July 5th Crocs

We are now in Cape Coast, a small coastal town. We are staying at Hans Botel. Not hotel, but Botel. The owner made up the word, it is half hotel and half botanical garden. The hotel was built around a crocodile habitat. The small lake has 40 crocodile that live in it.. The crocs were there before the people. We were able to touch this croc as he had just eaten, so it was pretty safe! :-) We took a paddle boat ride through the lake and survived.

July 7 Clinic & Canopy Walk

Waiting room

Today we did an outreach clinic in the morning. The medical students all helped with taking blood pressures, weighing, and take diabetes blood tests. Then the resident physician assistant talked to everyone who had problems and prescribed meds. We saw about 200 people (women, children and men) in a 4 hr period. The people come from all over. Do not make appointments but they spread the word that medical personnel will be at a specific location at a specifics time so they all just come. I helped with crowd control. My Olympic experience came in handy! These people are so warm and hospitable! After we finished at the clinic we went up to the school which was right beside us. My daughter Lisa had brought two soccer balls to give to a school so she give to this one! They were so appreciative of it. We took some awesome pictures!

Me & the Kids

Students waiting to help

After the clinic and school we went to the Kakum National Park.it is a beautiful rainforest! It is in the central region and covers 145 sq miles. It is the only place in Africa where there is a canopy walkway which is 350 meters long and connects 7 treetops! It is like walking on a network of suspension bridges that are only a foot wide and 130-160 feet from the ground!

Mama's & Babies

The mother carry their babies on their backs until they are old enough to walk. After the babies are born, the mothers have to take them back for their new baby checkup. When they come (of course in many cases they have walked many miles to get to the clinic) they are all dressed in white. Apparently this quite a site to see the mothers all coming with their newborns dressed in white with their dark skin.  In many cases the mother will have a baby on her back and a huge load on her head.How they can carry so much is amazing.  When you watch them walking their upper body does not sway, it is totally upright. In this pic she is holding her wares, but many times, they do not.

Village

Village

We visited a small village which is typical of the rural areas.  Here are some pics. 

Village

Shea Tree

This village makes shea butter for so their livelihood. Here is a pic of the shea tree which produces the nuts. These nuts are dried and then the seeds are extracted. The seeds are then roasted and ground using a mortar type mallot. Then they are sent to a grinding mill for finer grinding. When it comes back it is butter.

Village Chief

Roasting the seeds

Here is the Village Chief.  He wanted to marry my Granddaughter! LOL! He has been Chief for 54 years and will continue until he dies. This village has four families who rotate the chief position. When a chief died, it rotates to the next family. Our guide was of the royal family but not of the current chief. He said he could become chief someday if it comes around to him.

July 6 Slaves

Today we toured one of many facilities along the African coastline which housed Africans who were captured and put into slavery. It was so sad. There had been over 3M slaves through that facility alone and there would be between 300-400 men, women and children in that particular location at one time. Squished into windowless rooms with only a pot in the corner to relieve themselves. If they tried to escape and were caught they were put in a cell with a few slots in the door and left there to die...no food or water. The slots in the door were used to see if they were dead. When they were dead, they took them out and threw them into the sea. So sad. Much more to tell but need to get to bed. Will post later

