Cape Coast

Written on 31st of July
Summary:
On Tuesday Anna and I were really ill and couldn’t get out of bed as we had really bad stomach cramps, I’ve never experienced that much pain before but when we had to leave to Cape Coast the next morning at 4am, I already felt a lot better compared to before. We had to wait for 6 hours for the bus, which means we could have slept in, and ended up arriving in Cape Coast at 10pm. During our stay there, we went on a canopy walkway which was a walkway created above a forest and we went to visit Cape Coast Castle. We also did a lot of just reading and chatting to people that we met at the resort. On Friday morning, Anna had to go, which was really sad as I’d spent my last 4 weeks with her. On Saturday morning I went to the bus stop and made my way back to Tamale. I arrived back here at 1.30am and ended up having to take a taxi as Fred wasn’t answering his phone. Now it’s just Marcus, Valentine, 2 German girls and I left.
Detailed:
Tuesday Anna and I were really ill. We were ill to the extent of not being able to move as we had the worst stomach cramps ever. We were doubled over in bed all day and both had a cry as it was pure agony, never experienced anything like it. It was her, Matt and Frank’s last night in Tamale, but we simply couldn’t move so we just stayed in bed. We never really got to sleep properly and at 4am we had to get up to get ready to get a bus to Kumasi and then end in Cape Coast. We still weren’t very well but we were a lot better compared to a few hours before. We got to the bus stop at about 5am and were told it would leave between 6 and 7am. We didn’t leave until 10.30am! One thing I will definitely take away from Ghana is patience...
Six hours later we got to Kumasi and an hour after we were on a bus to Cape Coast. A lady got on with a bible and preached to us for 20 minutes in Twi, the main language in Ghana, got paid by the Ghanaians on the bus and then got off. I was quite surprised to hear them asking us for offerings towards her, as we didn’t understand it and just heard talking (mainly shouting) in a different language so I simply explained that and they, funnily enough, agreed with my point. The bus from Kumasi to Cape Coast was very tiny and Frank, being as tall as he is, couldn’t even fit his legs between his seat and the seat in front of him. One thing I didn’t understand, well I do understand it but it just frustrates me, is we had to continually pay separately for our bags on the bus. It was just a way to get more money of people. Francis, one of our Ghanaian friends who stays at Fred’s, had given us a number to call when we got to Cape Coast, which was for a taxi from the bus stop to Oasis Beach Resort, the hotel we were staying at. This was very convenient as it was really late. We arrived at 10pm at Oasis so it had been a very long day. We had booked two doubles for the both of us, even called twice more after having made the reservation for them to confirm to us it’s booked, however on arrival they didn’t have a room for us, so we ended up staying in dorms. We didn’t mind this and nearly expected it, just the one thing that I don’t like about it is that your things can get stolen really easily as everyone walks in and out. We also found out that a rat had gotten into Anna’s backpack, which was lying at her feet all night, to eat her biscuits and part of her bag. We then later on in the day saw it on the ceiling. Lovely.
The next morning, Thursday, I woke up at 6.30am because of my stomach aches and I hadn’t eaten for nearly 2 days, so my body wanted some food but at the same time it was all just a feeling of discomfort. I was able to take a shower at this resort though. An actual shower! It was amazing, it was cold but it felt so good! I felt clean for the first time properly in ages. It was really nice as it’s in a cubicle outside and the cubicle doesn’t have a roof so your view is the palm trees, beautiful! The resort is on the beach and it really does give us a holiday feeling, but Anna and I felt as if it wasn’t really Ghana anymore, the same feeling we got with Mole National Park. For us, and for other volunteers that I meet in those tourist places, real Ghana is the villages where we work. It’s nice to see different parts of Ghana but it definitely makes me realise how lucky I’ve been to have been placed in Tamale. Kumasi, Accra (the capital) and Cape Coast are very crowded and I would not ever feel safe there. In Tamale I can just walk around on my own and you need that comfort if you’re staying for 6.5 weeks. But as a holiday place Cape Coast is very beautiful, it’s got a lot of history and the beach is stunning. It’s nice to be going to sleep and hearing the waves in the background.
We ended up not having time for breakfast as we went to the Canopy Walkway by taxi at 7.30am. We got there about 45 minutes later and were able to go on a tour straight away. It was a bit of a climb to get to the start of the canopy walkway, which definitely made me realise how long I haven’t done exercise. The canopy walkway are walkways that are hung above all the trees at the height of 40 metres. It was breathtaking. On our way back, the taxi’s tyre went really flat, which ended up us driving on the rim. We had to stop and wait for the taxi man to get a new tyre and while we were waiting the women from the village we stopped at, brought us a bench which was really nice of them. About 45 minutes later, which definitely was a lot quicker than I thought it would take, we were back on the road. We got the taxi driver to drive us past a breakfast place where it felt so good to get some food down me. An egg sandwich, yum. Best part was it was 1 cedi (40p).
