here are some pictures from our adventurous trip to Cape Coast a town that is on the ocean west of Tema past Accra. The picture of the orange van is our transportation. The drivers stayed with us all weekend, we payed 19 bucks for round trip and the drivers drove us all around all weekend long. It was a little rickety, i don't think they have shocks in their vehicles but it was safe and fun! the view of the ocean and all of those boats is the fishing village we stayed in Elmina, we visited a slave castle that was built in the 1400's by the portuegese and then taken by the dutch and then shut down by the british. it was a powerful tour to see the slave trade and how it took place quite atrocious and brutal it's like the holocaust of africa. The top picture on the right and left are of the local men building their fishing boat. they cut down a huge tree and dig out the center to make the base of the boat and then they buid up the sides it's huge and very heavy. I still don't understand how they don't get out to the ocean, it's a rough sea here they always have people get caught in the undertow! If people don't have a boat they tie the huge nets to a palm tree on shore and you see these lines of 20 people pulling the nets as the waves wash over them, you've got these little kids and these old men fishing off palm trees it's the oddest thing. The fisherman fish at night so at sunset they make their way out into the ocean and then at about 7am they come into town and everyone gathers on the bridge and sings and welcomes them back, like every morning, it's a huge celebration. The boats are very colorful and fun they owners paint them according to their liking there were some unites states boats lots of brazil boats all have bible verses on them or the face of Jesus which is kind of funny looking on the side of a boat. The Ghanian people are very superstitious from their fishing boats to their health when we take them in for surgery they often have beads everywhere, fetishes they are called and they are beads prayed over by the local priest or witch doctor or whomever. Anyhow the middle picture is of Nicole another nurse and one of the teachers, Ginny. One of the pictures is of a woman carrying a huge bowl of fish on her head. None of the women carry with their hands, why use your arms when you have a head, they carry everything on their head, a small bag of food to a sewing machine! We spent the day at the castle then at the beach and then on sunday we went to the rainforest here in Ghana they have a canopy walk of seven different bridges that are suspended 40 feet into the air. It was beautiful. On our drive home we stopped to buy pineapples for about 0.20cents a peice and avocados. Our drivers got a little excited and were bartering for bushbeet, which is any animal killed in the bush which in this case was antelope the size of a large jackrabbit! We lost our enthusiasm for buying from the side of the road at that point. all in all it was a great trip! very adventurous. :)