Welcome Home CSU!: July 6, 2013

Courtney & Marlee

As we began our trek to a less modern Ghana, we left the capital for the city of Cape Coast. We saw coconut trees, many of which had been killed by a tree disease, great Kapok trees that the coffin makers use for their coffins, and many many small farming villages as we traveled west along the coast road from Accra to Cape Coast. But the thing that caught our attention most was the number of grass cutters and bush antelope for sale along the roadside as we traveled. 

We finally arrived at “Home”, the Fair Hill Guest House, and settled in. Once settled in, we walked about 30 minutes to see the ocean. When we arrived, we walked with Prof along the beach and saw several fishing boats and met some local fishermen who had just come in from a day's fishing and were checking their nets before stowing them in their boat (or "canoe" as it's referred to here). 

As we walked further we came across some Ghanaian men building a new fishing boat. The boats here are made out of the Wawa tree and can hold up to 22 people. These boats are all handmade and this boat, which was begun last week will be launched next week. We met the owner of the boat and his name was Don, just like Prof; and, just like Prof he's also a Tuesday-born boy so his "day name" is also Kobina! We are planning to return to see them launch the boat this Wednesday afternoon. 

We returned to the Fair Hill Guest House where we had dinner with special guests Ato and Thomas Baidoo. Ato is the founder and headmaster of Tuwohofo-Holly International School where we'll be teaching next week. Thomas is his elder brother, a retired school teacher and expert in the Fante language. We'll be taking a few Fante lessons from Thomas over the next two weeks. We had a lovely dinner with them and as we talked about the classrooms the team will be working in next week we all grew even more excited for Monday.