The Weekend

This weekend a group of eleven of us piled in a van and traveled to Cape Coast. Normally the trip would take about 6 hours but we hit 3 hours of rush-hour traffic in the capital city Accra. Salt Lake rush hour doesn't seem so bad no does it? Basically it is because there are no lanes, people are right up at your window selling things and everyone is trying to just squeeze in. Our trip was made a little longer by our named friend Bruce, a cockroach, who decided to peek out his head and say hello from inside the seat. Yes, mom I did scream and No I couldn't help it. After leaving the house at 12:30 we finally got to the hotel at 10:00. The hotel was called One Africa. It was right on the coast and absolutely beautiful. I also acquired my first Ghanian boyfriend. He was talking to for 20 minutes while my group very politely left me alone to talk to him. He was very sad when I said I was going to go to bed instead of staying up with him...weird :). The next morning we woke up and traveled to Kakum National Park which is a rainforest and went on a canopy walk. There are seven bridges that are built in the canopy of the rainforest. It was absolutely amazing. I took several pictues but words nor pictures can describe how beautiful and crazy it was to walk in the tree tops. Our next stop was Hans Cottage where we got to touch and have a picture with a crocodile. I know scared of a cockroach but want to touch a crocodile. I can't explain it. Of course though when I step off the step to approach the crocodile, he starts crawling toward me so I jumped back on the step. After the crocodile, we traveled to Elmina where they have one of the first slave trading castles. It was really interesting to see and really sad to learn about the conditions of the slave trade. A lot of us being white, felt like we shouldn't be there; but it was a really good experience. After the castles we walked through the town just looking around. It was amazing the difference between Elmina and HoHoe(where I am staying). The town seems poorer and not as friendly. They probably get more tourists and some seem to be shaking their heads thinking, "Here are more of the rich white people." That evening we had a delicious meal of chicken and french fries. Although the food is wonderful here, we have realized how lucky we are to have a variety of types of food instead of the same basic staple foods. So French fries were a treat! There was a show of native dancing and I went to go peer over the edge of the balcony and one of the dancers started creeping over like it was a hunting dance, I started backing away and he ran after me. He pulled me down on the floor and he taught me some dances. It was kind of embarassing but fun. After we did our own little African dances in the waves that were coming up on shore.
As we were walking through town, I saw one of the most welcoming and familiar sites. A big red building with a black sign that read "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints visitors welcome". I have to say that was a highlight of the trip. Earlier outside of the castle a boy I talked to had gone to church at the "mormon" church before so he told me the starting time. I was able to attend on Sunday morning and a fellow volunteer, Travis, came with me. Even though one of the speakers spoke in the local dialect, it felt like home away from home.