Cape Coast Castles

I spent a little less then a week in the central city of Cape Coast. Cape Coast is definately the most historic city in the world in terms of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade.



Cape Coast is home to the two largest slave forts/castles in Africa and Ghana has 40 such forts all along the coast. The various forts were all built by either the Portugese, British, or Dutch who all fought one another in Ghana for control of the slave trade. I think this castle was featured in the Spielberg film "Amistad"

While in Cape Coast my friend Kofi took me to his neighborhood in Cape Coast and while we were walking I saw a place called "Tel-Aviv Spot". I asked him about it and he said the owner was a Ghanian lady who lived in Israel for awhile. I went inside and had a nice talk and a beer with the lady.

The castle was amazing and the dungeons and cells were haunting as well. The castle has a door (door of no return) which is the door you were sent out of when you left to be sold off in the new world. Since this was the largest slave fort it is likely that if you are a black American whose ancestors came here as slaves, one of them may have likely walked through that door as most African-Americans are West African descendants from the Ghana region.
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I made a lot of friends in Cape Coast and recieved invitations to come and stay with different Ghanians who were in Cape Coast to vote in the runoff but live in various regions from all over Ghana. I will take some of them up on the offer

Updated post with pictures and videos

I've updated the last post with pictures and some videos as well. Tomorrow morning I'm going to Cape Coast which is the sight of the two largest slave forts/castles in Africa. I should be able to have some internet access there so I will try to update from there.

Happy Hanukah and Merry Christmas to all!

Back from the Beach

Sorry for the extended absence from the blog. I traveled around 5 hours west to a portion in the country where I had no electricity much less internet. I took a bus to Takoradi which is the third largest city in Ghana and is about a 40 minute drive from the beach area there. The beach there is amazing in both beauty and its swimmer friendly current. The first place I went to is called Busua Beach and it is a tiny little place that has about 5 or so places for sleeping accomdation, one local pub, and the rest is part of a small tiny village. I stayed there for three nights in a small lodge called Busua Inn which is owned by a nice French couple. It is right on a beautiful beach with a lovely island about half a mile away in the water. I went to meet my friend Fabio there who comes to Ghana every year from Italy and has a well deserved repuation as the most cheap person, ever! He is known everywhere he goes as the guy who won't ever buy anything at a restaraunt. It was quite funny. He also walks around Africa with an esspresso maker from home as well as he haggles his way across the tiny market in order to buy himself supplies to make Tomato sauce for his fish which he buys and then eats over three days! After Busua beach I headed to another beach with a few British people I met. The name of the second beach has no name and is simply known as the Green Turtle Lodge which is a small few huts built on the beach 4 years ago by a young British couple. The place has no electricity and the electricity that does exist there is for light in the eating area and heat for the kitchen and it supplied by solar power. About half a mile from the Green Turtle Lodge is a small village called Akwibba of about 2,000 people that has no electricity, industry, or anything else. The village is the only inhabited place next to the lodge for 30 kilometers. I along with my friends John and Nick went often to the village to play with the kids. Everyone there is very friendly and the kids surround you and beg you to play with them until your energy is drained. My friend Nick opted to buy a big sack of small water bags to hand out to the kids which turned into a near riot between the kids as they simply ripped the bags apart as they tried to claw them from one another. In retrospect it was probably not the best idea to bring water as stronger kids simply took it from the weaker kids. Now I'm back in Accra, the capital, and will be heading somewhere in the next day or so that will hopefully have some electricity as well as some internet to go along with it. Kids dancing (and punching at village)
More cute kid moments

Experiencing elections, Ghanaian style

I spent election day with a nice Ghanaian guy named Daniel who works in the hotel. I asked him when and where he was going to vote so he invited me to join him in the neighborhood behind the hotel and we went to the polls, talked local politics, and I got introduced to the entire neighborhood where we sat down in a local bar in what is a very friendly shantytown.

While we were walking he gets a call from his sister who I find out has lived in Israel for 15 years and is a musician and model in Israel who married an Israeli and is now separated but is actually an Israeli citizen. He passed me the phone and I spoke to her in Hebrew and she was in shock that I'm walking around her neighborhood in Africa and speaking Hebrew to her while she is in Israel! It trully is a small world

So we went to the polls and he voted without incident and as I'm typing this the election results are being counted out every 5 seconds from the various districts as ballots are hand counted in Ghana. I'll be uploading a lot of video from today so be patient as it will take some time, so come back to this post if you only see a few videos.

If this is what starving looks like I'd like a famine

I've been eating like a king from Ghanaian food to Lebanese food to even a Mexican restaraunt in my hotel that is the only Mexican food in West Africa. The Lebanese food is great as it usually is and there are many places that serve it.



