Back to Ho

This weekend, we're going back to Ho to paint one of the school buildings of the Vision School.  ALSO, I finally somewhat finished the new Victoria Project website, although I'm always finding little things that still need to be changed. I also sent in this other article that's been put up on the website, and there are more pictures to be inserted along with the text soon. We're leaving after breakfast : )

Dieses Wochenende gehen wir wieder nach Ho um Victoria zu besuchen, und ein noch farbloses Gebäude der Vision School zu streichen. In Rosa, natürlich : ) Am Sonntag ist auch ein Feiertag hier, also geht´s erst wieder am Dienstag auf die Arbeit. Als ich etwas kränklich 

diese Woche in meinem Bett lag und meinen Kalender auswendig lernte um zu sehen wie lange ich mich noch mit Mückenstichen rumkämpfen muss, hab´ ich festgestellt dass ich in schon knapp 5 Wochen ins Flugzeug nach Deutschland reisen werde! Und dann natürlich gleich wieder in eins nach Instanbul ; ) 

In Ho haben wir wahrscheinlich wieder kein Internet also werde ich erst am Montag oder Dienstag alles berichten können. Dieses Mal will ich mich auch mit Victoria unterhalten um ein Schulfest für die Kinder vor den Sommerferien zu planen. 

Cape Coast

We caught the sunrise

Two and a half hours later, we got to Cape Coast (record timing) and found our hotel

Cape Coast is one of the first cities settled by colonizers, and used to be the capital of Ghana when Ghana was still called the Gold Coast. It´s not the capital anymore, but a lot of the colonial infrastructure remains. 

We first decided to head to the city´s infamous Slave Castle, where Africans from all parts of West Africa were held before being auctioned and shipped to the Americas. On the way we saw some people sweeping the street...which we thought was kind of weird.

It later turns out that they were part of an organization that had organized a project to paint some cool blue fish on the street

It further turned out that the fish were meant as a walkway for children going to school in the morning to ensure that they would get there safely. It looked nice

Before we got to the castle, we were distracted by the beach

I love the ocean

We climbed on the rocks

Played in the water

I tried to carry some plantain chips on my head

We met up with Miss Emma Lalley´s friend Elena from Occidental!

Then we headed to the castle

It was difficult to find it beautiful as we heard all about its history

We toured the male and female dungeon. There were no lights, no ventilation, and only a tiny window as a source of light. 1000 slaves were cramped into a tiny space. 

This is the port where ships would load the slaves. The Door of No Return leads out to the port. On the outside, they recently hung up a new sign: The Door of Return

The tour was great. We were also told that the Obamas had visited the castle in 2009 and held a ceremony for some Americans who traced their heritage back to Ghana through this port. Too bad we missed them. Our guide also told us that the castle was also used for prisoners, but that the society decided that it wasn´t right to imprison people there given its history, so they were moved. The next day we headed to the Kakum National Park

The Kakum National Park is a popular tourist spot because of its Canopy Walk. To get to the Canopy Walk, you take a short hike through the rainforest

I love these trees

This was our tour guide. He disappeared once we got to the Canopy Walk, but he brought us there safely

Canopy Walk!

It was love at first sight. Probably one of my favourite experiences in Ghana so far

After a lot of photos, we made it to the end, and headed back down. We found this huge bouquet of bamboo

And this lizard

We were hungry, so we headed to this nearby lodge to eat

<3

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Ok I guess it´s kind of cute

There were a lot of cool birds

This one being my favourite

They petted the crocodile

Back to the beach!

There are always a couple people playing soccer

We got smoothies

I wanted to mix them

We had a big feast to accompany our smoothies and last night in Cape Coast. We encountered a street drum circle. On our way home, we decided to visit Cape Coast again soon

mondays

I´m pretty busy at work these days and haven´t gotten the chance to upload all of the wonderful pictures from my weekend in Cape Coast (partially because the internet stopped working at the office today) but hope to do that very soon. Tomorrow, the Commission is hosting an event for torture victims at the British embassy. Today, Laura Sarah and I shared a Chocolate smoothie.