Tro Tros and Fufuo

As anticipated, the 8 days at sea after Morocco brought a lot of drama to everyone cooped up on the ship, so we were all more than ready to debark in Ghana. Our time as tourists was clearly over though - this developing country brought us totally new experiences.

As soon as we got out of the port gates we were swarmed by taxi drivers shouting "Obama! Obama!" They kept grabbing us and trying to get us in their taxi - my friend Biggs was not excited about that. We found a taxi that agreed to take us to an ATM in town. From there, a guide helped us find a "tro tro" headed towards Cape Coast. Tro tros are basically minibus share taxis that leave a station when they're full and then followed a fixed route. They're crowded, hot, and kind of intimidating...but most importantly, they're cheap. We paid the equivalent of $2.50 for an hour long trip to the coastal town of Elmina.

Once we got to Elmina, we made our way to the slave castle. Elmina Castle was built in 1482 by the Portuguese as a trading post, and was the oldest European building below the Sahara. It became an important stop in the Atlantic Slave Trade, which was the focus of our tour that day. The tour guide explained to us that hundreds of slaves were locked into the rooms on the first floor for months at a time, while the governor lived comfortable on the second floor. We stood in some of the rooms where the slaves were kept, and made the walk through the "door of no return" - the door that lead the slaves from the castle to the ships that would take them across the Atlantic. It was an incredibly moving experience.

 

When our tour was over, we stopped for lunch at the restaurant in the castle courtyard. The owner helped us pick out some traditional Ghanaian foods from the menu - banku (cooked corn dough) and fufuo (pounded yam and plantain), served with fish. I didn't ask too many questions about what I was eating, but it was pretty delicious.

We were pretty worn out after our late lunch, so we took a tro tro back to Takoradi and walked around the central market for a while before heading back to the ship for dinner.

The next day we decided to take things easy and had a taxi driver take us to a local beach. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and the water was perfect. After an hour or so of us having the whole beach to ourselves, some local kids showed up to check out the white people swimming in their backyard. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the beach with them. We taught one of the girls how to swim, and learned that two of them were refugees from the Ivory Coast.

         

That night the ship made its way down the coast of Ghana to Tema, an industrial city. Because there wasn't much for us to do in Tema the ship had a shuttle to take us to Accra, which is one of the largest cities in Ghana. Except there wasn't much to do there either. I spent the morning walking around the business district, and the afternoon doing some shopping in the market.

     

Around 4, John and I took a taxi back to Tema, where we met up with a group of people to go out to celebrate Biggs' 21st birthday. We spent a casual night at a local hotel's bar overlooking the ocean.

My last day in Ghana I had a field lab for my public health class. We took a bus to the medical school in Accra, where we listened to lectures from the professors about the current status of public health in Ghana. Not the most exciting field lab, but I actually really enjoyed learning about it all. The morning sessions were followed by a traditional Ghanaian lunch with rice, chicken, and fried plantains. Then we took a bus tour of the Accra hospital before heading back to the ship.

We've been at sea for about a week now, but tomorrow we get to Cape Town! Also, I currently have straight As in all my classes (even after midterms) so YAY FOR ERIN!!

Casablanca and Marrekech

Morocco was quite an experience. The day before we got to the port we spent a lot of time in the Union learning about cultural expectations and taboos of the Islamic country. Despite all of the preparation, we still weren't really sure what to expect. So once we were in port, a group of us set out without much of a plan. Our goal was to get an idea of what was in Casablanca and to get a taste of the culture.

 

We found a huge market almost immediately after getting off the ship. It was the size of several city blocks and the vendors sold everything - shampoo, sunscreen, food, clothes, shoes. The only problem is I was expected to bargain and I am TERRIBLE at that. I have no idea what something should cost me and I'm always afraid of insulting the person selling it to me. Oy. Stressful. Thankfully, my friends taught me some tricks so I was able to buy some great things without getting too ripped off.

After some shopping, we decided to take a break from the heat in a cafe. We had been told that women don't usually socialize in public, so it took us a while to find a place that looked like it would be appropriate for us to go to.

The culture shock had been a lot for us that first day, so we made it back on the ship before dinner. We spent the rest of the night wearing our new outfits and reflecting on the day's experiences.

Since Casablanca wasn't a very exciting city, a group of us decided to head to Marrakech for a couple of days. We set out early in a taxi on the second morning. It may have been the most stressful 20 minutes of my life - apparently road lines are just a suggestions and Casablanca has no actual driving laws. Traffic was CRAZY. When we finally made it to the train station, I said a quick prayer of thanks and then boarded a hot train for the four hour trip to Marrekech.

Once we reached our destination, we asked for directions to the market where our hostel was located. We were told it was a 45 minute walk, and since we're poor college students we decided against a taxi. Bad life choice considering the heat, humidity, and heavy bags we were carrying. "Melting" took on a whole new meaning during that trek across the city.

When we finally got to the market we realized it was made up of winding alleys and unmarked roads.  Thank goodness for the man who offered to lead us to the hostel - we would have been lost for hours. We stayed in a private room at a place called Rainbow Marrekech. It was covered in all kinds of colorful art, and our room was right off the rooftop terrace.

