Week One of Culture Shock

Oh my... Where to start... It was a miracle that I made it to Ghana. I had problems with all of my flights over here. Delays, mechanical problems on the plane, etc. I flew through Chicago and London on my way to Africa. I wish I could have spent some time in London, seeing as the Olympics were there! Oh well. I at least got to see the airport for about 30 minutes as I RAN to catch my next flight.

I arrived in Ghana late on Sunday night after being on the plane for a VERY long time. I was picked up from the airport and brought to the International Student Hostel (ISH) at the University of Ghana Legon. The campus is very large and very beautiful! We live on the very edge of campus so everywhere is quite a walk. Luckily we are right next to the gym and swimming pool!  

The next few days were spent during orientation and becoming familiar with the city of Accra (which I will document in more detail in another blog). The group that I am with are from the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP). There are about 26 of us from around America. Twenty girls and six boys. My roommate is Pandora White and she is from Mississippi (the one on my left in the picture below). She has such a heavy Southern accent that it is almost as if I was trying to understand a native Ghanaian who is trying to speak to me haha. But she is really great and super funny! I went with her and some of the other ISEP students to a reggae club down by the beach for some live music and dancing. The live music consisted of recorded songs on a screen and the dancing was mostly from people who were drunk or high off of marijuana!!!! AAAHHH!!!! It was really funny because I was not expecting that at all. I must be from the "sheltered Utah bubble." Despite those things, I did enjoy my first time on the beach and I found a guy who let me play his djembe! It was awesome.

 

On Friday and Saturday we traveled about 3-4 hours west to the city of Cape Coast. It was a beautiful drive. We passed through many smaller villages along the way. Cape Coast is right along the ocean line. 

We went to Kakum National Park which is a Rain Forest! We hiked up into the forest and went on the Canopy Walkway! It is made up of 7 canopy bridges that are fastened high up on the trees so that you are walking above the canopy line and overlooking the lush green forest. It made me nervous at first and I held on very tight with both hands... But eventually I got up the nerve to take one hand off for a few pictures haha.  

We stayed at a cottage hotel right on the edge of a swamp full of alligators!

The next day we went to the Cape Coast Castle. This castle is one of few remaining fortresses along the coast of West Africa that was used for economic trading as well as the slave trade. We went into the dungeons where they kept the slaves before they were shipped to Europe/Americas. Cape Coast is a beautiful city and I hope that I can go back there again.

This last picture is my favorite from the trip to the Cape Coast Castle. Many of you have seen my huge poster of Martin Luther King Jr. and know the passion that I have for the civil rights movement. This plaque describes what I felt during the tour. The more time that I spend here in Africa, the more I come to see that God loves all of His children, no matter what continent you are from and no matter what color your skin may be. We have come so far from the time of the slave trade, but we still have a long way to go before our attitudes reflect what should be in our hearts. I hope that we can all learn from the mistakes of the past and move forward in treating everyone with the kindness and respect that they deserve as a human being.