waiters would rub my head, excited to see the stark contrast of natural blonde hair from their own, and not on a rebel teen trying to look American. Anyway, I can’t even describe the scenery but think: Africa. Housing was unassuming, the bare minimum. Women were on the sidewalks cooking meat or frying plantains. And then men didn’t holler at the girl tourists like they did in Morocco. No harassing, just smiles. When we got further into the town people only became friendlier. The people at the banks, the people on the streets, the cab drivers—everyone was just so willing to take some time out of their day and talk to the new comers. Sometimes if they didn’t speak English they would just shoot us phrases like, “Yay Obama” or “New York, California, Florida!”

One young man who started talking to us decided that he was going to show us around in the market. If I thought the medinas in Marrakesh were a maze and fascinating, boy was I in for a surprise. Again, no one harassed us. They just kept cutting up their meet or peeling their fruit or laying out their (massive) snails and fish heads for the locals to buy. This was not a tourist attraction. This was their life. We walked and walked and got deeper into the thick of it all. There were so many little kids and they all smiled and waved enthusiastically. And all the girls and women over the age of about 10 carried huge baskets on their heads, both hands free to use. I was in awe the entire time. I knew from the first hour of stepping foot on Ghana soil that I was coming back. And then, later, when we took a lunch break, I met some kids, boys about 8 or 9 playing in the street with an orange. It rolled my way and I stood up and kicked it back to one of them and then ran to get open again as the other boys bee hived around the orange. “Quick, quick, I’m open!” I yelled. Turns out soccer is a universal language and the boy in the yellow shirt was on my team. And we made a stellar team. We took on the others and avoided the cab drivers we finesse. It was soooo much fun! 3 more days, bring it on!

Sadly, I need to break this blog up into 2 parts. I have a lot of work to do and need to allocate time better. The next couple days I was on an SAS trip, the Cape Coast Historical Tour. We went on a canopy walk in a rain forest (or ON a rain forest since we were at the top of the trees!) and saw castles and slave dungeons and walked on a beach covered in, get ready for it, human feces! Stories to tell, just hang in there :D