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Kelly's Experience Page
Ghana was an amazing experience!
The Ghanaian people as well as the country of Ghana were wonderful.
The people themselves were so friendly and warm. The country itself
was simply beautiful. It was very humbling to see how they live there
lives with not much compared to our culture that is surrounded by
consumption. Talking to many to the people was interesting because
they were so interested in learning about our culture it seem just as
much as we were interested in learning about theirs. All of the
activities that we did while we were there were so interesting as
well. We show two different slave castles that were very powerful.
One was named Cape Coast Castle and the other was named Elmina
Castle. See the dungeons that the slaves were kept in and the way
they were treated was horrendous. Also the tour-guide, at the Elmina
Castle told some horrific stories about the treatment of woman that
was very powerful. One of the most beautiful things that I saw was
the views from the slave castles of the fishing village of Cape
Coast. It was something that I will never forget. The next big thing
was the Campy walk. Walking feet above the rainforest and hearing the
sounds of elephants was a very memorable. The next more powerful
experience was the home-stay in Ho. Having the experience to hang-out
and be a Ghanaian for the day was amazing. Also visiting the school
kids was very fun, the school kids sang me and others a few songs and
then we taught then how to do the itsy-bitsy-spider, it was so cute.
The only problem was the food, yes the food was a lot different then
anything I ever have tried, and the preparation that goes into the
cooking is eye opening as well. The food was so different because it
so fresh, and they just eat different things then us Americans eat,
for example, the stew that was made for me one day contained
vegetables, cow skin, cow bones, fish, and crab. The stew was served
along with banku, which was a doughy sustenance that was used to dip
into the stew. Another thing that really stuck me personally is how
close the families are. The families that I stayed with ran a
restaurant, and everyone in the restaurant helped, even the 21/2
year old boy. The idea of the whole extended family was so
close-knit that it seemed like I had not connection with my extended
family. On the journey home, thought about the trip as a whole. It
was amazing the see how little some of the people had but still how
happy they were about life, they do not know about all of the things
that we have in our society that makes it very corrupt and that every
society does not need to be like ours. If I ever get the chance again
I will definitely return to Ghana or even another part of Africa.