Junie's Online Thoughts
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Boy oh boy, its hot!! I feel like Im continually melting.
Let's see. Im a bit low energy, so this wont be as long as it should be. We drove to Cape Coast to see the slave castle. Due to the set up of the place and renovations in the last decade, its really hard to wrap your head around what it might have been like to live there. I always want to re-do their tours to resemble the Holocaust Museum in D.C. I think the only way to get a feeling of it is to turn it into a slightly traumatic, totally sensory experience. We need to be sorted by gender and size, separated and crowded into the dark dungeons, for them to turn off the lights and let us sit there for ten minutes, then shout and herd us out the door and onto the beach near waiting boats. Its all too hard to even make sense of when you're coming from a background of an easy life without the threat of starvation or torture.
Elmina was a little more tangible...the place was architectually more beautiful, but also more run-down and sinister than Cape Coast. The dungeons themselves were smaller, but ran in adjacent, ever-decreasing sizes so in order to enter the last room, you had to be bent over and blind to what was in front of you. Its all so horrible...the plush expansive governor's quarters on the top floor, and stories of how he used to call up the female slaves so his lieutenants could have their pick of them for the night. Or how he would chain slaves to heavy cannon balls in the hot, hot sun as punishment for revolt.
A storm was approaching, and we really needed a breather.
We drove to Anomabu beach for a day, and then to Kokrobite beach. I got sunburned, the ocean was pretty, we ate well, traffic was unbelieveably bad.
Today we're running errands and prepping for Jeremy's birthday tomorrow. We're visiting the cities of Teshie and Nungua tomorrow, both renowned for their decorative coffin making and a beautiful art gallery nearby. Then we're having dinner at one of the five-star hotels to celebrate Jeremy's thirty-first year on the planet. Such opposites here...it's still a bit weird.
More later...must eat something.
Monday, January 19, 2004
As we finished supper on Friday, BOOM! Lights out. We lit the candles, ate key lime pie, and retreated to the roof of the big house to enjoy the breeze and show Trish the view of Accra. We could easily see the part of the grid that blew a fuse...our immediate neighborhood to the south sat in darkness while the rest of Accra glowed with light. Finally we gave up hoping the lights would miraculously come on, and walked back into the house full of stagnant, muggy HOT air. I havent slept that poorly in a long time. Trish and Jeremy felt the same...tossing and turning all night and sweating too much.
Around 8:30 the next morning, the power came back on. Hooray! After breakfast, we drove to Accra Central to show Trish the vibrant, hectic Makola Market. Always busy on the weekends, the market didnt disappoint. We bought a few fabrics, some clothespins and a bath towel, and then quickly burned out on the crowds and heat. Two blocks up, we enjoyed falafel sandwiches at Lebanon House, then returned home to plan the rest of the day.
We decided to drive up to the Volta Region to the northeast, spend the night, and ride the Dodi Princess boat on Sunday. We made the mistake of not calling ahead at Aylo's Bay, a hotel right on Lake Volta, whose five rooms were full. So we instead stayed down the road at Soundrest Hotel. The rooms were simpler with just a bed and fan, and shared toilets. Despite this, the place was quite nice---clean and brightly lit. We drove back to Aylo's to eat by the water (and be dive bombed by these wormy moth-like bugs summoned by the candlelight). Then we drove back to Soundrest (with only a minor incident when the car stalled in the middle of a turn...but Jeremy got us safely out of harm's way.)
The breakfast the next morning was decent (egg and onion omelets with buttered bread and either tea, coffee or Milo), and after checking out, we weaved though roads surrounded by lush, green trees on the way to the harbor. We were quite early for the boat, so we browsed at a few bead stalls within the parking lot. At around 9 we paid and boarded (around $8 each), picking a seat on the bottom story by the edge. As we pulled out exactly on time at 10:30 am, the house band started playing on the second story--really good, actually, playing pleasing renditions of Lionel Ritchie, Bob Marley and popular Ghanaian pop songs. The boat included three stories, with food and drinks, an air conditioned bar, and a wading pool. Midway along the route, the boat briefly docked at a small island (rumored to only host kids aggressively wanting to be your guide, and small handicrafts.) We stayed on board. By the return trip, the sun and the slatted seats were getting to me, so I laid down on the ground to try to sleep. All in all, the ride took six full hours, and was a lovely way to spend a sunny Sunday.
The car made it there and back without incident (although the blinkers stopped working), and by the time we got back into town it was suppertime. (But I did see Heidi, friend from my previous Ghana time, who is here for two more weeks and staying next door. Hooray!) Unfortunately, our frig stopped working while we were gone, and ants had converged on a bag of peanuts left on our kitchen shelf. I began the bug massacre, spearheaded dinner, and got a little grouchy from the heat. Besides, I hate ants and hate when our appliances break. But dinner was tasty and we just hung out at the house to read.
This morning the electrician arrived and quickly fixed the frig (yay!). By now, our bottle of soy milk from the Chinese restaurant down the street had curdled into tofu. We didnt bother opening it before throwing it in the garbage. I had to kill more ants congregating on our dish rack and drying dishes. ARgh.
Today we're going to get some Ghanaian food for lunch, then maybe visiting either the Nkrumah Masoleum or National Musuem. I think we'll travel this week to either Kumasi or Cape Coast, and hopefully be home in time to go to the beach this weekend to celebrate Jeremy's birthday on Sunday. That next week, we still have to visit the coffin-making village and art gallery in Teshie and Nungua, see the Cultural Center for handicrafts, do a little more fabric and basket shopping, and other odds and ends within Accra. Trish leaves next Thursday, so we've got to still pack in all the fun adventures we can.
Thats it for now. Getting hungry...more later.
