In Cape Coast, Ghana!
We arrived in Accra last Wednesday night, to be met at the airport by two different people - friends of Sean's parents (who lived in Ghana for 7 years) who were excited to welcome us warmly. We were in Accra for 4 days, staying at the home of the SIT (School for International Training) director and employees. A couple of people there, Yemi and Yaw, were especially wonderful in teaching us how to get around the big confusing city - definitely a skill to learn in a city with almost no street signs! We visited the National Museum, the huge Makola Market, the University, and many points in between. And packed in a number of visits to Bowditch family friends who were overjoyed to see Sean all grown up and meet the new Mrs. Bowditch.
We are now in Cape Coast, where Sean lived for two years as a teenager. It is an amazing place - hot, alive, and colorful. Again, there are many people here who are very excited to welcome us home. People are so friendly and helpful, and always love it when Sean speaks to them in Fante. I've learned a few words, but tomorrow we're both going to start a few days of language classes so even I will be able to impress folks! I've tried and liked many Ghanaian foods - fufu, banku (which I liked better), peanut oil soup with goat, jollof rice, roasted plaintain and groundnuts (peanuts), plaintain chips, and, of course, Club beer. I'm learning to pace myself in the heat, and carry a sweat kerchief in hand for frequent dabbing, and take cold showers several times a day.
We just visited the Cape Coast Castle, which served as one of the hubs for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is quite chilling and horrifying to see the site, and to be reminded of what humans can do to other humans. And, I am afraid with current events, still do.
Pictures will probably not be posted until next week...Thanks for reading!-Nancy
We are now in Cape Coast, where Sean lived for two years as a teenager. It is an amazing place - hot, alive, and colorful. Again, there are many people here who are very excited to welcome us home. People are so friendly and helpful, and always love it when Sean speaks to them in Fante. I've learned a few words, but tomorrow we're both going to start a few days of language classes so even I will be able to impress folks! I've tried and liked many Ghanaian foods - fufu, banku (which I liked better), peanut oil soup with goat, jollof rice, roasted plaintain and groundnuts (peanuts), plaintain chips, and, of course, Club beer. I'm learning to pace myself in the heat, and carry a sweat kerchief in hand for frequent dabbing, and take cold showers several times a day.
We just visited the Cape Coast Castle, which served as one of the hubs for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is quite chilling and horrifying to see the site, and to be reminded of what humans can do to other humans. And, I am afraid with current events, still do.
Pictures will probably not be posted until next week...Thanks for reading!-Nancy
posted by Nancy at 9:39 AM
1 Comments:
Wow, you 2! Imagining you both in our old home town brings back such a flood of memories and feelings. I am delighted, jealous of the great many Club Beers you have consumed without me and amazed at the many, many reconnections you've made with our lives there in the early 1990s.
Sean, Susie and I lived in a house on a hill overlooking Cape Coast Castle. Every morning I would walk out on the balcony, stare at this huge World Heritage Monument--built in the late 1600s & early 1700s; British seat of Government for their Gold Coast Colony; with its almost unimaginably horrific slave holding dungeon--and be overwhelmed by emotion as I reflected on the extraordinary impact on world history and current events of decisions that were taken inside those walls 300 years ago! As the Ghanaians say, "Travel safely". Love, Dad, Nate.
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