Day 17 (August 11)

A few of us got up at daybreak to catch the golden hour down by the piers. I had read that Ghana had a very active fishing community in Accra and I wanted to see it. Akunz and David kindly agreed to pick us up at the hotel and show us around.

Something I noticed pretty quickly was the number of people gathered by the piers. The people washing boats, cooking fish, repairing lines, and going out to sea was endless. No sooner than I began to take photos of the scene, were we reprimanded by a man carrying a large bench. "Don't take photographs without permission, someone is going to get really angry at you!!"

Akunz motioned for me to put my camera away. "He's right, people here can be grumpy."

Soon the man came back. He quickly explained something to Akunz and then mentioned all of us to follow him. He led us into a relic of a building and into a small office decorated with a large metal filing cabinet in the corner, a bulky brown captain’s desk, and a smallish man with glasses.

"So what exactly do we need to do?" Akunz asked the two men. The man who carried the bench spoke up first- you need to sign the guest book!" He pointed assertively toward the clerk behind the desk. The clerk bent down and retrieved a giant red book from one of the drawers of the desk.
"Please, we need you to sign this," the clerk said
"Okay then, I'll sign for everyone." Akunz said smiling
"Okay" the clerk said
"Now what?"
"Well, we need money. The fee is 20,000 cedis per person."
"Reduce it." Akunze said politely "We will give you 10,000 cedis each"
"Okay." the clerk said
Akunz handed him a five pesawa note (new Ghanaian cedi equivalent to about five dollars) and ushered us out the door chuckling to himself. Like many Ghanaians Akunz is very good at getting things done. This is one of his many qualities I admire.
The man had followed us out and was now our guide. This was good- he found us a kind of hidden place among the boats. He assured me that I could take photos here, just not of individual people.
What we saw was amazing- everything was very exciting there. Our guide explained to us that there was more people than usual because there was a celebration taking place. I took as many photos as I could- and wished sorely I had brought my better camera. It was beautiful- the entire beach was covered in a light fog and the morning light was still a reddish-orange. We only spent a half an hour by the beach before heading up the large stone stairway for the view. Although some people were still very adverse to being photographed some people outright demanded they be in a shot. One man came and introduced himself to me on the stairs and asked me an interesting question.
"How do you see this place?"
"I think its beautiful, and alive, and different." I said
He nodded and said, that’s good, I'm glad you got the chance to see it. Other people waved and said hello as we continued toward a small community formed on top of the building alive with morning activities. It was a collection of small tin
shelters, smoke from people cooking, clothing lines, basins, and a thousand other things I didn't have the chance to see. People there were the most interesting to me- they seemed tougher, rowdier somehow- I wish we could have stayed longer. We passed some children playing an energetic game of foosball and winded our way from between the buildings and on to the street. Soon we found another place to view the beach. A few men were talking at the entrance of a very old building. One of the men was sitting on an old fashioned cannon.

This man called me over to him and introduced himself. He began talking about working on a cruise ship and traveling the world. He also pointed to a building directly across from him. It was tightly locked by a giant metal door. This was a slave fort and prison, the infamous Fort Ussher.

This man had connections and soon we were behind the door.

The building was built in 1649 by the Dutch as a holding place for slaves. After this, the fort was used for many years as a prison. The last residents of the fort were refugees from Sudan. Now, they have it closed to the public (except for the occasional visitors who get lucky like us).

The tour was really a sad one. It is hard to believe that people endured this kind of torture. My heart especially went out to those that were captured to be sold into slavery. What a dark period in the world’s history!

By the time we returned to the hotel it was time for lunch. All of us traveled with the GAPNET crew (Akunz, Isaac, and David) to a nearby restaurant and then down to the market for some last minute gift shopping.

After this, we had only a small amount of time before we had to leave. I went down to the beach with David and Akunz to look at the sea, to say our goodbyes, and to exchange our gratitude to each other for the successful experience.

We all got to take some last minute photos before we left and before we knew it we were on the flight back home!

--Danielle