The Lap of Luxury...

So this weekend was our first NYU sponsored "excursion," complete with embarrassingly large tour bus and of course, Christa (our ever chipper student activities director) who likes to treat us as if we are a group of middle schoolers. But that aside, the trip was a really awesome all expenses paid semi-relaxing weekend at the beach. We left Accra at around 6:30 a.m. and just barely made it to Elimina without being made Popsicles by the very intense air conditioning system. From there we headed to the famous Elimina Castle, which was once a fort used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The castle was built in the 1400's by the Portuguese and is still pretty well in tact. The tour was a bit depressing though, we had to walk through the slave cells which were cramped and unventilated. Then we walked down through the passage of no return to the little door where the slaves were taken out to the waiting ships (oftentimes after enduring a terrible 2 to 3 months in the prisons). The whole thing was heart wrenching and it was just awful listening to how terrible the conditions were and how mean the Portuguese and Dutch were. And on top of all the associated sadness, the heat was so unbearable that one girl fainted right in the middle of the presentation and several other people got very sick. All in all, a rather somber morning (though a very informative one).

On a lighter note, after Elimina Castle we drove to a small restaurant on stilts above a crocodile pond. At first we didn't see any crocodiles but when one of the wait staff got out a can of meat a huge one climbed over the bank. The lady then proceeded to feed it bits of guts off a stick, I'll upload the picture I got of it eating! Then it just hung out very creepily with its eyes above the water line looking oh so suspicious. We then headed to Kokum National Park, a certified rain forest (we had a big debate whether or not it was one) near the hills. There, we got to hike up a pretty excruciating path (I sweat out close to 3 pounds probably) but the finale was definitely worth it. We got to walk across these thin rope bridges 100 feet in the air, where you were basically walking along the tops of the trees. The view was amazing, though slightly scary because the bridges were made of rope and therefore swung a lot when 10 people walked on them. Everyone made it across without too much trouble, though it did start to rain (that's when we agreed it was probably a rain forest).

By this time it was late afternoon so we got to head back to our hotel, Coconut Groove, and see our rooms. I know Ghana is a lot cheaper than the US and everything, but even still our hotel was pretty swanky. We had huge rooms with mini bars and turn down service (including chocolates) and there was a great pool right at the edge of the beach. There was also a delicious buffet dinner followed by a huge bonfire and traditional palm wine (I don't really recommend it, it kind of tasted like cleaning solution and rubbing alcohol). Then we all just hung out on the rocks overlooking the waves and swam in the pool.

In the morning we had to be up pretty early (well... 9:30) as the bus was taking several of us to a batik making session. Batik is a type of cloth, very common throughout Africa I think, that kind of resembles tie dye. The process was really labor intensive but very entertaining. We had to cut out our own designs on big pieces of foam to make stamps, then dipped the stamps in boiling wax and made designs on a piece of cloth. Once the whole cloth was stamped we were able to dye it (I chose yellow so that my numerous mistakes would be less visible). We ran out of time so most people stopped there, but the rest of the process involves soaking the cloth in boiling water to get the wax off and then drying it again and picking off any left over wax. Some people made some really beautiful cloth, mine was so-so but I can definitely live with it.

By that time we were already running really late so we had to hurry and check out and then get back on the bus for the 3 hour ride home. Unfortunately we made several annoying stops (including a stop to buy pineapples and roasted grass cutter, a rat of pretty giant proportions that is considered a delicacy here) so it took us even longer to get home then we anticipated. When we finally got home all of us were so exhausted that most of us fell asleep, though we woke up to steal the internet from one of the other houses (the internet in my house has been down since Wednesday, which is more annoying then i thought).

It took me a good week to post this only because the internet has still been out and I spent a very long day trying to book my plane ticket for spring break. We have decided upon South Africa and Namibia! I'll try put up a post of just pictures from last weekend right after this.