More of today's photos in slideshow section 2 - click HERE to view.
(back-dated post, completed July 19)
This morning, we enjoyed breakfast with Uncle P – it was a buffet, and turns out it was included with the hotel room. Yum! They didn’t have any local foods on it, though.
Next, we left for Kakum National Park. It started raining as we were driving. We passed numerous people, mostly women, walking along the roads with huge (up to about 4 feet diameter) aluminum platters piled high with fruit or other goods. Some were even carrying loads of wood, or huge (50-lb or so) sacks of food. We passed SO many God-named shops, again.
We arrived at Kakum while it was raining heavily. We browsed in the gift shop, where they had interesting African instruments and bracelets, and also some of the tote bags I had read about, made from trash! They take labels from discarded juice or water packets, and sew them together into bags. A neat idea, as it cleans up the area, gives Ghanaians some pay (to pick up the labels), and makes a great conversation piece for visitors. When the rain let up, we headed onto the trail following the tour guide. We weren’t following her for long, as I had to stop to rest at every set of benches along the way. The hike was on rock-covered steps mostly – sort of like cobblestones, but protruding and very irregular. Tough to walk on! And the steps were exhausting. I think Uncle P said we had to climb 300 feet or so. He thinks the Canopy Walkway is about 40 meters high at the highest point. Wow! We finally reached the Canopy Walkway entrance. It was amazing just to look at – narrow wooden planks (no more than a foot wide) supported by some metal rods, and rope walls along the way. It bounced and shook with every step. There were 7 walkways total, the 3rd being the longest. One of the walkways was attached to a mahogany tree – Uncle P showed me the powdery red beneath the bark. He says they will use that to strengthen the blood – apparently has a lot of folic acid in it. Wow, he is a fountain of amazing information! It started raining heavily again while we were up there. So, we were in the rain, in the rain forest. Very appropo. We didn’t see many animals – just a hard-working colony of black ants forming a high-speed two-lane highway, as well as a couple of large centipedes (or millipedes – I’m not sure.) When we finished the walkway, the hike back down was much easier. On the way down, we met some other obrunis who offered us a piece of their fresh cocoa pod. You take a seed covered in white slimy stuff, suck the white stuff off, and spit out the seed. It tasted nothing like chocolate – actually very yummy and fruity – much like strawberries or something! To make the cocoa as we know it, the seeds have to dry and be pounded into powder. Very interesting – I’d love to see the process. We took a picture of the girl’s cocoa pod (and she took one of my girls holding it), then bought our own cocoa pod. We also bought a bottle of fresh honey, “straight from the bush,” as our coordinator said. They were also selling palm wine. I figured I’d better try it – the first sip tasted pretty good, but each sip afterward tasted nastier, so I only had a few sips before I decided to give up and throw it out next chance I got. (Later, after more sightseeing, when the palm wine had been sitting in the hot car, the smell was a horrible, nauseating stench!) Oh well, I had to try. I had read about it, and it’s often called “libations” and used in religious ceremonies.
As we drove back toward Elmina, we passed a trader holding up the coveted grasscutter. It was huge – much larger than I thought. Probably two feet long! Uncle P has talked about grasscutter, and how delicious it is – so prized, it is often for the chiefs. He gets a dreamy look in his eye when talking about them. (Of course, he also talks about how delicious roasted maggots from palm trees are…ewwww!) Anyway, seeing his mouth water over it as we passed, I decided to buy him a grasscutter as a gift. We didn’t buy that one, but he said we’ll pass some on our way back to Accra next week. He was so happy and excited about it! So, I get a picture to remember, and he gets a lovely dinner – I guess the equivalent of filet mignon(?). They are about 20 cedis apiece – not bad, actually, for so much meat. Well worth the price to me to see him so happy. He’s an amazing, and extremely nice man. We feel so safe with him looking after us.
Next stop was Elmina castle. Probably the most powerfully moving historical site I have ever been to, and could ever imagine. You can still smell the stench of human waste in the dungeon rooms that held hundreds of slaves packed in so tightly they couldn’t move to get to the “toilet” containers. Everyone on the tour was holding their noses. Our guide also put us in the actual cells the slaves were held in when they tried to escape, and shut the door on us. Those few moments gave us time to think and experience – and imagine the horror. The slaves who tried to escape were put into that cell (with a skull and crossbones over the door) until they were dead. The female slaves were sometimes called upon to be raped by the governor in his bedroom upstairs. They would put several in the central area he would look down and pick one, then she would clean up at the cistern (having had no washing since arrival), and be taken up the stairs to the governor’s bedroom to be raped. If she resisted, she would be chained with both feet to cannonballs in the central area, in the hot sun, with no food and water. At the top of the castle were two cells that were for “special guests” – a king of Ghana was held in one for four years before being shipped elsewhere, and another held the queen mother of Kumasi, who when all the men had left, fought the British by herself. She was imprisoned for it, and Uncle P says that for this, she has become an icon to women. I don’t think one can leave Elmina Castle (St. George’s Castle) unchanged. I felt the need to hold hands with my girls and pray, so we did. After the tour, we visited the castle bookshop – I found several African children’s books, a Ghanaian cookbook (Yay!), a small Ewe handbook, and more. They also had a craft shop, where I bought a pair of elephant bookends.
