Cape coast castle

Cape coast castle was used for the slave trade, sending slaves to Brazil, Carribean, and North America. The tour was fascinating and very moving. It was really interesting to hear about the slave trade from the other side. Slaves were taken mainly from the northern region and basically walked to the coast being sold by different tribes as they walked. The Europeans bought them in exchange for guns and other goods that the tribes needed. One of the things that our guide pointed out that I think is really important is that there was also slavery in Africa at the time, however the slaves were not treated inhumanely like they were in the states. Word never got back to Afirca about the conditions in the countries where the slaves were being taken which may also contribute to Africans trading their own people. www.capecoastcastlemuseum.com 

Below: entrance to the men's dungeon. They had around 1000 slave packed into 5 very small rooms where they were only removed to eat once maybe twice a day. The women's dungeon was very similar. Interestingly enough, the chapel for the castle was directly above the dungeon. 

Below: this is the floor of the dungeon. The rut is for the human waste, however with 200 men in one room it got blocked and built up so that it was a couple inches deep. Of the five rooms they have only excavated one to reveal the bricks so if you were to excavate this floor and sample it you would find traces of human waste. 

              

Below: this is the last of the five rooms and the only one with any light and the last one before the tunnel leading out to the slave ship. It is the only one with light because this is where they "sorted" out the slave who were not healthy enough to make the long journey and they needed to be able to see them. The steps with bottles are part of the indigenous religion where they are honoring their ancestors who were traded as slaves. 

Below:The "door of no return". This is the last door the slaves went through before getting on the slave ship. Recently some ancestors of slaves that were traded from this castle exhumed their bones and brought them back to honor their ancestors. 

Below:Fisherman and a view down the coast. 

Below:A plaque to remember those who were traded into slavery...and our very nice tour guide.

My favorite pictures...so far

Kakum national park

Kakum National park is a rainforest that is maintained and run by former poachers. The park has a canopy walk that puts you in the canopy of the forest. Unfortunately I did not see any animals because there was a very large group of teenagers in front of us and they were very noisy. 

St. Francis

This is the school I was working with for the past week. It is a public senior high school with around 1300 students. Most of the public schools on Ghana have a large number of students that board at school because they are from a different part of Ghana. When students are fine with junior high, they take a test to determine what senior high school they can go to and what their concentration at that high school will be (science, arts, humanities, etc). A student living in the Northern region may have to go to school on the other side of the country. 

Teachers do not apply to a specific school, but are posted to a school that has an opening. Teachers do not get to choose where they ate posted. 

This is a chemistry lesson in one of the science labs. 

Above - students eating breakfast in the "cafeteria" 

Below- this is where they make meals for the students. They have fresh bread every day. 

Below- a typical classroom. In Ghanaian schools the teacher switches rooms and the kids stay. Most classes have 30 -60 students per class. 

Below- outside view of the classrooms

Below-this should look familiar to my students. The topics they learn in science are very similar to the ones taught in the U.S. 

Visiting schools

The students at all of the schools have been very excited to see us. They are very curious about the U.S and they LOVE having their pictures taken. 

Streets of Ghana

This is our driver buying water from a street vendor.  They carry their goods on their heads! And walk in between cars in traffic. It's pretty amazing. 

Our bus for the week.

Art center

This place is crazy! They sell everything here and everyone wants to sell something to you. I am getting very good at saying no. Glad we had our guides there to bargain for us. That is Ekem in the picture, he is our main guide. 

Stadium where the Ghanaian national football team plays. They are called the black stars.

Cows on the beach!

Other side of the Atlantic

This is what the other side of the Atlantic looks like. The sign on the beach says " no littering"

Ghanaian food

Have not had internet for awhile. Here is a picture of our visit to the settlement on the water

Stadium where the Ghanaian national football team plays. They are called the black stars.

Traditional dancing by Saakumu Dance Troupe

Tonight we were treated to traditional music and dance. This group travels all over Ghana and the United States...they have even been to The University of Akron. It was really neat to be able to see this part of the Ghanaian culture and participate in it- yes I did some traditional dancing, unfortunately there are no pictures ;) 

Hotel and view from room

Airport

I made it! Our group arrived in Accra, Ghana at 11:15 Ghana time. The best part of the trip (so far) is when the flight attendant announced that we were landing in Africa...so cool to be landing in Africa!!!!!
One of the first things that became very apparent is that we are on Ghanaian time now. Everything moves just a little bit slower...except the traffic that moves fast and there is a lot of honking. After we got through customs we went to the mall where we exchanged our money and some people got phones to use for local calls. My travel partner and I decided to split the cost of phone and then make sure we don't split up!
It was also interesting to see all the people selling food,water and other random things on the side of the road. When we stopped at a light,the people saw a bus of Americans and swarmed us. They were literally knocking on our windows. Our guide warned us not to buy anything from them because whatever they don't sell, they stick in the refrigerator which they then turn off at night.
I am now sitting outside (85 degrees) at the hotel restaurant enjoying a chocolate milkshake.