Bungle in the Jungle

Well, it seems like it's been forever, but I survived my first week in Ghana. And I think I'm getting into a solid groove... my initial culture shock is wearing down and I'm feeling very upbeat on things. School starts this week and we'll see how I adjust to it.

Even though we had only been here a few days, we decided NOT to play it safe and went out for our first trip this past weekend. Most of the Americans were out on "orientation" that their schools had provided for them, but us Carleton students have been on our own since we got here, so Adrienne, Hannah, Lisa, Meghan and I went for an overnight trip to Cape Coast and Kakum National Park, both a few hours West of Accra.

To get there, we left early Saturday morning to hop a public transit bus (STC) to Cape Coast. When we arrived, we got a taxi driver to take us to the bank and then for a 40-minute ride to Kakum National Park. Unfortunately, our driver, like many in Ghana, was an opportunistic jerk who overcharged us for his services (as we realized on the way back) and even tried to squeeze out a few extra bucks from us when we got there. It's suprising that a country with so many dedicated Christians always seems ready to try and take advantage of you for being foreign. Ah well...

Kakum National Park
We arrived in the afternoon and arranged for a tour guide in the morning. We booked a campsite about 10 minutes away from the headquarters and got some cheap mattresses and mosquito nets. Hannah, Lisa and I decided to go into the neighbouring village to look for food. The children were very receptive and took us around the village to see the goats, trees and food, but the adults seemed wary of us, probably because we were just more obrunis going on safari and then going back home afterwards. Anyways, we went back to the campsite before dark.

Ghana, for those of you playing the home game, doesn't follow daylight savings time, so the sun goes down at around 6:30 and it gets dark quickly. Thus, we had a lot of time to kill before the morning came. So we all sat in a mosquito net and played cards, talked about life, how much we miss our loves. Right now, only a week apart, I'm missing Maleaha like crazy and I know she is missing me. Meghan's partner Garrett is also alone in Ottawa for the next nine months and Lisa's husband Peter is in the same boat as well. In a nutshell, we're all going through some tough withdrawl, but we're helping each other out as best we can, because otherwise, the next nine months are going to be absolutely miserable for us.


Anyways, we went to sleep eventually, as best we could, since there were so many weird noises coming from all around that we were freaking out periodically. We couldn't believe that we were actually spending the night in the jungle alone, with only a mosquito net to protect us (not to mention my great strength, good looks and charm). It was a great feat for us all.

Well, we made it through the night, despite the strange noises, wild animals and unusual chilliness. Our guide, Christian, arrived just after 6AM to take us around. So we hiked first to the canopy walk. Basically, it is a set of giant suspended rope-and-plank bridges and platforms that are as high as 120 feet in the air (thus, we actually walk through the canopy). Since arrived so early, we were the only ones there to enjoy the breathtaking vistas of the rainforest.

Then we went for a two-hour hike through the jungle with Christian, who showed us many of the types of trees and what they are used for (some were cures for headaches, hernias and snakebites, while others were poison for tipping arrows). He showed us bamboo and termite mounds and some of the largest trees I've ever seen. Sadly, we didn't see any monkeys, but we did hear them clearly! After the tour, he got us a cab for less than half the price that we paid to get to the park. First time burned, second time learned, I suppose.

Cape Coast Castle
We arrived in Cape Coast at around 10:30 and since our bus didn't leave until 4, we decided to kill some time at the castle. The castle at Cape Coast is a large, white colonial fortress that was used as the seat of government for hundreds of years in the Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana). However, the basement was of a much more sinister nature: the castle was also the main slave trading hub of West Africa, so the dungeon was a complex that held over 1,500 slaves at one time, before they were shipped to the New World. The castle is at once so very beautiful and so very terrible. I plan on visiting the other castles and forts along the coast of Ghana and perhaps I can speak in more detail on how 25,000,000 men and women were taken prisoner by rival tribes, sold to the Europeans and shipped away in the largest diaspora known to man.

Lunch was had nearby and we walked around Cape Coast for a little while. It is a very pretty town, even for an African one, and I plan on returning some other time (hopefully with Maleaha). The rest of the trip is inconsequential: the bus came very late and wasn't comfortable at all and our backpacks fell out of the back of our taxi on the way back. Whatever. It's good to be back at the Hostel.


Sidenote: Apparently Julianna, a girl at the Hostel, came down with malaria and is now at the hospital. She's only been here for a few days, but she was travelling through West Africa beforehand and probably got it while in the Gambia. Just another reminder of how vulnerable we all really are.