Cape Coast!!

Hi everyone!!

Our trip to Cape Coast was awesome!!!!! We ended up going to Kakum National Park yesterday in the afternoon. We took a pretty quick hike up to the top of this huge hill where the canopy walk began. The canopy walk is a series of very very narrow wooden bridges held up between trees by rope. As you can imagine they are at the canopy level of the rainforest, so when I gathered up the nerve to look around I was literally looking down at the tops of the trees. It was SO cool!!! It was pretty scary at first but after a few bridges (there are 7 or 8 total) I got a little more comfortable. You did have to be careful to step in the middle because if you put too much weight on one side it would kind of start to lean over, which was pretty scary! Supposedly they can hold up to 8 tons, though!!! I didn’t take very many pictures because I don’t have a draw string on my camera and I was afraid of dropping it! It would be a very long way down! 

After the park we went to a really nice hotel!  The rooms were simple, with two beds in each one pushed up right next to each other! I roomed with my same roommate from here so that was nice. There was a lake thing around the restaurant with crocodiles in it!!! And some of them were just hanging out by the side.. we saw one lady that was sitting on one!!! And there were SO many birds!!! They were all chirpin away, making there little spherical nests. It was actually really cool to see, I kind of felt like I was watching a nature video or something. It took way over an hour for us to get our food so we did a lot of hanging out in the meantime. Then we ate and after we played cards, listened to a live band and went swimming in the pool! It was all really really fun! But the best part of the hotel came in the morning.. a hot shower!!! I was so happy! I just stood under the hot water for a little bit taking it all in! It was glorious!

This morning we went to Cape Coast Castle, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had. It was used by the British during the slave trade to house the captured Africans before shipping them to the Americas. We got a tour of the dungeons where they kept the slaves and got to see the cells where the troublemakers were sent. There was a tiny room for the women that resisted getting rape and a bigger room for the men that had tried to run away or had tried to rebel. In the room for the men they fit 50 people and there were no windows or anything, just a concrete room with 3 shut doors. The men in there weren’t fed or given water and no one was taken out until all 50 had died. We went inside and felt the stuffiness in the room. Our guide turned the light off to give us a better idea of what it would have been like in there (he didn’t shut the door, thankfully). It was extremely powerful. Knowing that countless people had needlessly died in that room, under such terrible conditions, it was hard to even comprehend. Even though it is so sad, I am glad I got to see it.. it’s a whole different thing to be there and see it than to read about it in a book.

We got back to campus this afternoon and I went for a run! I kind of felt like a blob after sitting so long on the bus! So I ran a little, but not much since I am not exactly in shape. At night we went to eat at the night market! I got an egg sandwich that was pretty tasty! I also bought fresh pineapple from an adorable little girl named Rita. I’ll have to get a picture of her soon because she’s precious! Tomorrow I am going to Mass and then going to try to find the gym! Yeah! And the definitely need to figure out where my classes are seeing as how they’re supposed to start on Monday.. haha.