Some awesome excursions

I have only been here for a little over 2 weeks and have done SO much!  Aside from spending time volunteering, running errands, and trying to figure out the whole school thing (which has proven to be very difficult), here are some photos of the awesome things I've done so far...

I went to Kakum National Park, which is pretty close to Cape Coast.  It had some of the coolest trees I have ever seen!  There were lots of different kind, many that were hundreds of years old, and some that were absolutely ginormous!

 

I went with the international students the first time... 

 And the ProWorld people the second time.

 There is a canopy walkway that stretches about 350m.  It is 7 or 8 lengths of walkway connected by tree platforms...it is pretty high up, pretty shaky, and pretty much awesome.  The view was absolutely spectacular!

Afterward, we ProWorld folks went to a monkey sanctuary.  These people from Holland came to Ghana and built the place from scratch.  People bring hurt animals or baby animals that have no parents in to this husband and wife who then raise the animals!  Sometimes they let them go when they are healthy enough or old enough.  The women was very funny...kinda crazy...she keeps the real little babies in her bathroom!

They also had turtles!  And some sort of wild cat, alligators (or crocs maybe), and a little anteater!  It was a very cool place with a beautiful view over the African bush!

Elmina Castle is one of the slave castles on the coast of Ghana.  This particular one is over 500 years old.  It has a very rich history and was inhabited by many different countries throughout its years.  Unfortunately, many Africans were captured and kept here before they were traded off to other countries.  It was a very cool place to visit, but it was hard to hear about the brutality that took place there.  There is this awesome fishing port right next to it.  Here you can see some of the boat - they are very colorful!

This is a picture of inside the walls.  The building towards the left was one of the 2 churches they had.  The slanted piece of wall was built to reinforce the structure and was later used as a training activity for the British soldiers (because after the slave trade was ended, the British used this facility as a soldier training camp).  The small door at the bottom right was a punishment room for the slaves who fought back for their freedom.  

Here is  me sitting on the castle wall looking all African and beautiful...?  My host sister made this dress for me!  Okay so the ocean used to meet up to the castle wall and ships came right up to load the slaves and other goods, but over time the waters have receded significantly far away from the castle.  The view is phenomenal.

Me and Lucy!  The symbol on the right is the Dutch trading symbol.

So again with ProWorld we had a drumming lesson.  Here is me banging away on my ol' drum.  It was a lot of fun, but I don't think I have a future career in the drumming :-)

And then we danced!  We were taught a traditional African dance.  Again, a lot of fun...but no future here for me :-)

So another ProWorld activity...we went to a town and built stones for a school.  Here the guys are adding water and mixing up the cement.

 Then they shovel the cement/dirt mixture into these metal boxes and patted them flat.

 Then me and Lucy pick them up to unload them next to the others.

 So for about 2 hours we helped them make these bricks to build a bathroom for the students.  It was hard work, but a job well done.  We made about 75 bricks!!!  I later learned it takes about 350 bricks to make a small room...depressing...but at least we made a small impact!

Yesterday, me and Lucy went to watch a football (soccer) game.  My project partner, Nicholas, organized this game for some youth in his town.  Here is a picture of a very crowded and enthusiastic van full of kids.  They sang songs and chants the whole ride to the field!

Action shot.

So as the game was going on, a bunch of little kids came and sat next to Lucy and I.  They were so funny!  At this point, my attention was almost completely off the game and onto watching and interacting with all the kids.

Here is us with just some of the kids!  They were so talkative...asking me questions like, "Do you know what H1N1 is?"  "Have you eaten fufu yet?" "Tell me about America."  And then one kid told me I have big cheeks!  Oh the truth finally comes out!  I told you mom!!!  :-)

I've been to the ocean many times.  There are these huge rocks that the waves splash up against!  It is SO neat to watch.  One day I got a little too close and got totally drenched by this huge wave!  I didn't know what to do with myself!  It was very amusing!

I went to the club with all these fun people!  It was this REALLY nice place...air conditioned and everything!  We had a lot of fun!  The picture is of the ProWorld volunteers and our host brothers or project/volunteering partners.

I've been out to dinner alot with these lovely ladies.  Every Thursday all the volunteers go out to eat with the ProWorld staff.  There are some really tasty places.  The food takes forever to come out...like over an hour at least.  Sometimes it doesn't all come out at once either so sometimes some people are finished before others even get their food!  See the two women on the ends...they have matching party dresses because it was one of their birthdays!  We got a pretty big kick out of it!

Here is my host family before church this past Sunday.  I really enjoy the church service.  There is dancing and singing!  It is mostly done in Fante...so I don't really understand everything they say, but the atmosphere is just great to be in and the music is wonderful!  My host mother is in the blue dress.

This is just really random, but totally worth mentioning.  So one day I went for a walk and came back home to this...my family cutting their grass...with scissors!  I helped them for almost 2 hours and we got their grass looking real nice!  It is funny because I used to cut the grass at my house and pretend I was a hair cutter...never did I think I would have a client with this much hair!

So in conclusion, I have had many excursion thus far.  I have met lots of great people and have experienced many aspects of Ghana!  I definitely plan to continue with all the fun!