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!!