Jesse:
As we are preparing to head north to Kumasi, I noticed the "hot" water in our room in the Hans Bottel--I got an electric shock from the heating shower head as I was about to step in the shower! Of course, turned the thing off and enjoyed a cold but safe shower.

In Kumsai, we will stay at the Pink Panther Hotel.

Jesse:
Caryl and I head to the makektplace near Cape Coast Castle to pick up toilet tissue and detergent to wash our sweaty clothes. The site sounds and smells are overwhelming!

• Girls in robin's-egg blue uniforms heading to school
• men and women opening up their shops
• stray goats and chickens grazing on bits of food in the drain gutters

Blankston explains that the goats and chickens are normally let out for exercise in the afternoon. Owners of strays out in the morning could get in trouble with neighbors that have gardens the animals destroy, according to Blankson. The animals normally return to their owners by night fall.

Although the vibe in the marketplace in cool, I did catch a guy trying to pick my pocket as I paid our cabbie.

There is a building "encroaching" on the Mighty Victory Hotel's property. According to the MVH's owners, Joyce and Richard Deburguh-Mensah, there are a lot of struggles over land ownership and often land is resold "out from under" the original owners. Blankson confirmed this and noted that squatters have rights to "uncontested land" after ten years.


We'll be staying at the Hans Boatell tonight. It's built on an artificial lake stocked with crocodiles (Nile species).

Jesse:
We are having lunch with Shirley and Blankson at the Castle Restaurant in Cape Coast. Shirley is a journalist for one of Ghana's national papers and Blankson, a history scholar and tourism expert, is acting as our guide in the Cape and surrounds. As it turns out Blankson and Shirley attended some of the same schools in the cape.

During a debate about the role of the Christian Church in Ghanaian society, Shirley brought up the profound point that without the church, poverty would ignite the masses and there would be violence.

We also toured Blanson's Alma Mater, University of Cape Coast, where we met Mrs. G. Mansa Feddy Akyea of the Department of Languages. Caryl's looking forward to meeting her husband who is also a visual artist.

The Castle Tour
We toured Cape Coast Castle and I cried in the dungeons. Some other observations:

• This is the first time I've been in building that is solely dedicated to slavery
• Inside the men's dungeon is a local shrine whose spirit was removed before the slave castle was built and returned in 1974
• The church of the castle was built above the dungeon and also above the location of the shrine

Slave river
Caryl and I also went to the river where slaves were cleaned before being brought to the castles.
On the way back to Cape Coast and the Mighty Victory Hotel we shared a cab with a newly instooled chief who lives in Prince William county Virginia. He's working on a foundation for youth that bring more technology into Ghana.

Jesse:
At the Hexagon Hotel near Cape Coast with Essel Blankson, our guide and friend of Mosao, we met soon to be expat Jawanzaa of Harlem USA and his two sons Kwame and Nkruma [picture of Jawanzaa]. We exchanged numbers and he invited us to his land in Aburi, north of Accra (near the botanical Garden).

Jesse's Scattered thoughts on our way to Cape Coast:

• We're repacking our bags to head to Cape Coast. I hate to travel--actually I hate the preparation for travel. You can never have enough stuff and you always have too much. Our bags are packed to the gills and they now include all the stuff from the two bags we checked in on the way (with the exception of the stuff we transported for Masuo Moroe, the owner of Sankofa Beach House). Hell, we're even leaving some stuff with Masuo's assistant, Kayode back at Sankofa house.
• I'm antenna watching as we leave via STC bus: The internet here is wireless. I see alot of directional antennas (beams, parabolics, etc.). The antennas look like they were designed for the 2.5 Ghz band but I'm not sure. There are also alot of bowtie shaped antennas for TV--probably UHF. For Cellular, they don't use monopoles here. The cell sites are often hard to spot because they are on regular towers and poles [picture of 3 pole site]. Accra is covered with antennae. (10/11/2006: I've since learned this system is called SMART WiFi)
  

Jesse's Scattered thoughts:

• We're by the beach listening to the SW radio (7.25Mhz African/Nigeria News Service, 15.40Mhz French) trying to prepare mentally for going to the castles Tuesday.
  
