Long ride through familiar roadside stands and villages, at one point encountering a long funeral procession of young people dressed in black, with a couple bands marching amidst them. This is one of quite a few photo opportunities that I would have explored, except that they did not fit into the main purpose of the trip and might have cut short or eliminated things that were on the schedule.
After about four hours, we entered Cape Coast, were met by Joe and Ida, and proceeded to drive by the Elmina harbor and castle and then on to Cape Coast Castle and the slave museum on the site where many involuntary immigrants were shpiped to the New World in a slave trade that flourished for more than two centuries under the Portuguese, Dutch and English. President and Mrs. Obama visited the castle in July, 2009, and one can only imagine the impact of such a visit on an African-American person.
We were guided through the dungeons where slaves were house, often for a couple months, before being shipped off, manacled, in inhumane and crowded conditions on the several-month voyage to slavery in the New World. We were also shown the courtyard in which they were branded for identification. The slaves were prisoners captured by one black tribe in combat against another, then sold to Europeans as slaves at the coast, evidence of the dehumanization and horrors of war.
From the castle, we drove to Cape Deaf, the school for deaf children in Cape Coast. There we witnessed an amazing dance performance by deaf children who kept in time through feeling the vibrations from the loud drums, played by blind students. Afterwards, we toured the school farm created through Joe and Ida's NGO, with children clamoring for our attention, holding our hands, trying to communicate with us through sign language and indistinguishable sounds. One is struck by the gross unfairness of children being saddled with such a disability through no action of their own, other than being born. It was a very moving experience and a vivid reminder of what charmed lives we live. The Kipharts have supported the school through Joe and Ida's NGO.
From the school--hot, dirty and tired--we proceeded to a restaurant some miles down the way on the beach. As we were driving there, I was wishing that we'd opted to have a more relaxing dinner at the hotel. In fact, though, the dinner was excellent and afforded the opportunity for more talk with Joe and Ida. Returned to the very nice Elmina Beach Resort to shower and go to sleep, after what's become a ritual of downloading a few photos from the day and writing in what will become my blog, if and when we get internet connection on my iPad.
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