Ghana by bus

• Fresh off ship, large containers and trucks filled with cocoa, the smell of vinegar and fermentation, Takoradi taxi, Sunday market, charcoal and plantains, paint and burning rubber, hot sun hustling, STC bus to Kumasi, 5 hour ride, sit and stare at the countryside, THIS is Africa

• Kumasi, Presbyterian guest house, cooler nights, eggs and toast, new day, largest open air market in W. Africa, plastic bowls, cow hooves, kente cloth, assorted clothing, hordes of people, overpopulated? pungent odors, decaying trash bags, voices, claustrophobia, equatorial heat and sweat, 70% of the world will be urban by 2050, will it all be like this?

• Visited a cocoa farm today, rich resources of cocoa and fruit trees, economic poverty and illiteracy, lots of questions, certifications and value to small farmer livelihoods, six deep taxi ride, police checkpoints mishaps, returning in a pile of dust, parched mouth and lips, eyes wide open

• Africa is beautiful chaos, smiling faces, dark skin, people, books and culture, Kente cloth, bright colors, long tradition, pride of the Asanti kingdom, kings and weavers, twee not English

• Accra, the capital of Ghana, traffic, fumes, women carrying goods for sale, tattered buildings, no skyscrapers, long taxi rides, more cedis, road projects, bustling all hours, the next Cape Town? polite children in school uniforms, parents picking up their kids from school, ordinary people, paint, dirty hands, smiling faces, intercultural exchange, love, understanding, travel, Freedom in Creation.

• Touring the castle and dungeons of Cape Coast, 16th century history, millions of slaves, British, Portuguese, Spanish, human capital, cheap commodities, profit, pitch black dungeons, 15 x 45ft / 200 + men, feces, flies, no food or water, death for many, slavery for the rest, a minority rules the weak, system perpetuates injustices, economic oppression… modern day times, cocoa, mining, brick making, farmer households and child labor, governments, multinationals and the poor, has slavery ended?

• Fufu with Ron and Gretchen, shade = shelter from the equatorial sun, reflection on the days behind, new friends, one last taxi ride and conversation, filth and exhaustion, back in Takoradi, the ship, farewell Ghana