Hi all!

So I have left the center since my last post! I can't believe that my time there went by so quickly. The whole thing was great however the ending was bittersweet because I had yet another adventure which involved my foot and the hospital that kept me from dancing.

How this ended up happening- I am not quite sure. But basically there was a small patch of skin on my foot that got a little red and irritated- I though maybe from some hot wax that I had used to make cloth here (which was also super cool it's called batik and its basically an african tyedie but with cooler patterns)- or from my sandal- but it did not seem like a big deal. A day or two later I had a little cut on my foot- but still no big deal- and I assumed that my antibiotic cream would do the trick- WRONG! I woke up another morning and my foot had swelled 150% and I had this huge infection. So I went to the hospital- which was a five room building with no airconditioning and a long line to get it taken care of. However to make things worse- the hospital did not take credit cards or anything and I was down to my last 10 cedi( which is roughly 7.5 american dollars). So- thank god for good friends who lent me money ( since as I have said the nearest ATM was 1 1/2 hours away) and after a few tests, a few shots (during which one of the nurses practically scraped out the inside of my hand looking for my vein- I now have an erourmous bruise) things were better.
The big bummer of that long story is that ...... I didn't get to dance on friday night because of my foot- which I was super sad about.

But things are still plugging along- and yesterday took two three hour tro tro rides with a friend to the city of cape coast- which has a lot of historical importance because this was a major port along the trade route back in the day- for many things (gold, indigo etc)- but most importantly the slave trade. Today we visited the Cape Coast Castle which was one of the places that Africans were kept anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months before they were shipped off to America, or Europe or wherever. It was really powerful and sad to see the dungeons where a thousand people were crammed in- and to see the scratch marks on the wall and floor that were left over from desperate attempts to get out. Apparently during the 400 years of this slave trade about 40 million africans were taken from africa and another 20 million died before they made it to the ship- and those tallys did not even count children. This was a statistic I don't ever recall hearing before- and it pretty much floored me. I realized that , at least in my particular experience of american education, we learned a lot about slavery but it was all focused around the conditions in america- and it was a totally new and horrifying presepective to think about it from this side of the Atlantic.

Anyways- this has potential to turn into a rather depressing posting-so I want to assure you that things are still great- foot and all.

Otherwise I am starting to think about the next leg of my trip which is fast approaching. I can't wait to get some easy access to a mac to load some photos or videos on here- I think that it will really help share all that I am seeing here-- things are way different.

ok time is running low so got to go!
miss you all!
r

http://rebeccasworldadventure.blogspot.com