A post I meant to post two weeks ago...

Well this was supposed to be an honest blog, so I'm about to vent some things. Please bear in mind however that I am very happy being here and feel absolutely safe and definitely would not rather be in England.

Things I am sick of after a week:
A wardrobe of 10 items
It being considered rude if you don't stop to speak to everybody who says Hi in the street
The same people wanting your phone number as if you were suddenly great friends
Rice, fried chicken, tomato paste
Dirt.

Things I miss already:
Vegetables
Make up
Hair conditioner and mousse (I look like I've been electrocuted. Brief interesting story - a bunch of volunteers were watching rip off DVDs one night last week and the owner of the laptop we were using went to plug it in an got electrocuted, comic style, literally went up in the air and back down onto the floor for quite a few minutes. He's fine.)
Personal space
Musical instruments I rarely touch.

I'm figuring that if these things are bothering me so soon that within another week or so I'll just become desensitised. I hope.

So other than that.... I had a great weekend. We somehow did not get on the nice comfy spacious and air conditioned ford 4x4 to Cape Coast but instead got on a two and a half hour tro tro ride. Some tro tros I've been in this would not bother me but in this case the space between the back of my seat and the seat in front of me was less than the measurement from my hip to my thigh. Which got beyond uncumfortable, to painful, to numb within about 30 minutes. But this was all made worth it by our arrival at a gorgeous guesthouse which was right on the beach, palm trees abounding, and even some other Obronis. Many of them were volunteers as well away for the weekend, and it turns out we have the best accomodation with electricity, ceiling fans and running water. Its certainly made the transition very comfortable.

We visited the castle. It was a bizarre experience. The holding cells still have a terrible stench about them. Its incredibly hard to grasp what went on there. I find it very hard to comprehend that  people were able to behave the way they did, or even that it was considered acceptable for so long. the castle didn't upset me as much as a display at the Ghana national museum that we had seen during the previous week. In the cabinet was information about the slave trade, artists impressions and some pieces of elaborately decorated plates which the Europeans had. Somehow the shock of the life we were living off the backs of other people, when most Ghanaians now don't have plates like that made me angry. When I asked the guide if it made her angry she just shrugged, smiled, and said it was just part of their history which they shouldn't forget. To my surprise I just totally welled up right in the museum. What makes the castle even more bizarre is the parade of brightly coloured shops selling brightly coloured gifts made by bright and colourful and cheery and friendly Rastas right outside.

In the evening we had a lovely dinner at the guesthouse and watched an astonishing African drum and dance group. We met up with some of our new Rasta friends who tried to teach us to play African drums and a xylophone on the beach. When that failed they lined up the three Obroni (we had adopted a rather worse for wear Aussie), and facing us, tried to teach us African dances. I would have loved to have been an onlooker.

We got up early on Saturday to visit Kakum national park to walk through the forest canopy on a rope bridge 40m high suspended between 7 trees. I am usually happy with hights but this was so unstable that even when we were back on solid ground I felt dizzy and had sealegs. Pretty amazing sights though. We hopped in a taxi with some brits and went to touch crocodiles at a crocodile sanctuary, an experience I did not take much pleasure in and would not go out of my way to do again.

Having had enough of the touristyness and the amazing helpfulness of our new friends we escaped 15Km down the coast to Elmina, which hosts another slave trading castle. The town is a huge fishing town and walking around the castle there are long wooden fishing boats as far as the eye can see, all with brightly coloured flags and people being busy. We didn't want anymore busyness so we went to our new beach hut hotel - which we had to ourselves - and crashed in hammocks. We attempted a swim, but before we got knee deep got hit by pieces of wood with rusty nails sticking out of them so abandoned that plan. It was really fantastic to just get some peace and quiet, a sea breeze and clean air. I knew Accra was dirty and noisy and smelly and hot, but it didn't hit me quite how much until we weren't there.

We managed to get the nice, comfy, air conditioned 4x4 Ford back home.