Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Ghanaian Flashback
[Warning: The following story includes vomit.]
Check out the map here. (Scroll down a little.) I've been to five of those castles/slave forts. Click on #4: Princesstown. Groot-Friedrichsburg is a Danish lodge built in 1658. It was converted into a fort in 1683. It's a hotel now. We stayed there three nights. It's up on top of a hill on a cliff overlooking the ocean and the small fishing village of Princesstown. The only time I was sick in Ghana was there. We went down to dinner (rice and something) and I was already queasy. I took one bite and had to head back to the fort alone. No electricity, no moon, only a few stars to see by. Halfway up the big hill, I projectile vomited into some bushes until there was nothing left in my body. I couldn't get out of bed the next day. (I felt much better after the fever and chills abated. We hitched a ride on top of a minivan, with the luggage, the day after and made it to the main road, catching another van to the next town up the coast.)
Random quotes from the Ghana trip, with brief explanations of each. I wrote them down as I heard them:
(1) In the name of God, give me money! A man walked with us in the border town of Bolgatenga our first day in the country, making polite conversation. He was wearing a suit(!) This line was the last thing he exclaimed to us, after we played dumb to his subtle requests for funds for 15 minutes. After that, we had lunch at a bank cafeteria: Red red, plantains (sixth item down menu) and a Club beer. Yes, a place in DC has it.
(2) Osu's always cookin'. Osu is the trendy area of the Ghanaian capital of Accra. Expensive and bathed in neon lights, it's got pizza parlors, ice cream shops, and a lot of Europeans walking around. A bit of culture shock for just about everyone. Not quite Europe, not quite Africa. A random African man said this line, as he ushered his children, each holding an ice cream cone, into his Range Rover.
(3) They've got everything. Fuck 'em! Elmina Castle is one of the largest and best preserved slave forts on the coast. Everything is as it was in the time of slavery, including the gender-segregated underground cells and the gate that led to the boats and away from the continent forever. Very powerful, somber place. There is a museum in the fort, and at the end of the walk-through is a wall of photos of famous African Americans, including Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali, and Smokey Robinson. As we stood there looking at this display, two African men entered the room and stood next to us. One of them looked over the photos and said that line. Pretty much summed up his feelings about slavery.
(The first link in #3 is a new 3-star resort that has apparently been built there. I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before, not that we could have afforded it anyway.)
Check out the map here. (Scroll down a little.) I've been to five of those castles/slave forts. Click on #4: Princesstown. Groot-Friedrichsburg is a Danish lodge built in 1658. It was converted into a fort in 1683. It's a hotel now. We stayed there three nights. It's up on top of a hill on a cliff overlooking the ocean and the small fishing village of Princesstown. The only time I was sick in Ghana was there. We went down to dinner (rice and something) and I was already queasy. I took one bite and had to head back to the fort alone. No electricity, no moon, only a few stars to see by. Halfway up the big hill, I projectile vomited into some bushes until there was nothing left in my body. I couldn't get out of bed the next day. (I felt much better after the fever and chills abated. We hitched a ride on top of a minivan, with the luggage, the day after and made it to the main road, catching another van to the next town up the coast.)
Random quotes from the Ghana trip, with brief explanations of each. I wrote them down as I heard them:
(1) In the name of God, give me money! A man walked with us in the border town of Bolgatenga our first day in the country, making polite conversation. He was wearing a suit(!) This line was the last thing he exclaimed to us, after we played dumb to his subtle requests for funds for 15 minutes. After that, we had lunch at a bank cafeteria: Red red, plantains (sixth item down menu) and a Club beer. Yes, a place in DC has it.
(2) Osu's always cookin'. Osu is the trendy area of the Ghanaian capital of Accra. Expensive and bathed in neon lights, it's got pizza parlors, ice cream shops, and a lot of Europeans walking around. A bit of culture shock for just about everyone. Not quite Europe, not quite Africa. A random African man said this line, as he ushered his children, each holding an ice cream cone, into his Range Rover.
(3) They've got everything. Fuck 'em! Elmina Castle is one of the largest and best preserved slave forts on the coast. Everything is as it was in the time of slavery, including the gender-segregated underground cells and the gate that led to the boats and away from the continent forever. Very powerful, somber place. There is a museum in the fort, and at the end of the walk-through is a wall of photos of famous African Americans, including Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali, and Smokey Robinson. As we stood there looking at this display, two African men entered the room and stood next to us. One of them looked over the photos and said that line. Pretty much summed up his feelings about slavery.
(The first link in #3 is a new 3-star resort that has apparently been built there. I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before, not that we could have afforded it anyway.)
# posted by smacky @ 8:23 AM 