• We will need to change $ soon with Abiola
• Just saw an SUV parked with a magnetic sign from Care, one of GetActive's clients
• Two kids came by and Caryl let them paint with her markers. It was interesting to watch them interact. Caryl had to ask the boy to share with the young girl. Art is truly a universal language.
  

Caryl
Saturday. Another beautiful day! I am feelin this ocean area. The house has been good to us. I have been getting rest, the air is good and I am conscience of the coastal energy of the wind-sun and water. I started a small drawing in markers.

Basically I am getting the stress off me, u know the tight shoulders are loosening up.
We went to a market to get some food as there is no food really at the house. I guess it is sort of like Wilbur hot springs in that way. By the beach I mean, it is really different away from the coast so far-seems hyper.

Anyway the market gave Jesse a chance to experience buying meat from the guy who slaughterd it a few hours ago. He was cool-would never knnow that he was gaging inside. So cool!

So we got what we needed and went to a restuarant that was great. We had a chance to have the typical Sunday morning breatfast around here: soup and rice balls.



Andrea's nephew came by with her as well as Melissa and Kofi. We met them on the road and when I saw the kids-so beautiful. It has been years since I have seen them.
I tell u I am an ole lady! They are so grown!

On rising we noticed the beauty of this place. I was able to keep my promise to the sky and sea. I told them almost 4 years ago that I would meet them again on the other side --the African side. I was able to keep my promise, as I stand here on these Ghanain shores at Sankofa Beach House. I love it when I can keep promises.

JESSE
Not much to say here execpt the travel is difficult and tireing it took us 2 days to get here.

The Accra atmosphere is fire and brimstone. The air is thick with soot and the smell of fires burning in the distance.

Dreads: Here I am called one love and Rasta. People look at me expectantly and perhaps for money but then again possibly for something revolutionary.
It is interesting and pleasing to have people look upon you expecting great things.

Caryl
WOW! Arrived at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, 6:30am, to a beautiful sunny day! We took a train from the airport into the center of town. Great trip, 20 minutes, clean cars, good price. The central station is an intersting piece of archecture that is currently under renovation.

When we stepped out of the station we faced one of the city's many canals so we decided to make good use of our two hours in the city to take a canal cruise tour. This was a good choice as we were able to get an overview of things, homes, especially the house boats along the canals, people and businesses. Each with it's own personality.

We met good folks from Australia and Germany. There were many people taking advantage of legal smoking along the canals, wink, wink!
We saw Bikes-Bikes-Bikes!~ It seems everyone rides bikes. The bicycle parking lots were a trip-full of thousands of bikes!
Looking forward to returning for a more through look at the end of the trip!
For now...back to the airport.

Back on the plane ready for Ghana! The flight was never ending.....6 hours...........full -got ants in my pants! Watched the DiVinci Code--too long! also the Simpsons and the A Team. The KLM entertainment was cool a large library of movies, tv and music old and new.

Before arrival the flight attendants warned that they had to spray our compartment because Ghana's laws insist that this will help with sanitation . They walked up and down the aisles with something that looked like Glade air freshener and that was that!

We landed on time, disembarked onto the tarmac and were buses to the terminal. People greeted us with AKWAABA! NP with immagration and they did not ask for the yellow fever cert. Luggage-change money and we r off!

Masao Meroe's friend Kayode was waiting for us and we headed to the Sankofa Beach House. Stopped at a CHOP SHOP-snack bar- along the way. For Goat soup and fufu. I had my first STAR beer.

The ride out to the beach was long Traffic is not for the weak of spirit, Kayode was outstanding, he is from Ibadan and knows how to keep on truckin' We passed the Kwame Nkrumah memorial circle and passed through town to our area of dirt roads and huge pot holes. The roads were lined with vendors whose stalls were lit by kerosene flames which reminded me of the night markets in Nigeria...one hour later ....home sweet home! We were so tired we just crashed.

I fell asleep listening to the mother's waves crashing ashore. Sweet dreams................

Jesse:
Okay it's literally 3 days away from our departure to Ghana and the loose ends are many. (The picture above shows all the stuff we expect the shove into our backpacks.)

The good news is that our shots are all up-to-date, the travel insurance is straight. But we still have to figure out how to manage our cash over there.

And to top it all off. I have a cold! I probably caught it during a recent company meeting with clients (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/wb2ifs/ and search on gettogether2006 if you want to see the pics.)