The rest of the day we just relaxed, I napped on the beach a bit, read a bit, walked a bit and we grabbed a bite to eat at the resort at around 6pm. THEY HAD WESTERN FOOD! It was so exciting! I shared a Margarita Pizza with Anna and we both had a crepe for dessert as well, so good! After dinner, many westerners who stayed in Cape Coast started arriving from their host families to get a drink as our resort has a nice bar and a small night club as well. I met at least 10 Dutch people that night. I swear Dutch people are everywhere... The boys were getting more and more drinks down them and we just cringed at anything they said so Anna and I went and sat on our own for a while on the beach and later on just went back to our room as it was 10pm, late night for me once again haha! We were able to stay in nice little houses for the last two nights, which was a nice luxury.
On Friday we had a bit of a sleep in, yes 8am is definitely a sleep in in Ghana haha, and at 9am went for a walk around Cape Coast to try and find some breakfast. The people are very different in Tamale to Cape Coast, I feel like they’re less friendly here. Afterwards, we went to the Cape Coast Castle. This was a slave castle at the end of the 1600s and was used by British people to capture Africans in. The condition, as I bet you can imagine, were really surreal and the rooms they were kept in was pure darkness and of course without any toilets or anything and as they were with about 300 people in a room, which was maybe just over 30 metres squared, they were not treated like humans at all. Also if the women refused to have sex with the British men they’d be locked up without any food and water for 4 days in a really small room without any windows. It was really nice to hear some history about Ghana, as I’d read some information on it but to hear it being said by a Ghanaian guide made it a lot more interesting. We were able to take some beautiful photos of the castle and sea.
Once again the rest of the day we just relaxed. I swam in the sea for a bit, but the current and waves were really strong so after about 20 minutes I was knackered. I went and sat on my towel and two young Ghanaian girls, about 5 years old, came and sat by me. They talked for ages to me in Twi, while I just smiled. I then taught them a song which was fun as they love learning anything.
Anna had to leave to get to Accra at 3pm for her flight on Saturday morning. It was sad to see her go as she’s been my roommate for the last month. At night Matt, Frank and I went to the bar again to just hang out. Even more Dutch people than Friday night were there and it ended up being a really good night. I really do find it surprising though, that even in a country in Africa, everything is still all about alcohol, sex and drugs. I mean to get marijuana here is so incredibly easy and so cheap that all the tourists just smoke it all the time, the alcohol is really cheap which means all the tourists get drunk all the time and all the tourists end up having drunk sex with strangers. Maybe I should have expected it, but it still shocks me as it just seems wrong to waste money and time doing that type of thing in Africa. I mean one of the volunteers of my program ended up spending at least 200 cedis (80 pounds) on alcohol and marijuana and that is a hell of a let if you know the prices of things here. So there were definitely many drunk people around, but quite a few sober Dutch people so it was a really nice night overall. There was even a bonfire on the beach, so it was a really nice ending to Cape Coast.
I decided to leave Cape Coast a day early just because it all ended up being a lot more expensive than I thought it would be and my money is definitely close to running out. I left the resort at 9am and was able to get a bus to Kumasi at 11.30am. A Ghanaian woman on the bus asked what my end destination was, I told her Tamale and she got concerned about what bus I should take from Kumasi to Tamale. She called about 5 people and an hour later told me which would be a good bus for me, especially with me being a foreigner. It was so lovely of her to do, it definitely made me feel more at ease as since that morning I hadn’t seen any ‘white’ people and so had felt very alone and uncertain about where to go when I was in Kumasi. She organised for the driver to take me to the right bus stop. I got to that bus stop at about 3pm and got told that it wouldn’t leave until 7pm. I ended up just lying down on the chairs in the waiting room and fell asleep for two hours. Also there at the bus stop, people kept making sure I was okay and asked which bus I was taking, so they could keep an eye out for it and warn me when it was here. The bus left at 7.30pm and I didn’t arrive in Tamale until 1.30am. Fred didn’t answer his phone all night, so I decided to just risk it and take a taxi from the bus stop to the volunteering house. I didn’t feel very comfortable with the decision as I mean you can’t really trust anyone you don’t know at night in any country, but God’s been looking after me incredibly well and I got home only about 10 minutes later. That was the first day in Ghana that I hadn’t seen anyone white apart me which was quite a strange feeling, but Ghanaians are really nice and really put me at ease.
I’m meant to be doing extra classes with the kids the next two weeks, but the teacher had told me that Fred hasn’t contacted them about that at all. This, once again, isn’t surprising to hear, so I guess I’ll just see what he plans last minute for me. I wouldn’t mind doing the orphanage either, but we’ll see!