Five Days in Ghana, Africa

Before arriving in Ghana, Africa I had no expectations. I knew a few things about Africa : there are a lot of blacks, and they aren't called African-Americans, but after that I wasn't sure how they did things here. After five days of mingling with the locals I have to say that they are friendly people who really love Americans.

On our first day we traveled with another couple about 2 hours away to visit the Slave Castles. The first castle (Elmina) was build in 1482 by the Portugese for the spice trade. The castle was used to collect and contain the slaves until they were shipped to Brazil, Indies, US, etc. I was surprised to learn that Brazil was the main destination for the slave trade. What is now the U.S. was the destination for about 5%. We visited another castle called "Cape Coast," which was built later, expressly for the slave trade. Being at the castles and in the dungeons where slaves were held was an eery experience. The kids both enjoyed the castle tours, and both castles are located on beautiful beaches. We spent the night in a low cost hotel to allow for us to visit both castles.

On day three in Ghana we decided to head for a beach we heard about - Busua. We took a taxi ride for about 45 minutes and arrived at the Busua Beach Resort. The resort was huge and included three pools, a large beach front, and an outdoor restaurant. We paid a few dollars and the locals set us up with an umbrella and beach chairs. We all had a great time swimming in the ocean, swimming in the pool, and soaking up the African sun. We went through about two bottles of SPF 50 during the day, but all escaped without any major sunburns. At about 5:30pm we headed back to the ship and got the misfortune of a 2-pac Shakur loving taxi driver. I had never heard 2-pac's songs, but from what I gathered his vocabulary is limited to "Mother Fuc__r." I asked the driver to please turn it down, which he did temporarily until another of his favorite songs came on.

On day four we took a hike in a rainforest on a tour. Our trip leader was great (Jennifer), but this was six hours of riding a bus and 1 hour of hiking. I use the term hiking loosely as with 30 people in a line we would walk 10 steps, view a tree, insect, or listen to a bird, and then repeat this for the 1 hour. There were a lot of interesting trees, and we did see a giant millipede to highlight this day.

On day five we went to a local school/orphanage and played with the students for the day. We started with legos and worked into about 4 hours of soccer. Soccer is the sport in Ghana, and even though we played on a steep cement driveway, they were running full speed in barefeet. William loved playing soccer, and all the students loved Vivian and William. All the students are very friendly, happy, and loved the attention they received. Vivian and William had a good time interracting with the students.

Things I learned in Ghana

• Ghana is "Africa Hot."
• Many locals were mesmerized by William and Vivian and wanted to touch them. ( I don't think they see many white kids here)
• Everything is for sale and has a price.
• Don't give a vendor your name or they will find you with a personalized bracelet, seashell, or t-shirt.
• Millions of loose goats running around and a jungle of vegetation for them to eat.
• Taxi drivers never have more fuel than 1/16th of a tank of fuel.
• Lots of extreme poverty, but the locals seem really happy.