I was welcomed to the Ghana with the smell of the developing world. A smoke filled my nostrils – a familiar scent. The same as when first leaving the airport in Managua. It is the smoke from small fires – flames at just about every corner that when emitted into the air, provide the aroma and fragrance of the world, developing.
After this welcoming, I ventured from out from our port city, Tema, into the capital, Accra. Only 16 kilometers away, the bus ride took almost two hours. There is a serious lack of infrastructure and the result is an amazing display of traffic. Eventually, I stepped off the bus in Accra and was greeted with an assortment of youth trying to sell whatever goods were in their possession. After a brief walk around Oxford Street, I ventured out to the University of Ghana – Accra. From there, several students and I took a cab several hours away to Cape Coast – a town on the central coach of the country with historic implications.
Our Cape Coast visit including a night’s stay at a crocodile sanctuary. We also visited Kakum National Park for their Canopy Tour as well as two slave dungeons. These slave dungeons were used by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British to round up Africans from all over Western Africa and ship them to the ‘New World’. It was profound touring the spaces. We viewed the rooms they were forced to live in – upon one another in their own feces – and where they were tortured, raped, and beaten. We were also witness to the Door Of No Return. These doors would be opened just before the slaves were guided onto ships headed across the Atlantic. Touching the door and being in these spaces was a harrowing experience.
The next day, with other students, I ventured to a hill-town north of Accra. We visited an absolutely gorgeous botanical garden and experienced a downpour of rain to highlight the rainy season. This enables us to take a put stop at a local restaurant for lunch where we dove into fresh fish and a traditional Ghanaian meal.
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