The Ghanaian food is great. I love it, need it, got it, get it, good! I've ate a number of Ghanaian dishes that are often stews with meat cooked with eggs, and a ton of spices that are then poured in a plate and the choice of carb product to eat it with depends usually on how much the person can afford. The basic carb element most Ghanaians who are poor eat is called FUFU, which is a horrible peace of starch that you shove into your food. The other and much better choices to eat your food with are banku which is made from fermented corn, then of course there is rice. Rice balls here are also a good choice to eat your food with but my favorite is just spilling whatever goodies they give me over some Yams.!!!! Chocolate here is amazing!! Even a bar of Cadbury's you pick up at the local gas station is great. The reason chocolate here is so good is it authentic chocolate as it used to be made, meaning no substitutions for butter or synthetic chemicals to make the chocolate last longer on the shelf. It's simply says on the ingredients Cocoa Butter, milk, sugar. Saturated Fat content you might ask? Try about 73%! But its worth every heart attack I imagine

Sorry for delay but yes I'm still alive

I arrived late Friday Night Ghana time. I also arrived without my baggage but more on that later. So the hostel I went to was really out of the way in the Pacoima of Accra.

I haven't taken pictures yet as I was stuck with my jeans and shoes for 30 hours in the brutal African heat but I'm currently typing this post on a highspeed internet terminal with a webcam but no mic although I'll get one tomorrow.

So my vacation pretty much started this morning.

The people of Ghana are quite possibly the friendliest people on earth without a doubt. Very cool and they also all make me feel really, really, tall as they are all about 5 feet 5 tall. (This keyboard doesn't have quotes)

Yesterday was possible one of the scariest experiences of my life while this morning was great.

Shall I start with the bad or the good, hmmmm, the bad of course!

17 of us on my flight didn't get our luggage so they told us when we arrived that we'd all get our baggage (That was left in Frankfurt) on the the tomorrow's flight. Anyway we all arrived early and waited 5 hours till we got it.

We had to wait at the baggage claim which has a customs section as well. To make a long story a little shorter they started telling us that as soon as they are done "video documenting" the contents of our bag they will bring them down for customs inspection. We were all a bit shocked but we all of course wanted our bags.

There was me, a Ghanaian guy who sat next to me all the way who also lives in LA, two teenage German kids, a very shady looking Russian guy in his late 40's with a ponytail and a cheap gold necklace and acouple other German speaking Ghanian immigrants. We are all waiting.

What happens next?????????? The customs guy brings two identical yellow suitcases with combination locks and places them on the table. He starts to ask "whose bags are these? Nobody says a word though the Russian guy looks extremely nervous and we all look at him. Then they pretend to have information on the combination but I was pretty sure that these types of old suit cases aren't allowed and if it was that suspicous then of course he'd smash it open. Yet he puts them aside for now.

Then about an hour later the customs guy tells us we have to sign that our bags and all contents in them are ours before they can be inspected. Considering we hadn't seen these bags in 36 hours, everyone starts to really sweat it at this point as we all think that they may have really put something in our bags especially after that twin yellow bag trick they pulled.

The poor German kids were so scared they said to hell with it and actually LEFT THEIR BAGS and didn't want to take a chance. While I was nervous to death I called their bluff even though I was scared to death and gotmy back as did everyone else.

It was a scam to get people to abandon their bags so then they can just take them home which is exactly what those germans kids had to do. I made it out of their with my bag and that was that.

This morning I walked down what has to be the most Jesus Freak street on earth.

Within 300 meters I first received Jehovah Witness pamphlets, less then 30 meters after that I see a Mormon church coupled with a couple of Ghanian mormons in yes you guessed it, white shirt, pants, and a 10 speed bike.

Then about 30 meters away I get surrounded by a group of Ghanians with ISRAEL flags all telling me it is my duty under god to support Israel!!!!

5% of all taxicabs have an Israeli flag on their rear view mirror, and every major intersection has a guy selling Ghanian, American, and you guessed it Israeli flags.

About 45 seconds after that I hear the craziest sounds coming from a church service and I sort of sneak in to have a look and I see that they are all Pentecostals and speaking in Tongue!!!

Every cab has a Jesus name, or something from the bible as do manys stores.
-Psalm 27 tire shop
-Super Jesus taxi service
-Jesus loves you (but he loves me more) bumper stickers
-Jesus plumbing
- Mr. Jesus liquor store
-Israel Towing

Tomorrow I'm gonna walk down to the market and videotape me eating everything they got!!!!!!!!

4 days to go

Hi everyone. Welcome to my Africa blog

My next entry in this blog will be from Africa, in Ghana, on Nov. 28th or 29th. I will try to keep this journal up-to-date while I'm away at least once a week and I will make daily posts when I'm in areas with internet access.

I'll be posting videos, photos and all the interesting, embarassing, and strange stories that will probably accompany them.

I promise not to hold back anything (almost anything). Everyone is welcome to leave comments.

In case some of you have never heard of places like Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso and are wondering where the hell in Africa Ghana is, just know you aren't the only ones!

Here is a map and some links on Ghana. So if you're a bit curious as to where the hell I'm going and what sort of place it is..... Then read up!

Remember this is WEST Africa, our president's (or soon to be) daddy is from Kenya (The other side of Africa).

A little hint to remembering the difference between East and West Africa:

Think East Africa when you think of the following:

safaris, zebras, lions, hippos, Obama's dad, the movie "Blackhawk down", skinny Ethiopians

For West Africa remember the following:

"Blood Diamond", the Slave trade (Ghana is where most were shipped from), ANNOYING emails from fake princes and Oil Ministers offering you $50,000,000 if you'll only send them a $100 money order first, child soldiers