Takoradi, Ghana

Sunday Februrary 6^th- February 10, 2011

As our ship pulled into the harbor on Sunday morning, I woke up and looked out my porthole and saw two fishing boats with several men on each coming through the morning fog. These aren’t your typical fishing boats either. Instead, they look like giant wooden canoes and they have to paddle themselves out to sea. Before getting to Ghana I didn’t know what to expect so seeing the fishermen outside of my window was the first glimpse of Ghanaian culture that I experienced.

(It’s amazing how easily you can loose track of people on this ship! If people aren’t in their rooms and you can’t find them, you might as well give up because there’s almost no hope in finding them!) The night before we arrived in port I couldn’t find my friends in order to make plans for our first day in Ghana so I waited until Sunday morning to find people. Luckily I ran into some people I knew who were headed to Cape Coast so I ended up joining them. The city of Cape Coast is where Cape Coast Castle is located. Even though this structure is called a castle, it actually used to be one of many forts along the coast that enslaved African men and women. This castle is known for the slave dungeons where slaves were held until they were ready to board the ships that would then travel to the Caribbean, South America, or North America. The castle that I visited was the starting point of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in which over 30 million slaves (human beings) were traded. Standing in the male slave dungeons that millions of African men had once suffered and even died in was a very moving and emotional experience. Hearing about the terrible conditions that these innocent people had to endure for up to 3 months before they boarded the slave ship was too much for my mind to comprehend. With barely enough light to see, each cell held 200 slaves and since the dungeon had 5 cells, the entire dungeon held up to 1,000 male slaves at a time. To imagine 200 people cramming into the cell in which I stood would mean that each person would have probably been within less than a foot away from the next person. There’s absolutely no way to put into words what I saw that day and how I felt, but I have gained a whole new understanding and appreciation for the events that took place at Cape Coast Castle so many years ago.

The next few days consisted of visiting a local private school in Takoradi, Ghana called Ridge International School, shopping in the local market, visiting one of the nearby beaches and spending the night in a nearby village for a cultural immersion trip.

The semester at sea cultural immersion trip that I went on stayed in a village called Atonkwa Village. After getting off of the bus we participated in a traditional African naming ceremony where I received my African name, “Efua Akroma.” After asking several of the village people what my name meant I finally I figured it out! Efua, means that I am Friday born (born on a Friday) and Akroma is supposedly the word for eagle. I have not a clue in the world why they decided to name me this, but everyone’s name was decided before we arrived in Atonkwa because each person received a certificate stating their new African name. After we ate lunch we finally were introduced to our host family. My host mom, Rukayatu welcomed me and the other semester at sea student who was staying with us. We followed her back to her home to drop our belongings off and then proceeded to take a tour of the village.

It was interesting to see that my host mom lived in the same household as the rest of her family. Before dinner we met Rukayatu’s daughter, her younger sister Comfort, her sister-in-law and two sons, her mother, and father.  After dinner her older brother had arrived home from work/ school and we stayed up talking with him, my mom, their children, and the neighbors kids until all of the kids had fallen asleep around us. Talking mainly with my mom’s brother was my favorite part of the trip. He was very intelligent and worked very hard to provide for his family by going to school while working a full time job.

Overall, Ghana was filled with incredibly nice people who are for the most part very genuine. I loved my time there and I learned so much!