Weekend at Cape Coast

July 14-16, 2017

Friday:

Left Accra.

First stop: Korfu village school library visit. Couldn’t help but feel a little odd stepping in and taking photos of all this kids who wanted to touch us. Thoughts of voluntourism were swirling in my head. But we were simply visiting, which I think is harmless exposure. There was no “volun” aspect to this visit.

Cape coast university tour + Lunch (it was cool to see a tour of a University after having been a tour guide for my own school. At lunch tried fufu and goat soup for the first time–not bad, but not my favorite. You aren’t supposed to chew fufu because it’s tasteless and sticky (made from pounded cassava) do I find it a little pointless, and goat’s a little game-y)

Elimina castle (slave castle ran by the Portuguese and Dutch)

Return to resort by the ocean

Evening class from 7-9 (no pictures of that one, but it was an interesting lecture from the wonderful Dr. Janis Weeks on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the transmission of disease.

Saturday:

7am breakfast

Canopy walk

Bought a drum

Lunch (chicken kebab and fried rice) at a crocodile resort. Walked right next to this one and didn’t even notice until somebody squeeled.

Saw a bunny and ostrich farm at the same place. I learned that ostriches don’t have teeth; their beaks are all rubber!

Cape coast castle + museum. Extremely emotional. It was most striking to consider the torture the Africans taken captive experienced at the castles, and if they even survived that, the horror they endured on the ships and for years once they’d landed across the sea (400 years, and tack on at least another 100 if you consider the inequalities that continue today). It’s still difficult for me to grasp that people were capable of brutalizing and dehumanizing other persons, and acts not all that different from our history continue today with little acknowledgement and resistance from those who are safe.