MONDAY

Woke up early today to have a walk with small boy. Haven’t done this in a while and I’ve forgotten how refreshing it is. Like usual we walked down the main street which follows the sea side till we get to the Methodist church. There’s a three way junction there which we then take a right up to the Dutch cemetery. From there we take the steep steep hill of stone stairs up to the Catholic Church. From there we take a steep hill back down to a side street which winds around vendor shops and takes you back to the main strip where we started.

Taxi into work and got to the office. There wasn’t much to do today at the office but we were there to show Tanya around. For breakfast I had some almonds and then a Mojo bar. Thanks Mum and Dad they’re very good. When we walked into our design office our table was covered with finished garments so we knew we had some folding to do. We haven’t had much folding to do lately which I was really happy about. I swear I’ll never be employed by a clothing retailer because I’m crap at folding. Tanya had a good idea to invest or design one of those folding boards that companies use so all the clothes are folded in the same manner and size.

After folding I sent a few emails then headed out into town to the money exchange, textiles shop and Barkley’s bank. It’s raining today; I don’t have an umbrella. The fabric stores were interesting. The fabrics here are so much more jazzy and colorful; the prints work well here in Ghana but I don’t think people in the states could get away with them; at least how the Ghanaians were them from head to toe.
Barkley’s bank today was probably the worst it’s been thus far. Make note never to go on a Friday or a Monday. The whole experience probably took closer to two hours after them made me wait in two different lines. I’m not sure what all the chaos was from today but at some point I finally got my money and headed back to the office.
Lunch was one of those fried egg and cheese sandwiches. Small boy picked me up one when I missed lunch because of the bank. Those sandwiches are massive and I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish it but somehow I did. Of course I was stuffed the rest of the day. We had about an hour before we were off to the castle so I made myself useful till then. I took photos of samples which have come in uploaded them and sent them to Sarah so she could then send them off to the US for the okay. After that I answered questions that Dorkus had about the children’s wrap around dress that Carla had patterned.

Once Sarah had sent the files to the US we took off to the Cape Coast castle. When we first arrived we walked through the court yard, took pictures and then walked through the museum until the tour was ready to get on its way. The tour took us through the men’s dungeon then back through the courtyard to the women’s dungeon. There was a tunnel that used to connect both cells but was closed off when the slave trade became illegal. The tunnel is still visible from the courtyard. From there we went through the door of no return which opens up to which is now the fishing beach. The tour then took us up through to the cell where they kept slaves that had tired one too many times to escape. There was no light and were never fed. We then took a tour through the living courters of the general. The feelings you get going through the castle cannot be put into words. It’s one thing to go to a museum about slavery but it’s a whole different experience to actually be at the spot where it happened and see the living conditions that the people actually had to endure. Throughout the whole tour I struggled back tears; it was an educational and interesting trip that I wish everyone could experience. When we left I couldn’t really shake away the knot I felt in my chest.

For dinner we went to the Oasis restaurant. It’s in a great location right on the beach; today there was a big group of kids that were drumming and dancing, it looked like they were practicing for a performance. For dinner I had Turkish bread with mozzarella cheese and tomatoes. It was like pita bread that was filled with cheese and tomato and then grilled; not too bad. We finished dinner around seven then walked back to Becano where we then hailed a cab back to Elmina. Back home we Katie, Sarah and I met up with Steve and Tom for one last drink before heading to bed.

Cravings: I would do anything for a pair of comfy pajamas, maybe some yoga pants and a oversized hoodie.