Daytripping

This weekend was Easter weekend, meaning that Friday and Monday were holidays, so Kags and I headed out of town. Unfortunately, Friday was also a holiday for the busses so we left Saturday to go to the coastal town of Elmina. A couple comments on the busses which Greyhound should take note of. The seating was assigned (meaning they didn't oversell the bus), the bus left only a half hour late, and when the bus company realized the air conditioning was broken (which happened on the way there and the way back) they immediately issued a partial refund of the purchase price for the inconvenience.

Elmina itself is is a small fishing villiage with a huge fort (originally Portugese, then Dutch, then British) built for the slave trade. We were worried about getting to the Fort after it closed, but given how much tourists pay to get in they were willing to stay open until we had seen everything. The tour group consisted of Kags and I, along with some Dutch girls and other foreigners (a.k.a. white people). Everyone scattered as soon as the tour was over though, leaving Kags and I to walk home in the rain. One thing Kags and I noticed as we walk through these towns is that occasionally we'll see some obvious foreigners and we'll usually say hello (curious about where they are from and what they are doing in Ghana), but the interaction seems to be one sided. Often we're ignored, and at best we just get a curt response. I don't know if it's because they know we're American (and not that popular with much of the Western world) or if they just don't want to waste time on non-Authentic experiences. Maybe if you travel to Ghana, the last person you want to chat with is a medical student from Michigan. The Ghanaian, on the other hand, are always incredibly friendly and interested where we are from. As I've said, they know I'm foreign, but a British accent sounds just like an American accent so they always have to ask. Kags has been accused of being Spanish and Mexican.

Then we headed over to Cape Coast, a pretty traditional tourist spot that's bigger than Elmina and also has some slave forts. One of the things that struck Kags and I was the beauty of these forts. It's white washed, huge stone walls with Western design and beach front setting (many of the slave ships loaded/unloaded directly from doors in the side of the fort) make it really nice to visit. And the museum aspect with gift shop distances visitors from the history of slavery, rape, death, and misery almost as much as it educates them. It would almost be a nice place for a wedding if the building weren't so . . . evil. And right outside the fort, on the other side of a door marked the "door of no return" which the slaves went through before boarding ships for America, was one of the biggest beach parties I've ever seen. People swimming, playing in the surf, dancing to music and having a great time. All of this (plus the daily life in Cape Coast and Elmina) occurs in the shadow of hundreds of years of terror. I don't really know how to reconcile it all, but it is interesting how the past and the present meld. Ironically, one of the reasons I picked Ghana was the large number of English speakers here, and that is largely a relic of colonial imposition by the British.

Kags and I wandered around town for awhile and then headed back hom Monday. Luckily the water was back on and the electricity was on (until last night when it went off again for 8 hours). Also, on a side note (for those of you interested in the health of this fearless traveller) I succumbed to that most common of travel ailments (TD) and kept myself hydrated and close to bathrooms for a few days. I am pleased to report that I am feeling better, and didn't even have to take the antibiotics that I had packed.