Photos

A howdy hello from Cape Coast! I have photos for your viewing pleasure. They are of a rather small, low quality in order to help facilitate the uploading process, but HEY some images are better than none at all, so let's run with what we've got!
Pictured to the left is the view from Cape Coast Castle. It was never a castle historically, only serving as a garrison, but due to its picturesque view and plaster-white walls, the label "castle" has stuck with it. The British imposed colonial rule from this garrison (although it was a Dutch construction, purchased/stolen/smarmily yoinked by the British) as well as used it as the central hub for trading goods. Most notable among these goods were slaves. The majority of the slaves traded through the TransAtlantic system passed through one of the many garrisons on Ghana's coast. Today Cape Coast Castle and Elmina (another "castle", some thirty minutes' drive from Cape Coast) have been preserved to serve as reminders of the slave trade. They were renovated (not restored-- but that's another issue entirely) fairly recently, thanks to some 11 million dollars provided by the United States to aid the process. We toured both Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle as a group on a guided tour.

Here's a picture of me in Mole National Park! The views were pretty darn spectacular. And very, very green. You can't see it in the photo, but I wore my special "roll-up-into-shorts" pants that day, but because I can be a dim child sometimes I failed to roll them down into pants to properly protect my legs from the bush that we were tromping through. My poor, slightly mangled shins are none too happy with my oversight. Regardless, we saw many a pretty plant, many more pretty plants, and occasionally even some animals! Hey, speaking of animals... whoops the photo I had prepared of the elephant isn't working. SO HERE'S ONE FROM GOOGLE:

I mean, my picture was pretty much going to be the same thing. We were totally that close and my picture is totally that clear and he was totally facing us. Yeeeeah.
I have to fill this space so I can include the next photo. So some facts about me: My favorite color is red. My favorite color COMBO is light blue and earthy brown. My favorite animal is the majestic Narwhal, although my favorite animal changes often. The majestic narwhal is seconded by the octopus, followed closely by the squid. Oh look I've filled enough space! Let's go to the next slide:

This was taken on the TroTro ride frome Mole back to Tamale. The pained expression on my face is reflective of the comfort level of my seat. Also, this image is pretty misleading: due to the wide-angle lense on my camera, things look spacous and life looks breezy. Do not be fooled. We were cajoled and squished. That's Lydia and Megan Goldsmith in the background, looking terribly entertained (Lydia's blog is linked to on the sidebar). The drives were mostly bad, in my opinion, because of the length and shakiness of the car. Also the fact that there are NO rode rules in Ghana and therefore you are hurtling at death every second of every drive, ever. But other than that things are pretty darn sweet.

Here's Big Daddy, lur Crocodile (for more on him, see my previous entry). Isn't he adorable? Don't you just want to hug him?!
The guides at the lake, who were basically bored 15-year-old boys, reported to us that he's a very old and big crocodile. They said that he's been swimming his waters for around 80 years. I'm not sure if I believe them (I also have no idea what's an average lifespan for a crocodile), but it's an interesting tidbit to share in my photo dump to fill up space until the next gap nonetheless. He sat like that the entire time, when he wasn't walking about looking for a Mushy or Fufu (see last entry) to snack on. I think it has something to do with him breathing when out of the water, or maybe it was his version of smiling for the camera after so many years of practice. Regardless, it made for a rather awesome photo. Yes, this isn't yoinked from google. It's my own. YAY.

Here is me RIDING THE CROCODILE. Writhe in envy of my little blog... write in envyyyy. Or, you know, do the "sane" thing of questioning my actions and thanking whatever power you believe in that none of the students who chose to ride one of the most dangerous creatures on this planet got a finger or something worse bitten off.
In an attempt to take up space to get the layout and these photos looking nice and pleasing, I'd like to ask for a moment of silence to remember the poor, sacrificed, souls of Mushy and Fufu. Pause your iTunes, tell your sibling in the background to can it, throw a rock at the chattering bird outside, and appreciate the silence. Due to the noble sacrifice of Mushy and Fufu (we knew you so briefly, sniff sniff) we were able to get campy pictures of us riding dangerous creatures. May their actions never be forgotten.

