Tuesday, January 4, 2011

A fee she yay paa!

The title means Happy new year! Spelled phonetically of course (I don't know how to spell it in Twi)... it's always interesting saying that to Ghanaians and they Laugh because they are so excited that I can speak Twi!  (It's equally interesting eating Banku on the street and having all the trotros drive by and people stare at you and laugh!)

Things are going very well here! I'm know in Kumasi on a week long retreat to reflect and debrief and prepare for the upcoming work placement period, where we will all separate as a group until March.  I'm very much looking forward to this part of the trip.

Before I get into that, let me start from where I left off.  After leaving Ho, we headed to Akwidaa Beach and the green turtle ecotourism outfit.  They do some really cool things there and a lot of the profits go directly to helping the turtles.  It was a BEAUTIFUL place and we camped on the beach.  It was awfully strange being completely surrounded by foreigners... but we befriended some folks from Syngapore and had a real good time.  We spent alot of our time at the lodge exploring the town nearby, which was a quaint (and amazing) fishing village off the coast... (we also ate here because the lodge was charging 10 Cedis a plate... where we can eat all 3 meals for far less than 2 in town... and better food.)

This experience at green turtle helped me appreciate the awesome experience I'm having here in Ghana... though it was a great experience in itself (a 20-foot bonfire at midnight on New years on a beach... very nice!)

Anyway, we changed our plans and headed to Cape Coast for a night after having spent enough time at the lodge.  Cape Coast is VERY exciting.  It's a big city, but smallish.  Right on the ocean.  I'm looking very much forward to moving there!  While there, we visited Cape Coast Castle.  It was, in a word, intense.  The Castle is where slaves were kept during the slave trade.  It was powerful to see, I'll leave it at that.

That's it for now!  Only three more months here and I know it will pass far too quickly.  I hope everyone had a great and safe new years!  I can't wait to see you!

Oh and how can I forget! For all you Katimavik employees who know us, I met up with Steve Day for a couple days!  It was nice to hang out with someone from home!

That's all for now!
I'm still happy, healthy, learning a lot and having fun!  What more can I ask for?

Peace and Love!

Matty

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