The ENTIRE country is ALIVE! I’m sitting out on the darkened porch fighting mosquitoes like no tomorrow and Ghana just scored – major noise coming from all homes nearby – every type of noise imaginable, cheering, screaming, yelling, crying, chanting, horns, whistles and metal bells clanging! I’m in the country and I hear this sustained noise everywhere across the countryside! Now the music has started and people are singing! Uruguay has a long history of appearances in the World Cup, Ghana does not and has the power of the entire continent behind them as they are the only African team left in the tournament.
I’m sitting out here enjoying a 650ml Club, putting the wraps on a fun day. We toured the countryside visiting small projects and schools that YCC Ghana is directly involved with. We ended up in Aflao, the border town with Togo and Ghana. Everyone was wearing Ghana flags and Ghana colors, some had been obviously partying all day and were quite drunk. “We are Africa’s team” they yelled “Ghana, Ghana, Ghana” they kept chanting!
If these, the crumbling, decaying walls at Fort Prinzenstein could talk the sustained pain of the people they housed would power the simultaneous detonation of 100 nuclear bombs. These walls should be left to rot and crumble and turn into the sand that surrounds them yet at the same time they should be left standing to serve others as a grim reminder of what happened in this part of Africa. The fort we visited was built in 1784 by the Danish to house male and female Africans before starving them (so they would be weak for the trip and theoretically would not mount a revolt) weeks prior to putting them on small boats and taking them to what is now the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. Bathing was done in small concrete walls built into the fort, after bathing the water was saved for the slaves to drink. Seeing the small dungeon and chains built in the floor combined with the brutality described by our guide, was enough to make one sick.
Kids in one of the schools that YCC Ghana is involved with
Woman selling roasted dried corn cobbs by side of dirt road
Leave a Reply