Anyway, we spend a few days in Accra, going to the temple and doing massive amounts of shopping (see last post), then we headed off to Cape Coast. About three hours west of Accra, Cape Coast is the heart of Ghana's tourism. Or so the website tells me. I did see significantly more white people while I was there though, so it must have been right.
I had a cool experience while I was there. One of the first days there, we wanted to hit the beach, a feat we thought would be fairly simple in a tourist area with the word "coast" in the name. In a case of dramatic irony, we spent over 4 hours wandering the greater part of both Cape Coast and Elmina looking for a decent beach that had sand and no death rocks 16 feet out. Picky American tourists, I know. After our wanderings, I was trying to keep a good attitude, but I lost it somewhere between the pig eating garbage and two men defecating on my beach. Lovely.
When I finally had reached my limit, I decided I was going to take solace in a castle. I think I was a princess in another life. This wasn't any castle though; it had been used as a slave outpost for a few hundred years. God definitely knew that I needed some perspective and also exactly how to give it to me. As we stood in the old holding cells where they kept hundreds of men and women for months at a time, my annoyances paled in comparison. I was so worried about some trash on my beach during a vacation, when these people didn't even know if they'd survive the journey to a place where they would be worked like animals.
I love historical visits on my trips, and this one was particularly timely. I'm so glad for the reality check. It was definitely one of those things that made me stop to re-evaluate my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment