Cape Coast and Kakum

Saturday morning I woke up early, grabbed an egg sandwich from the night market and jumped on the USAC van for our excursion to the Central Region of Ghana, which is actually only central in it's east west position within the country as it is very far south of the actual center. We drove along the road heading west out of Accra, the city slowly faded into hills and forests and eventually we met the Gulf of Guinea. In Cape Coast we stopped at our first main destination, The Cape Coast Slave Castle.

The Cape Coast Slave Castle was built to house and ship future slaves captured from their homes, either in the immediate area or elsewhere in Ghana and West Africa. The tour started in the dungeon where hundreds of people were crammed without light or ventilation. They had no choice but to relieve themselves where they slept and any attempt at resisting their imprisonment would land them in the "Condemned Cell" where the British (or Portuguese or Danish at Elmina Castle) would lock them up without food, water or light until they died of starvation or thirst.

The Slaves only escape was death or the "Door of No Return" where they were loaded onto the ships bound for the new world. Meanwhile the officers running the castle lived atop the tower with incredible luxury and some of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. The tour certainly had a very somber tone, however, the tour guide had an incredibly hopeful view of the situation pointing out that these slave castles served as reminders to never act with such cruelty to fellow humans again. He also never went out of his way to illustrate the British and Africans who profited from slave trade as evil. His only remark was that their actions were for not us, but God to judge. Those who profited from slavery would have deserved every bit of negativity he could have dished out but he chose not to perpetuate hatred over deeds long ago, and I was extremely impressed by that.

After visiting the castles at Cape Coast and Elmina we traveled back to our hotel for the night, Biriwa Beach Hotel. It was an amazing place built on a hill overlooking the ocean and an isolated beach, and they had hot water! Some of us went to the beach Saturday night and enjoyed the entertainment of chasing crabs along the beach with flashlights. I was afraid of being pinched so I wasn't bold enough to pick one up but it was still interesting to watch.

On Sunday we left Biriwa for the rainforest at Kakum National Park. It was only a short drive inland from the Cape Coast area and the drive allowed us to see some small villages along the way. At Kakum they have a series of suspended rope bridges which connect from tree to tree in the canopy of the rainforest. The bridges were 40m (130ft) above the forest floor at some points and swung freely so I had to walk gingerly. Generally, it was advisable to hold on with both hands, but I decided to make a video for all of you to get a better idea of what it was like... I risked my life for this so you better be happy! (I was actually very careful and never in any danger)

Note: I uploaded 160-some pictures of this trip on Picasa

Hello From Ghana

It's hot! I was hoping that I might have something profound to say in my first post from Africa but I'm going to take the other path and start with the obvious. I've been really busy so I started thinking that the longer I waited to post something on this blog the higher the expectation would be for it's quality. I then decided to disappoint all of you. 

I also have a feeling that this post should be answering the question"How is Africa?".  I have absolutely no answer to this. I can't adequately describe it, the best I can do for now is say that Ghana is an amazing place and will completely change the way I see life in the US. I mean, I'll still try.. just lower your expectation of my ability to properly explain what it's like to be here.

Like I said, I'll start with the obvious things: It's hot, it's loud, it's crowded and it sometimes smells a bit strange. All of these seem like bad things, but when you're in Africa you have to have the appropriate attitude, if was expecting the comforts of the US I would have been incredibly dumb for coming here. What I hoped for was friendly people and enough resources to stay healthy. So far, I think I'll be able to stay in good health and the Ghanaian people are incredibly friendly. Sure, there are beggars and pick pockets but it's not hard to sort out the good people who are trying to be friendly and the people looking for money.

I haven't gotten much of an opportunity to leave campus yet so, my tourist component of the trip is yet to take off. Tomorrow I go on a tour of Accra, which I have only had limited exposure to. Transportation is tricky, I either need to catch a Trotro (A van with people crammed inside like sardines running on a route like a bus)  or get a taxi. The Trotros are practically free they're so cheap and the taxis aren't bad either. I went 14km in a taxi yesterday for 7GHC ($4.80) on top of that, I split it with 4 people. Taxi fares are actually negotiable here which is fun, it's not everywhere you get to argue with a driver about his fares before getting in the car. Unfortunately, the taxis aren't quite top notch vehicles. Most of the taxis I've seen are over a quarter million miles, have a broken speedometer and a cracked windscreen but it just makes for a more interesting trip.

The hostel I'm staying at is fantastic. It holds hundreds of international students and is designed perfectly to promote mingling in the halls around the courtyard. The amenities are very modest as you would probably expect and I have to sleep under a mosquito net but it all just adds to the experience. Also worth noting about ISH(1) (International Students Hostel 1) is that it has no hot water but it doesn't take long in Africa to realize that cold showers are preferable. 

It's a shame I got sidetracked by taxis on my first post but I'll get to the more important things soon enough. I'm going to The Cape Coast this weekend so pictures may be coming early next week.

I'll Be Honest

I actually write in an entirely separate web page. I know, Its disappointing that I've lied to everyone but be honest, would "alan mccall [writes stuff in a separate web page to be posted at this URL and formatted in such a way that it should, barring any browser errors, appear in the area below this title]" have been an appropriate title? No. This was the best possible title, it's completely perfect and I'm going to stick with it... for at least a week. While we're on the subject, don't ask me what's up with the square brackets. I like them. Square brackets are cool. Go with it.

Now that we have sorted that out I'd like to give you a tour. You already know where the title is so I'll move on to the next most important part of this blog page: the posts. You may find the posts here. Right here. Yay! To the right there is a slide show, I'll update it to display my most recent set of pictures. If you would like to see all my pictures then you may click on the link at the top of the page entitled "My Picasa Photostream". There is also a link to my YouTube Channel but I'll likely embed any videos you'd like to see right here in my post. Finally, you may comment in any way you find appropriate by the apparent method below. If you don't want to log in to comment the just choose "Name/URL" from the drop down and fill out your name (you can leave URL blank).

I'd also like to issue this disclaimer: I have never blogged before and rarely read other blogs. This means my blog may not be very blogish. Some days I may talk about how lovely the weather is and other days I may just post a picture of a guy with a crazy hat with a caption: "guy with a crazy hat". I may have a post describing the color of dirt  or no posts at all. What I'm trying to say is this... I have no idea what I'm doing.

Hello World!

This will be my main form of communicating to the masses (yes, I use the phrase liberally) while in Ghana. Check back closer to Jan 22 for more posts.