Wednesday, September 3, 2008

A Glimpse of West Africa

The Cape Coast of southern Ghana is a fascinating place of beauty, interesting people and of unimaginable suffering. We traversed across shaking rope bridges that were over 40 meters (130+ feet) above the rainforest floor. The “Canopy Walk” was a means to experience the majesty of the rainforest from a birds eye view. It was like walking in the sky. The quivering bridge matched our quivering hearts as we clung to the rope bridge and tried to appreciate our environment as well as balance ourselves.




Abandze is home to a village of fisherman that ply their trade just as Peter and Andrew must have done in Biblical times. Many of them go to sea rowing their colorful boats against the pounding surf and then fish with nets that are pulled in by hand. As they leave the shore they all stand to pray to the “gods of the sea” for protection, since many of the fishermen do not know how to swim.




The Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle are stark reminders of the hundreds of thousands of people who were captured, bought and sold in the slave markets of West Africa and then loaded on ships bound for South America, Europe, the Caribbean, North America, Asia and the Arab world. These castle/forts illustrate the pain and suffering that was experienced by so many. It was a very sobering window into the past.




We had the joy of having our daughter Cristi with us here in Togo for about 3 weeks and we were able to share our world with her.



Blessings to all of you that are experiencing our blogsite.