Finally out of cedis and hungry, we headed back to the hotel. I was absolutely drenched with sweat! Oh well, I’m getting used to it. We found that our dear housekeeper, Aba, had again adorned our beds with beautiful, fresh flowers! We’re being treated like royalty! I was exhausted, so I had to lie down until dinner. The girls played quietly. We had dinner under one of the huts nearest to the beach. There was a fairly strong wind, and huge waves. So beautiful! I had Gari Foto – cassava grains fried in tomato sauce (spicy!), served with black-eyes peas. The cassava grains were kind of the consistency of cornmeal – dry! But, when eaten with some beans, actually pretty good. I’m sure looking forward to having red-red again, though. I had flambed pineapple for dessert. While we waited for the food, the girls played in the sand, built a sand-nest, and ran around laughing. I just love it! People were smiling at them.
The girls are now playing with Kosi’s doll that I made for her. She has been showing us the proper method of baby-backing. She is an adorable little mommy! She put the baby on Lydia’s back, too – and now Lydia is giving Kosi a piggy-back ride.
I talked with Akos a bit today about hair in the US – and that a lot of girls have long hair. I made sure to tell her that she is beautiful just the way she is, with her hair short or long, brown, black, or purple, etc. I asked whether she wanted her hair to stay short like it is – she said no. I asked her if she wanted to try braids – she grinned and nodded. So, Uncle P says we can have her hair checked in Accra to see if her hair is long enough to attach braids to. His wife has braids – he says it is much more economical.
While we were at dinner, Akos grabbed my phone and said,” Give my Daddy’s number.” She misses Daddy, she says. She is very eager to talk to Elena, too. I called Lya today – turns out it’s her birthday! She got to say hi to Kosi, too.
Oh, almost forgot another interesting thing – as we arrived back at the hotel, Uncle P discussed his schedule – he’s leaving tomorrow am, and will pick us up on Thursday. The reason he needs to leave tomorrow is that one of his friends is “knocking” tomorrow morning. That is a tradition in which the man brings a bottle of schnapps to the girl’s home, tells the parents he has seen a beautiful girl in their house and that he would like to marry her. They give him a list of things to do and buy for the wedding. If they accept the bottle, they will not drink it, but will save it. If he misbehaves before the wedding, they will send it back to him. I remember reading about this before – I couldn't catch everything Uncle P was saying, and will have to read more about it. I love these traditions! ☺
I can’t wait to come back here, and to bring Don. He actually surprised me and said he wants to go – strange, since he didn’t want to go on this trip…but I guess when it’s more for learning than for the technical processes of adoption, etc., it’s more appealing. He is interested in photography opportunities, as am I. I really want to capture some of the essence of the people here – the way they can be so friendly, and happy, when they have so little and struggle so much. The way they work so hard, carrying heavy loads on their heads in the hot sun, with a baby on the back through it all. I want to take photos of the things that are strange to us, like all the god-type shop names, etc. I also want to capture the looks in the eyes of the children – especially the poor in the slums and villages. I also want to come back with things for the hospitals and orphanages, as well as try to get AZT for Adam’s orphanage in the Volta region.
Speaking of Volta region reminded me – some of what Uncle P has done is to guide people who are trying to trace their family histories – he talked about one man who had undergone DNA testing and found that he was descended from people of the Volta region. He said that he took the man to Volta region, and when he saw that everyone looked like him, he just cried.
He also talked of a woman who was cursed by someone in a village for shoplifting something – the man didn’t want money, he wanted justice. Uncle P had tried to pay him for the item, which the woman denied taking. But instead of taking it, he cursed her – he said she would poo-poo all over herself in a public place. Sure enough, she did, on that very trip. It was a quiet ride home in the bus! Uncle P said that a couple of years later, she came back, alone. She told him that she had a problem with stealing (kleptomania, I presume), and had lost her husband and all her friends because of it. But, after the village man cursed her in that way, she never did it again. She came back to thank him for saving her life, and brought him $200 as a thank-you gift. Amazing!
A long post for a long day...
Jeanie
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