Akwaaba!!!
Wow, it has been an exciting and busy week since our last posting. It is difficult to know where to begin. On Tuesday we traveled to the coastal town of Elmina to witness the Bakatue festival which is celebrated to commemorate the founding of the town and to invoke the deity. During the celebration the Paramount Chief and his sub-chiefs, elders' fetish priests and priestesses, drummers, you name it take part in a procession and perform rituals. There was also a hilarious regatta that took place on the water where the objective appeared to be more in favor of tipping the other team's boat rather than actually getting to a finish line.
Our trip to Elmina also featured the incredibly sobering and moving trip to the Elmina Castle, which was used as one of the busiest slave trading castles. Though impossible to truly understand the suffering and inhumanity that took place within those walls, the experience of walking through "the door of no return" and into the area where the slaves were crammed onto their ships was harrowing. To hear of the conditions they were subjected to within the castle was also horrifying. It was a difficult, although important, experience and tour.
On a lighter note, we finished the remainder of the week trying to fight the rains and mud to chip away at our work project. We've made wonderful progress and are very proud of how much we've accomplished. The roof is being placed on top as we speak!
This weekend has been a great winding down of a busy week. We traveled back to Accra and surprised the students with VIP access to President Obama's farewell celebration and speech! Needless to say, it
was an amazing opportunity to be a part of the President's first visit to sub-Saharan Africa and to hear him speak of his experience here and his vision for Africa. It was truly historic. Some students even shook the President's and the First Lady's hands!! Today we head to the beach at Busua to surf on our way back to Cape Three Points. All is well!
Miss You,
Mark and Kelsey
