i haven't blogged much lately and i really have no excuses besides sheer laziness. i haven't been particularly busy, no natural disaster occurred besides the earthquake/tsunami in japan, and i still have ten perfectly usable fingers with which to type. so i shall give you a summary of the past little bit in my favorite way: bullet points. (i love lists.)

• perhaps most importantly... lent. lent started over a week ago with ash wednesday (march 9th) and in the days leading up to it, i contemplated what i should sacrifice until easter rolls around. there was one thing that kept coming to mind but because of my stubborn nature i repeatedly pushed it away. this thing was one of the few real attachments to home i have here in ghana and even though i knew i was physically capable of giving it up for 40 days, i didn't want to. as i result of my obstinacy, i was a little late in deciding on my lent-sacrifice. nothing i could think of was as good (or as necessary) as the thing i didn't want to give up. but sunday night, i decided to get over myself and just do what i knew i had to do. i finished off the last can of diet coke that was in my fridge and called it quits until after easter. i want to say i'm giving it up for life, but i'm just taking baby steps. thankfully, i have yet to start twitching from withdrawal.

• last friday we went on a day trip to kakum national park, el mina castle, and cape coast castle. it was a fantastic day. we got up at 4:45 (woof) to get to the bus station early and catch a bus (read van) to cape coast. but in ghana, the buses/vans don't leave until they are full there is the potential to wait for quite awhile before you actually take off. we got on the road about 7 after an hour of waiting. upon arrival in cape coast 2 hours later, a taxi took us to kakum so we could experience the canopy walk through the rainforest. it was less stable than i thought, but it was a great adrenaline rush!

at the highest point you get about 40 m (130 ft) off the ground!

our next stop was elmina castle-- a castle that housed slaves in transit to brazil and the caribbean. it was sobering, informative, and caused much reflection on the value of human life.

"the door of no return": this is the door the slaves went out to get to the slave ships.

cape coast castle was similar to elmina castle only smaller. the door of no return lead out to a dock where fishermen were mending their nets. it was fascinating to watch them work.

The Door of No Return

Cape Coast Fishermen

a very common sight

our ride back to accra took 4 hours thanks to traffic, but it was well worth the effort.