Do You Remember the Days of Slavery?

We've just returned from our weekend at Cape Coast, and it was quite the amazing time. We had a wide variety of adventures, but the clear standouts were the visits to the slave castles at Cape Coast and Elmina. It was incredibly effecting - seeing the pens in which hundreds of people were held at a time with no light, food, air or water was intense enough, but then seeing the church which was directly above it and the bargaining table at which local chiefs exchanged their own people for guns with which to kill others was an incredibly poignant lesson as to what brutality lies in our past, and indeed what our economy was built on. It was truly intense, and extremely worthwhile.

On the lighter side of things, Cape Coast is absolutely gorgeous. It's all gentle hills dipping toward a beautiful sandy coast, with an intriguing mix of colonial buildings and current shanties. We swam a couple times, which served to remind me of how happy the sea can make me, and was a nice break from the intense cultural/historical experience we've been having. Along the same lines, we visited the national park at Kakum forest, and went on the canopy walk. It wasn't all that different from the one I was on in Peru (the engineering was identical), but it was still incredibly gorgeous and very relaxing.

We also had the luck to be on the street in Cape Coast when Ghana won their first World Cup match ever, and indeed Africa's first match this World Cup, against the Czech Republic. The madness was incredible - people were dancing their hearts out, Taxis covered in people escorted enormous crowds down to the beaches, flags flew everywhere... it was a great time to be had by all, even us foreigners who don't really care all that much about football. Unlike the riotous events of the sort in Croatia, I felt both safe and uplifted there. A great addition to an overall wonderful weekend.

I know all this would be greatly augmented by pictures, but I'm still on a really slow connection so I can't do that. If and when I get to a better internet spot, I'll load some up.

And speaking of different spots, today's our last day in Accra for now. It seems like our time here has been really short, but yet really long. I'm fine with moving on, even though I'd love to see more here - the Volta region awaits.