July 3rd Kings Palace

We visited the King Palace today. He was away though. The palace was built in 1925 by the British. Upon the return from exile of the Asantehene Nana Prempeh I from the Seychelles Islands, the building was offered to him for use as his residence. This was because prior to the Asantehene's exile, his old palace had been burnt down in the a war. The war was fought between the British and the Asantes because of the refusal of the Asantehene to give the Golden stool to the then governor of the Gold Coast. The King sits on the Golden Stool whenever he conducts royal business. Prempeh I only accepted the palace back after he had paid for the cost of the building in full.Two kings lived in the palace, namely Otumfuo Prempeh I and Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, the 13th and 14th Kings of the Asante Nation. The old palace was converted into a museum in 1995 after the new palace was built.Opoku Ware II was the first king to live in the new palace, which he occupied until his death in 1999. Asantehene Osei Tutu II, currently resides in the new palace. They have wax figures of the previous kings in the museum. They are so real looking it was scary! In the courtyard are drums and chairs and boat-type woven carrying baskets which are used to transport the king from place to place. The King is carried in these baskets as he does not walk long distances. The selection of the King is via matriarchal order. She selects the king but the King selects the First Lady. So currently the First Lady is the current king's mother. It was a little confusing. Selections are only made from the Royal Family. They had certain artifacts in the museum (the palace is now a museum and the King lives in another building on the same site--didn't know if I mentioned this). Anyway, the artifacts are just stored there and are used currently for certain occasions. Every 6th Sunday the King receives homage from his people and it is a big ceremony. Cool eh?

July 2 Sword in the Stone

We went to Okomfo Anokye Hospital. This is a historical site in Ghana as well as a teaching hospital (like the University Hospital). Okomfo Anokye was a spiritual leader in the Asante Kingdom which is located in the city of Kumasi.Kumasi is the capital of the Asante Kingdom. Asante was the most powerful empire in the West Africa region during the 18th century. The Asante kingdom was larger then the current day country of Ghana. The first king of Asante was King Osei Tutu I and Okomfo Anokye was his closest advisor. In time Osei Tutu I founded the Asante kingdom. The site of the hospital is where the Asante kingdom was organized in 1697. It included 11 divisional chiefs. It is stated that the fingernails and some of each chief's hair was burned into a black powder which was mixed for all the chiefs to drink. The rest was buried in the ground where Okomfo Anokye planted his sword. He stated that if anyone removed the sword it would mark the collapse of the Asante empire. We saw this sword today, embedded on the hospital grounds.

Talk about King Arthur and the sword in the stone. This was real! Okomfo's sword has been in the same place since 1697 and cannot be removed. Countless people have tried too remove it but have failed. In 1964 Mohammed Ali came to Kumasi for two weeks and tried to remove the sword but was unsuccessful. It is said in 1950, when the hospital was being constructed, the contractor, a Mr Gee, tried to remove the sword using a bulldozer. He mentions that he had planned to use the bulldozer many times but he when actually tried, the sword would disappear and reappear weeks later. I found this so interesting!

July 1st

There are over 4M people in this city! The poverty is tremendous! The women all walk so straight as they usually have things on their heads. These are some of the things I have seen on their heads. 100#of sugar, large metal bowl with a plethora of items from bags/bottles of water, a 2x3 wooden box filled with loaves of homemade bread, a full meal including a huge pot filled with food with other bowls that are also filled, clothes, fabric, household items ---new pots, plastic ware, toilet paper/towels.

Anything you can think of. We are traveling in a large bus with big windows. When we are stopped in traffic, people come up to our windows to try to sell us things. It's like Walmart on the go! This is how they make their living. You can get pretty much anything. I have seen candy, small office supplies (pens/pencils), household items, veggies, other food, water etc.

Venders in wooden shack-like booths sell their wares. Again, you can get anything - tires, appliances, furniture. We even saw caskets!! The main roads are paved but all the side streets are dirt. The dirt is red like Southern Utah. When it rains you can imagine that it is a total mud pit! When the rain clears though, they go around and fill up the holes just like how we fix our asphalt roads.

They have regular car taxis but also larger mini van type vehicles. They seat 15 people normally, but we have seen them backed in. We went to church and actually used one of these taxis but kept picking up people who were also going with us. We ended up with 21 people in our taxi! Apparently if you see a taxi coming on the same direction that you are going, you just flag him down, pay 1CD and get off wherever you need to. The currency is 3CD to 1US dollar. So it is pretty cheap. So of course the taxi drivers want to get as many people in their taxis as they can.