06/14/2010

This weekend was pretty relaxing, went to Cape Coast and toured around the city. Went had a pretty good experience getting out of the city, but Accra always has such big traffic problems we just spend 2 hours on a metro bus waiting to move. But we made it to the coast and got settled into the guesthouse and went out to dinner at a place called Castle Beach Restaurant. It was located right next to the Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Ocean, so we just listened to the waves crash against the beach and ate. The next morning I met up with some girls that were on our Mole trip and we walked the beach, watching all the Ghanaians fish which was pretty interesting. Then we toured the castle, which was a major exporting hub for slaves out of Africa to the Americas and Europe. It was really interesting tour and has a lot of history attached to it (there are pictures above). The rest of the time there we just went to shops and looked around for some art work, nothing too exciting which was okay because I am coming down with a cold.

So it’s World Cup time and all of Africa has soccer fever! We watched the USA vs. England game on this stilled outdoor sitting area, with the game projected onto this white wall. I sat there with other Americans, Ghanaians, and Europeans, listening to the ocean waves crash against the beach and watch USA and England play. It was probably the first time that I planned out a day to revolve around a soccer game, but it was really cool to be a part of a culture that loves this sport. And the next time I listened to the Ghana vs. Serbia game on the radio in a Tro on the way back home and the game is broadcasted in a different language but I definitely could tell when people scored and when Ghana scored their goal, our Tro stopped and everyone in the town came running out in the streets, it was so crazy!! Hours blaring, people screaming, everybody was going crazy and they hadn’t even won the game yet. I got home just in time to see the rest of the game and my entire family was crowded around the TV watching it. They have such amazing pride for their time and for the first time I wished America was more into soccer. So I’m so excited for the next soccer game to come on :)

Other then that, just back to work, I’m in the maternity ward and I observed a girl getting an abortion, and on Friday of last week, saw a couple of C-sections. So it’s pretty busy up there and I get to see a lot of how this ward works, so I’m excited. We had running water at our house for about 5 minutes yesterday and I took a shower, but right after I put conditioner in I saw my water pressure drop drastically so I started filling up a bucket of water just incase the water did go and lucky I did because it definitely stopped so back to bucket showers.