"i love my life"

We were woken up bright and early, at 7 a.m., the next morning for breakfast at the home stay, which was porridge and white bread with peanut butter. Carb city. From there we went to a primary school where we were divided into classrooms, two per classroom. This was an awesome experience. My class was mostly 10-year olds. We sang songs like “Waving Flag” and “Umbrella” and I showed them pictures on my iPhone. They were most amazed by the pictures of my family and it did not dawn on me until we left that I probably seemed like this white alien from outer space. But, when they saw those pictures, they realized it had a family, just like them. I was a person. It was a really amazing experience.

my friends from school.

That afternoon we went to a market where we bargained for prices and got some pretty legit Ghanaian clothes and knick-knacks.
The next day, I had a field trip for class at a radio station called Radio Ada. This place was amazing. 65% of the listeners of Radio Ada are illiterate. Thus, Radio Ada is the main mode through which they get all of their news and information about the world outside of Ada, a small area right outside of Accra. As another part of the FDP, we went to the salt fields right outside of Ada, where the local people, mostly children, dig large troughs in the salt rich earth, allow them to fill with water when it rains, then wait for the water to evaporate in order to collect the salt which they pile up across the 36 square mile expanse that the fields cover. This is a major problem in this area because children have to incentive to go to school when they could be making 25 cedi a day, about 17 American dollars, working in the salt fields.

speaking with adjoa, a reporter at radio ada, at the salt fields.

The final day in Ghana, I had another field trip to the slave castles and dungeons. The Cape Coast and El Mina castles of modern day Ghana were the biggest slave ports in Africa during the time of the slave trade. Over 20 million slaves went through these ports, mostly headed for the United States and the sugar plantations of the Caribbean. Today, visiting the castles is a very bizarre experience. First off, they are called “castles,” when in reality they are probably closer to forts where enormous atrocities took place. Also, they are located in this picturesque location, which reminded me of the beaches in Santa Barbara, California. To walk around the castles listening to the stories of the crimes that took place there and simultaneously enjoying the scenery feels completely unnatural. The unease of this feeling did not go away at lunch served on the beach to a group of about 60 of us.
At the entrance to the largest slave holding cells in of the Cape Coast Castle were two plaques. One which read "In ever lasting memory of the anguish of our ancestors. May those who died rest in peace. May those who return find their roots. May humanity never again perpetuate such injustice against humanity. We, the living, vow to uphold this." On the other side of the entrance was a plaque commemorating President Obama's visit in 2009. I wondered, why Obama? Was his visit as important, as prophetic, as the words etched in the marble plaque to its right? Was there so much hope in America, in a black president in America, that it was necessary to create a whole plaque? How? Why? So many thoughts were running through my mind.
There was so much to think about at these castles. I couldn't understand it. I left that day with an eerie feeling and more questions than answer about Ghana and the world. I returned to my safe floating hunk of America, with a buffet of endless food, without the fear of eminent danger or war, with the assurance that I would most likely have everything I could need to subsist for the rest of my life.