February 7th, 2011  (7:48 pm- GMT)

OKAYYY- so Africa is amazing. It is my second day here, and so far I love it. It is definitely a change of environment from the states/brazil. Our ship is docked in Takoradi, and the town is not very westernized by any means. The ship didn't clear customs until around 9:30 am, which an hour and a half later than it should've been. Anyway, Meghan and I had an SAS trip yesterday morning, so we were scheduled to leave around 10- so we had to rush in line to get off the ship in time. We had a 2 hour bus ride to Cape Coast, where we saw the Cape Coast Castle. It was really interesting and literally unbelievable. If you have never heard of the cape coast castle, it is where the slave dungeons were located, right on the coast, and where they held the slaves, before taking them through the middle passage to the Americas. It was really intense seeing the conditions that the slaves had been held... and really made me wonder how it could ever have happened.  Our tour guide was really amazing and helped us all to understand the whole concept of the castles. After Cape Coast we went to a little beach resort and had lunch, which was actually really good. After lunch we went to another slave castle, called Elmina Castle.. which was actually beautiful, until you heard the stories and saw the dungeons. Elmina was where they had all the slaves that eventually went over to Brazil.
        We got back from the castles around 5pm, and I took a nap before a few of us went over the the little bar across from the ship where everyone was drinking before the superbowl game.  I only stayed there until around 11, when the game started and then head over to the ship with a few people where we watched the game in the union (somehow the ship managed to broadcast the game over the internet).  I was cheering for the steelers, because as a bears fan... no chance I wanted to Packers to win. But, I only made it through half time before I went to bed (around 1 am our time).  
        This morning Maggi and Collen left for their homestay at 4am and Laurel and I had our FDP today at 7:30. We went with our Human Origin class to the Kakum National Park where we went on a Canopy walk (which was very high up in the trees!), but it was a blast.  We then went to lunch at some restaurant which was pretty good, and then went out to see a bamboo orchestra and dance. It was really fun... although we were all dying in the humidity, but we got to dance with the performers which was a lot of fun.  
        We just got back to the ship around 5 or so... and then we had some dinner and are trying to plan out our next few days.   Meghan and I, and a guy we just met named Dan are all getting up at 7am to go on a Habitat for Humanity trip, all day. We think we might head out to Accra tomorrow night (but its 4 hours away). Or we might wait it out until Wed. and spend the day at the beach instead.  I guess it will be a last minute call, but either way it should be fun.

Okay- going to the gym before they shut off the water (which apparently we have to do from 10pm-6am every night in Ghana to preserve water).

Hope everyone is doing great back in the US.  Congrats kinda to all my friends who are packers fans... and I hope you all had fun celebrating.   

Hopefully I'll get real internet on Wed and be able to call some of you.  MISSS YOU ALLLLL

peace.