A rainy lazy Sunday at the Cape Coast

Hello all,
I am still at the Cape Coast and it looks like we will be here another day as the car is in the shop and it is raining on and off.

The Cape Coast is beautiful and I love the sounds of the ocean waves and so it is not a bad place to be stuck!

Yesterday on Sunday, we were able to visit the Cape Coast Castle which is different from the Elmina Castle- they are both here in this area. The Cape Coast Castle is the one from which many slaves were brought to America. Again, it was so unbelieveable to be in the very rooms where so many Africans suffered and died. It makes it so much more real than the history books that we studied growing up. The conditions that the slaves were in at Cape Coast were so horrible and they were there often for six months. It is just so sad that this happened. So sad.

We were supposed to go to a funeral. We were so excited as the family knew we were coming and were happy to have us join in the festivities. Molly and I were really looking forward to it. We went to the area where the funeral party was set up and there was music blaring. The music was very upbeat and positive. The focus was on that the deceased was in a better place and so this was a time to party. Not only do they party but it is a place for singles to meet. Basically if you are on the lookout for a mate, you go to a funeral. I told Edward of how TR and I met on a blind date. He said his family would not approve of meeting a marriage partner on a blind date. He said he would have to tell his family they met at a funeral instead and that they would prefer that. So anyway, the funeral was rained out and they started packing up.

I picked up Selina's traditional outfit which was sewn the night before by a kind woman that did not want pay to do this for me. Anyone who knows me knows that will not work for me and so she accepted a monetary gift as I told her I would be so happy if she would go and get beautiful material to make something lovely for herself. She was very pleased. I also took her picture with the outfit. She cleared the area, brought her sewing macine out and pretended to be sewing in the picture which I thought was a hoot. She was so pleased to have her picture taken and then to get to see herself. She smiled so big to see herself. It was a wonderful memory.

Molly and I missed the drummers. We had heard that there were drummers on the beach on Friday and Saturday nights. We were so excited to go and see them. Apparantly there are no drummers here, no one remembers there being drummers and we seem crazy for asking if people were going to play the drums on the beach. We were bummed about that as we were looking so forward to it.

We also had a laugh about tipping. I guess you are supposed to leave a tip at the hotel here on the bed when you leave the room for the staff when they clean. We did not know this and so the first day, we were missing one hand towel and the second day we only got a bath mat and no hand towels and no bath towels. Coincidence- you decide but we called and asked for towels which came a few hours later. We had already left the room but we left a note with a tip for the towels. We got back and had extra towels. This morning the lady that cleans our rooms approached me in the walkway to ask if we were leaving. I explained our delay, verified that she cleaned our rooms the last few days and gave her a tip. I think the world is all good and we are at peace again here.

I also want to comment on menus here. Menus are an idea of what things may be on the menu. In waitress terms a lot of things are "86" (out of stock). The description of food is again, a general idea of what may come to your table. Case in point, ordered beef last night that was supposed to have onion rings on top (which sounded so tasty), it comes- no onion rings. I say, "Does this have onion rings and the server looks at me like I am crazy. Another example, pizza is on the menu here at this really nice resort so Molly is all excited to order the vegeterian pizza. She orders it and the server says, "we don't have the recipe for pizza" Nevermind that there are six different kinds of pizza on the menu. In further analyzing Molly and I feel that maybe he confused recipe with ingredients but it was funny nonetheless. Our final example was the chocolate cake.

On the second night, I noticed that there is a dessert menu and it says, "chocolate cake with sauce". I almost started crying I was so happy and realized my menu from the night before was missing the dessert page. So I ask if there is chocolate cake and the server says "no". I quickly regroup but decided we would go to dinner earlier the next night in hopes that there is chocolate cake. We do and the server says there is chocolate cake. I salivated for my first bit of real chocolate on this trip and was so excited for my chocolate cake with sauce. When it arrives, it is not dark chocolate and gooey as the cake of my dreams was, it was four pieces of loaf bread that tasted slightly of chocolate. The sauce- again the server looked at me like I was crazy when I asked about it.

The thing is that you don't care when this happens as outside these doors people are struggling to make the money they need to eat for the day. We are so spoiled with the wonderful things we have and how fortunate we are that the money we pay here at this resort for one meal can feed another person here for a long time. When you put it all into perspective it does not matter but I did want to mention it as something to note for the other families that will be traveling here soon. "Don't see chocolate cake on the menu and salivate thinking about it for two solid days!!"

Molly and I are just hanging out today enjoying the light rain showers. We watched a soccer match on TV and I believe we are going to do sudulo puzzles and race again. Molly does not like to race but I convinced her it would be fun so after some coaxing she agreed. She did win and so now she is up for more racing. I am a little rusty and sometings in the middle, I can't help but think, "HMM, what can I do when I get back to Eban House with Selina that might make her feel more comfortable with me?" so I am a little distracted but even if I wasn't Molly is faster- we do know from college that she is also smarter than me so this is to be expected- I am okay with it!!

Tomorrow is a holiday in Ghana and so we plan to travel back to Teshie and to our hotel. We were going to go to the market but I don't think it will be open. I am hoping to get to see Chalene before she leaves tomorrow. I was looking forward to getting a day together at Eban House but I guess that was not meant to be.

I look forward to getting back to the kids as we agree that we miss them. I will have lots of time to spend there and so I hope to get more information on them for the adoptive families that are waiting for more news of their children. We have a family that is adopting a sibling group of four. Two boys and two girls ages 8,6,4 and 2. Meeting these children, all I have to say is that she is so blessed- adding four kids to a family might be a scary thought to many of you but to meet these kids-you know in an instant that all will work out and God has blessed you beyond measure with not one but four beutiful and bright children. It is the same thing with a group of three siblings we have here. Two girls that are eight year old twins and a four year old boy. This group of three was actually on a wait list for a short amount of time before finding a family and these kids are so awesome. I have got to spend a lot of time with the twins as they love to talk and I could steal them and bring them home. They are so beautiful, so much fun and just love life. I am looking forward to getting to know their younger brother more as he is a little quieter- he does not come up and sit on my lap and start talking to me like his sisters!

I am looking forward to getting to spend time with Selina. I have come up with some ideas of different things I can do and ways to try to help her feel more comfortable with me. It is a litle hard when your child is the one that has the hardest time going to new people and trusting them but this is not uncommon in adoption and so we just need to work on it which is why I am here for longer. I know it will all work out given time and she will get used to us.

I best be going as it is 6 dollars an hour here for the internet!! I hope to get to post more when I return to the Rye Manor. Have a fabulous Memorial Day!

Talk to you soon,
Jennine