Yesterday was a long day.  Our original plans were to go to the bead village in Koforidua (Eastern Region) which is only about 1 1/2 hour drive but Lawson felt that Saturday was a better day to go to Cape Coast and Kakum National Park in the Central Region. We left the school by 6:30 a.m. to head to Kakum.  As usual, all travel in this part of Ghana depends on traffic.  Saturday is "market day" so there was a lot of traffic most of the way.  The drive down was entertaining in some ways.  There are so many people out selling their goods on the sides of the roads.  There are almost as many people walking up and down the lines of traffic selling peanuts, cloth, clocks, windshield wiper blades, plantains, apples, rags, water, biscuits, shrimp, bowfloat (yummy!), bread, wooden carvings, bracelets, among many other items.  On our way down we bought bowfloat --kind of like a fried corn dough that is a little sweet but very heavy.  It reminded me a dense donut.

It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get to Kakum National Park.  We arrived just before several bus loads of students arrived so it was very good timing.  We only had to wait about 20 minutes for our Canopy Tour. I am afraid of heights so this was a challenge for me.  I wanted to enjoy it enough to take pictures and view the rainforest.  I was worried I'd be in a panic just trying to get myself across the rope suspension bridges.  I did fine actually.  I did all 7 bridges and was able to get many pictures.  Auntie Yei is in the picture below.  She is the House Manager at the school.  She takes care of the whole house and all of the children....cleaning the house, bathing the children, washing clothes, etc.  She has a big job and does it very well!

We spent about 2 hours at Kakum.  It was plenty of time to do the walk and take a rest with a drink of fresh coconut milk.

The next stop was Cape Coast.  It was about 40 minutes to drive to Cape Coast from Kakum.  The town is so interesting.  It has mountains on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.  The instant we got out of the car we were mobbed by young men selling bracelets.  They asked our names and wrote our names on paper.  They showed us bracelets they make. They use black, yellow, red, and green thread to weave names in to a bracelet.  We ordered some.  They were 5 bracelets for 20 cedis (to pay later after the tour). It was pretty amazing, at the end of the castle tour the young men were back with the finished bracelets! They are a great souvenirs with a story to back it up.

The tour of the slave castle was eerie, gruesome, sad, unbelievable...very hard to imagine people being held there and shipped away from their homes (if they survived).  The tour guide gave very specific details on what happened to the people when they were brought there.  We walked into the dungeon called the "room of no return" ..this is were the slaves were sent out of a small opening in the castle wall directly onto boats that would take them to slave ships. 

The castle tour allows pictures to be taken if you pay extra money.  The charge helps to maintain the castle and hire tour guides.  I bought the extra pass.  From the top of the castle I was able to get some beautiful shots of the surrounding town and fishing boats.

water well

Jared walks into the "room of no return"

The guide closed us inside this cell. If a man was condemned to this cell for crimes he committed he was left here to die (no food or water)

Men building a fishing boat

Market place in the distance

Looking out a castle window at the ocean and fishing boats...almost looks like a painting

This is the man who made our bracelets

Virginia's new home!  We saw this sign when we were on our way to see Lawson's cousin

The ride home from Cape Coast was a combination of dreadful and hysterical.  There was so much traffic but Lawson managed to carve his own little road (off road) to cut 20 miles off of the traffic jam. We were literally on a dirt road (not really a road). The funniest thing happened, a tro tro in front of us stops abruptly and the driver jumped out and ran to the back of the van to look under it...he looked around and saw an exhaust pipe on the dirt road behind him.  He lost the exhaust on the bumpy off road ride.  We couldn't stop laughing. He grabbed the pipe and hopped back into the van!  It was hysterical.

It took us 4 1/2 hours to get home.  We were losing our sense of humor along the way.  But when we arrived in Accra, the biggest pet peeve of Lawson kept occurring...the window washers were in full swing.  Everytime we stopped in traffic, the window washers would converge on the car.  Lawson turned on his windshield wipers and reprimanded the people for doing it without asking.  During the crazy encounters, Rebecca got 2 marriage proposals.  She was offered money (the young man handed her cedis) and he said "take this money, I want you to marry me."  The next window washer said, "I want to marry you. God must have spent a lot of time creating you. I will search the world until I find you.  I will buy you a black Ford Expedition and a Jaguar."  We were so tired from the travel we just laughed and laughed.  It was good fun. 

Today we spent at the school with the students.  We needed the full day to recover from the previous day adventure.