 

After checking in, John, Biggs, and I decided to go back out to explore the market. We did some shopping and were trying to figure out how to get back to the hostel when a guy about our age told us to follow him to the dyers' market. Then he started to lead us through back alleys, away from the tourists, through the metal workers' district. I was busy making sure I was flanked by the boys in case we got mugged, when all of a sudden the guy we were following looked back at us and then ran off. I swear I thought he had led us into a trap and we were about to be kidnapped...no bueno. Another guy came forward to usher us into a secluded courtyard. Since we were surrounded by a bunch of men, we had no choice but to follow. But then the guy brought out his different dyes and started explaining how each was made. It was pretty cool and not at all terrifying. He taught us how to tie a scarf for protection against sand in the Sahara. John bought a beautiful gold and purple silk scarf from him as an early birthday present for me.

We met back up with the rest of the group at the hostel so that we could all go out to dinner together. They had met a man who owned a restaurant stall in the market earlier that day, so we were there for chicken, couscous, and mint tea. YUM. As we were finishing, an old lady came up to our table and started pointing at John's chicken bones while speaking Arabic. When she realized we couldn't communicate with her, she stuck her hands into John's couscous and took his chicken bones. We all just started laughing because we had no idea how to respond to that.

   

After dinner, we spent a while just walking around the market area. The sun had been set for a while but street vendors were just setting up their goods to sell. There were so many people out and the energy was incredible. We made it back to the hostel just before midnight and sat on the roof playing cards until we were completely worn out.

Early the next morning I woke up to the sound of the call to prayer. I sat in bed listening to it before falling back asleep. It was a pretty awesome experience.

Once we were all up, we had breakfast at the hostel - 5 different kinds of bread and mint tea - before checking out. The market wasn't in full swing yet, so we walked across the Medina to the mosque, and then to camels for a brief photo shoot. Then we sat for a cold soda while Jordan and Aileen did some last minute bargaining at the market. When they were finished, we made our way back to the train station, where we grabbed McDonald's for lunch (so cultural, I know) before boarding a 12:30 train back to Casablanca.

We made it back to the ship just in time for a quick, much-needed shower before dinner. Then John, Steven, Carly, Aileen, and I decided we wanted to see if we could find something to do on our last night in Casablanca. So we left the port area and walked to a hotel, where we asked for a suggestion. They got us a taxi and sent us to a fancy hookah bar. There's a possibility that it was also a brothel, but let's not worry about that. We were there for a few hours before taking a taxi back to the ship.

Our last day in Casablanca was pretty low key. We started by walking across the city to the Hassan II Mosque. It's currently the second biggest mosque in the world, but it's going to be gone within the next fifty years because of erosion of the coast. We walked around it for a while - absolutely gorgeous.

   

 

We made one last stop at the market before going back to the ship. Once we left port, we were on our longest stretch yet - 8 days at sea! Just enough time for us all to get sick of each other before getting to Ghana.

¡España!

Cadiz is a gorgeous little beach town on the coast of southern Spain. We only had two days there, and we spent most of our time exploring the Old City.

    

On Day 1, we left at 9:30 to walk the 10 minutes to the city center. Because nothing actually opened until 10, we spent some time walking by the water before we could buy tickets to climb up the tower of the Cathedral. It's the highest point in Cadiz, so we could see everything from there. Such a beautiful city, even when it's rainy.

  

  

After climbing the tower, we went into the actual Cathedral. There were alcoves dedicated to different saints, each beautifully decorated.

         

Next we went to see some Roman ruins, where I got to touch a wall that's older than Jesus Christ.

      

We spent the rest of the morning wandering around the city before the rain got to bad and he had to take refuge. It wasn't too upsetting though, because our refuge included churros and hot chocolate. YUM.

That afternoon we walked along the water to an old castle. We couldn't go inside, but it was nice to be on the beach.

   

Jordan, Aileen, and I went out for a late dinner that night. We found a fantastic place in a little side street, where we got delicious tapas and sangria. I had pork in a black pepper sauce, with a hot chocolate tart and vanilla ice cream for dessert. MORE YUM. A+ to Spain for the food.

The next morning, some of us hung out at a cafe, watching the Spanish news about the government shutdown. I think the fact that the Spanish were just as upset about it as we were shows how far our government reaches around the world. As a government nerd, that made an impact on me.

For lunch that afternoon, we headed to the local fish market. It had five long rows of stalls selling all kinds of fish, fruits, and vegetables. My mom would have been in Heaven with all the fresh food. We got some crepes and oranges, and sat at table to watch the action for a while. When the late afternoon heat began to set in, we decided to head back to the ship before we melted. But don't worry...there was one last stop for frozen yogurt.

  

Overall, Cadiz was more of a relaxation port than anywhere else we've been so far. It was kind of nice to be able to hang out at a cafe and not feel guilty about missing out on something. I think it was a good wrap-up to Europe before heading off to Africa!