Yesterday we went to the place where the slaves were taken to have their last bath. That was a really intense place to be. The tour guide made us close our eyes and walk the path that they walked while holding onto each others shoulders in a line. That made us feel really involved in the experience and showed us that when things are hard you really have to depend on the people around you so that you don’t lose your way. It was so intense to be walking down that path. There were a lot of images of chains being broken to symbolize freedom painted on the walls. One thing that really got to me was the fact that just in 2007 they found a cannon ball and a chain in the river there. This was from the slaves who walked through there. That could have been attached to one who died there. Just found in 2007! They also told us that if women had children they would often bash in the heads of the children, so the women would sometimes put their children in bags and send them down the river, hoping they would survive.
This story was nothing in comparison to what we experienced next. They brought us to the final destination of the slaves before they were shipped off to America. This is called Cape Coast castle. They showed us the cells where the slaves were held. They showed us a small cell called the punishment cell where they held 50 slaves at a time who were sentenced to die for trying to escape. They were kept in there with no light and no food. They died in there. The tour guide brought us into this room, shut the door, and turned off the light. It was ridiculously real, far beyond just knowing about slavery. I started to feel claustrophobic and panicked just being there for 10 seconds like this. They also brought us into the cells where the slaves were held for 3 months before being sent off to America. These cells also had no light. And the people there sat in their own excrement and vomit for three months. They had a marking on the wall for how deep this stuff piled up. It was at least 3 feet tall. Imagine sitting in a pitch black room with hundreds of people and a pile of poop up to your neck for 3 months. After all this, crawling through a long dark tunnel and exiting through a door called “the door of no return” in order to be shipped off to America. These are human beings and over 1 million were shipped through there. I am honestly astounded that these people did not lose their sanity and that when they got to the Americas they were still able to be a family and have religious practices and sing and dance and still be human. I was actually in the place where these people suffered. Standing where they were tortured and starved and died; where they experienced inhumane levels of fear and agony. I felt like weeping at the reality of it. No one really talked during the whole tour because we were so shaken up. This is humanity. This happened and its happened many many times and is still happening. People are disturbing and this is a part of human nature. How can we really do these things? I felt very uncomfortable being white and being told these things by a black man. But he said that many black chiefs at that time sold their own people into slavery, to the English.
Last night, when I finally got back home, I took my first bucket bath because the shower wasn’t working. It was pretty fun to just be able to have that experience, to have to dump water on myself while standing in the shower. It was a little difficult, but definitely a must have experience. It definitely saved a lot of water that way. I’m probably saving everyone that is responsible for me in the U.S. a lot of water because my showers at home are not short at all. I’ve realized that at home I use so much water and toilet paper. Those feel like rights that we have at home, normal things that we take. I can’t imagine being at home and not being able to take a 20 minute hot shower. That has never been an issue. Endless amounts of toilet paper are always available as well. It’s so weird to be aware of these things here. I’m so much more conscious of every part of existence here. A lot of my thoughts go to things that are just routines at home, things that you give no thought to. Whether or not there will be somewhere for you to go to the bathroom, shower, the food you eat, wondering when your next meal will be so you eat as much as possible just in case, being concerned about getting enough water to drink, how it smells outside, every feeling that your body experiences just in case you’re sick, every step you take, your entire environment around you. I am honestly aware of every single thing going on here. You always have to know who is around you, where you are, what you are doing, what they are doing, how you are feeling, how much sun is on you, I have literally never been so aware of my existence. I can’t think of one thing that I am not paying attention to. It’s actually really cool because I don’t feel so dazed or confused about life in the respects that I usually do. I think it’s easier because I can’t understand or speak to barely anyone here so I spend so much less time speaking and so much more time paying attention. It’s very cool now that I realize it in this way. I’m much more of a single unit here as well. I have to get everything done on my own and navigate my surroundings without any help. A lot of times at home I let Jake guide me everywhere we walk, following as he looks both ways for me. It is easy to get used to someone else getting stuff done for you. But it’s pretty cool to see how well you can adjust to something on your own. I feel very adjusted and able to adapt to things. Within just 24 hours I went from panic to normalcy. And now I know everything there is to know, and it’s pretty incredible to feel like I’ve progressed and changed a lot from being clumsy and unaware, to being always aware and careful and all knowing. It’s very much about necessity though. At home I feel like there is no need to pay attention to any of those things. We get away with living a passive life, not too worried about our basic survival.
The funeral is still dragging on here. Music until 2 am, then starting again at 4.30 am. It’s a nonstop party. People coming and going everywhere. I feel unable to participate because my host family isn’t really involved and I’ve been busy all weekend, but I would have loved to have gone to the actual service and burial just to experience it. I am going to go to a church service here next Sunday just for the exposure of it. Everything here is religious. You see sayings and catch phrases about Jesus and God on the back of every taxi, used as business names such as “By God’s Grace Fashion” or even cell phone booths named using Jesus in their title. It’s very bizarre to see this because it’s literally on everything. I would love to do a study of religions here and their intensity in society and how it really drives their entire culture. The thing is, to us this may sound obnoxious, as if they are trying to advertise their religion and push it on everyone. However, that’s not the case at all. They are merely expressing a mutual love for something. They all feel this way so they all talk about it and display it everywhere. They don’t even have to think about cultural sensitivity. That concept doesn’t exist because its all like one big family all having the same type of system of living. It’s not a multicultural nation the way ours is. There is nothing wrong with them being so religious because its all religious.
I learned the other day that there are people known as traditionalists who have clans that they are affiliated with. There are 4 clans in Ghana that have their own beliefs and gods and they each have a different staff with an emblem that represents them. These are based on family heritage and old regions of Ghana. Muslims do not belong to the traditionalists, but often Christians will still be affiliated with these clans. I don’t know if they follow the beliefs or culture of these clans but since it is passed on by family, it still prevails. I want to learn so much more about this. When I get home I am going to do a lot of research on stuff about Ghana that I now need to know. I would love to become as educated as possible on their culture because at this point I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I see daily life and I participate but I want to know the roots because ancient culture, the history of how the people are the way they are, is so interesting to me, for any culture. Modern culture just doesn’t do it for me. I want to know how it came to be this way. Christianity wasn’t even here until it was brought here by colonialism. How are missionaries able to be so influential? How did those colonizing drive their religion so relentlessly that now peoples entire life is based on this belief? People here are very devoted to God and very dedicated to going to church, open about their participation. They aren’t vague about religion the way we tend to be in the United States.
Today, ProWorld held a race to raise awareness about AIDS. After the race, we walked through the town handing out condoms and slips of paper with information on them. It was absolutely pouring rain, non stop all day, so we got soaked. It was kind of silly to just hand out condoms. People didn’t really know what they were and the little kids were blowing them up like balloons or they were getting thrown on the streets. I feel like just having a race for AIDS awareness doesn’t really do much. To the locals it is simply an entertaining event because they don’t really know a lot of what you’re talking about. You can’t expect to educate and change a community in a few hours of handing out condoms. But I spent some time with a few Proworld volunteers eating really good pizza at a local beach resort called Oasis. That was a nice relief from Africa time, just talking about college life with college kids and eating good food. Also last night I passed out at like 7.30 or 8, completely exhausted and slept till 8 the next day. It felt amazing to just sleep and ever since the AIDS race I’ve been relaxing and watching South Park on my laptop (the only show I have on my laptop for some reason) going outside to enjoy the music, eating, etc. It’s been a good weekend of just having fun here instead of doing intense labor. Back to work tomorrow!
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