Abruni-White folk

Day 3

Our relatively sleepless night ended in an early start this morning at the crack of dawn. aka 6 a.m. We got to be tourists today and visit some cool sites. First we went to the Kaukum National Park for a canopy walk. BEWARE OF HEIGHTS. It was basically the Amazon, but with all the animals scared away. Its much too noisy for any sane animal to be within eyesight. Anyways, it was pretty much creaky boards nailed together the hotdog way with ropes to hold on to at arm's length (for a false sense of security) about three stories above the floor of the rainforest. P.S. no one died.
Next stop, Elmina, to visit the slave castle along the coast. We took a tour and lots of pictures. It was very powerful and we learned quite a bit. You could feel the mist of the ocean in the air, and the sand was unbelievably soft, but unfortunately covered in garbage and decomposing fishies. The city of Elmina is in extreme poverty-it really made us think about how good we have it.....
Before we left the house this morning, Andrea gave us a few tips. Stephanie and I had trouble...
#1. Avoid eye contact with the street vendors (tons of children with products in bowls and baskets carried on their heads.) The reason being, they will automatically assume that they can persuade you to make a purchase. They are extremely persistent and it's really hard to turn them down. They're good at what they do... We feel so compelled to help them. #2. Never tell them your name. They will find you later and have bracelets or seashells with your name on them. They make you feel bad if you don't purchase them, because who else would they sell a Stephanie bracelet to? And that is why Stephanie will never forget her name. She ended up with two bracelets and a seashell. She also gave away her hat and sunglasses and emptied the food from her bag, which is a little bit crazy. It sounds super compassionate and awesome of her, but she pretty much just cracked (she wanted me to make sure you understand it was out of love. :) )
But don't worry, we will try to tame her down a bit so she doesn't come back to America in the nude.
Then we went to Cape Coast to shop and see the beach. Colette, Paulette, Stephanie and Barb took pictures by the ocean while the rest of us wandered. I found so much awesome stuff, the team began to worry I would run out of money on my third day in Ghana. Katie and Caity played futbol with the kids in a dirt lot in the middle of town. They had a lot of fun and got a great workout, too. Alex and I sat on the curbs with the younger kids and goofed around. Then Andrea sent us to a vendor friend of hers for some good deals on Ghanaian fabric. Even Alex got into that shopping.