After a nice long night with electricity, WOOHOO, we got up filled up our buckets for a ‘lovely’ shower we had some cheese and marmalade on toast which went down a treat. We walked to the school and met up with our buddies (mines called Kofi meaning Friday born). After a quick meet up we made our way to the coach some of us were on a nice comfy mini bus whereas the others were put on the bumpy big bus.
After a 20 minute drive we made it to the Cocoa farm in Simiw which is just two villages away. So we went to the Cocoa farm. Whilst in the Cocoa farm we saw the normal and hybrid cocoa plants (the hybrids being bigger than the regulars). During the tour some of us had the delight of being eaten alive!!! After a quick presentation on the different foods including cocoa, bananas, plantain and palova, some of these we had been eating with our tea.
After another bumpy ride on the coach We then set our sights for Elmina Castle. We had to drive through the fishing port which proved very difficult for the bus as there were people EVERYWHERE! Before we started the tour we all made sure that we knew not to give our names or addresses to anyone, SAFETY FIRST, we started off by looking in the Portuguese church which had pictures and facts about the cultures of Ghana before the Europeans arrived. We then were shown were the women slaves stayed during the slave trade, it was DISGUSTING! We then made our way to the ‘ROOM OF NO RETURN’ which is pretty self explanatory. After the tour we went to the gift shop were everything was super cheap bracelets and necklaces cost from 1-5 cedi and backpacks costing 30 cedi which is equivalent to £6!
After a quick pit stop for some well deserved drinks we finally got back to the seminary for some lunch and then made our way back to the village for the cultural exchange.
When we got to the school we sat down and watched some of the pupils perform a play based on how they get married it got a bit confusing but we managed to understand it. Then it was our turn me and some of the others Brownedge pupils got up and perform a dance that we had been working on to 1Direction Best Song Ever (not my song choice) but they seemed to enjoy it so we taught our buddies the chorus and then taught them splat. After the cultural exchange had finished we all played a HUGE game of 7 up. When we made it back to the seminary we had some nut ground soup and rice balls. We all then got ready for bed and got some well needed sleep to get ready for what awaited us the following day.
Bye for now!
-Raife Cooper