I know Megan's parents have paid a visit to my blog in the past, and reportedly appreciated a photo I posted from the village. So here's a photo of Megan riding Big Daddy. I hope you enjoy it! This also slightly proves that my fellow students are brave / foolish enough to climb atop a crocodile and pose with it as well. See, people who actually know me? I'm not the ONLY person who would do it. Bwa ha ha ha ha.
When we were waiting / cheesing hardcore for the camera with Big Daddy, a couple of other small fries circled around trying to get in on the chicken dinner. Several times our group was dispersed due to an unanticipated crocodile guest, and we had to wait until said guest was scared back into the water before resuming our tourist activities.

Here's one of the traditional houses from the "traditional village" in Paga. The village was actually only five or six houses that I'm more than sure were built explicitly to get money from the tourists there, but it's really okay. We got to see the constructions and the drawings on them. And because these types of buildings aren't typical to the region we spend most of our time in (the middle and south of Ghana), I'm glad that there were some examples for us to appreciate, however briefly. That y-shaped log to the left of the doorway is a ladder, by the by. Just in case you were curious. It's actually not a really, really big slingshot like I had hoped when I first saw it. Still though... pretty cool.

Here's a (bad) photo from the dance preformance we got to go to here in Cape Coast. This is from the final dance, which was more of a show of acrobatics than a dance. But the actual dances previous to this one were quite impressive. The company, Nyame te ase (I think?), boasts the talents of many wonderful dancers and most notably the ONLY female drum master in all of Ghana. That's her in the background, wearing the red dress with the hat. We got to visit her store today, and she gave us a very brief but very fun drum lesson right in the shop! It's amazing how nice and willing people are to help you out, or just have a conversation with you. Even if you're the only female drum master in the whole of Ghana. She's done a lot of work with SIT students in the past, too. One of her former students is actually in Cape Coast now, working on a film project. We've gotten to have some meals and spend some afternoons with her as well. It's so cool to hear about life after Ghana and her experiences in the program almost a decade ago.

Ok, this photo is just to make me feel better about my skills as a photographer after the last crap-tastic photo. This was taken during the first dance, which I called "really cool one where people wear red". I wasn't quite able to catch the ACTUAL name, but Natalie has been writing them down and I'll ask her at dinner tonight.
Some of my favorite parts of the dances we've seen here have been the footwork. While not the focus of the dance, the ability of the dancers to move their feet at a different pace than their hips, shoulders, or other body parts. It's the whole polybeat aspect to African music that after all this time I'm still unable to wrap my head around completely.

Here's a picture of me on the canopy walk at one of the national parks here. I'm blanking on the name and I'm late to dinner so I can't take the time to look it up! Apologies!
Regardless, the walk was ridiculously awesome. Like all canopy walks, the walkways were suspended in the canopy layer of the forest, so we got amazing views of the whole park as well as the thrill of walking on a swinging, semi-stable walkway built many, many years ago without the same safety guidelines as, say, the United States.
It was a boatload of fun. I walked with some of the more adventerous students, and we lagged behind so we could swing the walkway and run back and forth and be stupid. Megan Goldsmith actually did some tumbling down the path. You can't tell from the picture, but they were REALLY shaky and the wood planks that served as the bottom of the bridge were pretty loose in their own right. It was lots of fun, and certainly worth the shaky busride over.


Ok ok ok, I've got to go to dinner now. I hope you have enjoyed this picture post of our "lives in this Ghana", as our directors like to call them. We leave Cape Coast tomorrow morning for the Vota region, which is famous for beadwork and many other things. We got a free day today, so unlike our previous busrides of eternal length, I'll be very well rested for this one! I'm out of books, and have read through most of my fellow students' books, so it will be a great ride for day dreaming and brainstorming (be prepared, Annie).

For those of you who have come for pictures of the program, and not to read my second-rate blog, I reward your patience with a group photo from the waterfall! Really got to go now!

Love always,
Lo