After getting down at the club on Friday at Stripes 'N' Dots, I had to leave my dorm at 6:15 AM for a trip with CIEE. I returned to my dorm at 4:30, slept for 45 minutes, well longer actually because I woke up, without my alarm going of at 5:30 AM, at 6:07 AM. I grabbed my things, brushed my teeth, and ran down to the bus that was already at my dorm. I felt pretty nauseous for the morning from not eating, sleeping, and traveling on winding roads. We were going to Cape Coast and Kakum Nat'l. Park for the weekend. I had already been the previous weekend, but I did not go to Elmina Castle, which was the largest and most infamous of the slave castles. I love the drive to Cape Coast because it's rural and tropical, and you can see the beautiful ocean as you drive along the coast. We first stopped at the slave river, where slaves were marched from their various homelands, and came to the river for their last bath before going to the castle, where they would either die, or go to their final destinations in the New World, and perhaps die en route. It was pretty heavy. We stopped at our hotel, which was waaay nicer than the place we stayed when my friends and I stayed in Cape Coast. In the afternoon, we made our way to Elmina. It is an enormous white fort on the coast of the Atlantic. It was a beautiful location for having such a dark history. We had a tour of the various dungeons and other rooms. It was unbelievable. I cannot imagine how someone could do such things to another human being and feel justified in doing so. You could see tally marks on the wall in one of the dungeons. Some slaves would not eat, preferring death over the life that was decided for them. There was also a church above one of the dungeons. Hmm...

I've already wrote about Kakum, so I won't tell you about the second trip there. We returned home after our trip to Kakum and were in Legon at 5:00 P.M. That night, Heather hosted us in her room on my floor, where we lamented over our roommate situations, and did some crafts.

On Monday, I witnessed the wildest storm I have seen here. I was in the internet cafe, when I heard things sliding around in the hallway outside the cafe, thunder, and people yelling. I thought we were being bombed! I went outside to see what the commotion was. Rain was pouring, the wind was blowing it sideways, and the sky was dark. I was drenched. So then I tried to return to the internet cafe. The hostel is set up so it's very open and breezy. There is an open courtyard, so all the rain that was coming down, was blowing on the the walkways and creating puddles everywhere. So when I tried to get into the cafe, the door swung open, and I went with it. I was sliding on the floor because their was a puddle right outside the door. The girl that worked in the cafe, who was by the way about a quarter of my size, tried to bring the door back in. The wind was so strong that when I got back in the room, she flew out, and I had to try to get her back in. Angela watched this from nearby and said it was the funniest thing she's seen in a while. I could only imagine how ridiculous I looked. That afternoon Twi was cancelled, so I met up with Nana Kwasi. We were going to go downtown to get a Cote D'Ivoirian visa, but it was too late in the day to do so. Instead, we met with his cousin, Angela, in Adenta, who has an organic pepper farm nearby. I am going to begin helping her with this farm. Kwasi's family members are as nice as he is. Angela actually lived in Dirty Jerz for a few years. Later that night, Kwasi taught me how to make cabbage stew and boiled yam. We ate with our hands like true Africans do, and it was delectable. Kwasi's a good cook. I like his style.

I have to go to class now, so I'm signing off. PEACE.