After several days in the Volta region, we passed through Accra again and headed west along the coast. Four hours from Accra we reached Cape Coast, a lively city with the feel of an overgrown village that was the original capital of Britain’s “Gold Coast,” Ghana’s colonial name.

Cape Coast was a very easy city to walk around — although it was hilly — and we spent a lot of time walking along curving roads and passing by smiling people going about their routines. Although it’s fairly large, everyone seemed to know each other. It reminded me a lot of La Ceiba, Honduras, where I lived for three years in the Peace Corps.
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I’m finally getting around to sharing some of our Ghana experiences with you. I really thought I would have done this one month ago, but readjusting to life in the States has been a strange thing, and I needed to put some time between West Africa and my resumption of life in Arizona.

Not that things in Phoenix are bad. On the contrary, after being in a daze for a few days after our January 17 return, we gradually got into the swing of our final trimester here. Abraham’s taking his final classes and looking for a job, I’m substitute teaching, and before you know it, we’ll be out of Arizona in May. So coming back here was necessary in order to move on with our lives.
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The same week we went to Guinea Bissau, we also went to the Casamance region of Senegal. Casamance is in the far southern part of the country, between the Gambia and Guinea Bissau. It is, without a doubt, my favorite part of Senegal. It is by far the greenest region, and the people are more relaxed, less uptight, and more genuine than the people in Dakar (sorry if I have offended any Dakarois — this is just a generalization). You have the feeling in the Casamance that people are without ulterior motives, that they genuinely want to be friendly to you.
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