Praise’s Article: Travel to Cape Coast, Ghana as a School Trip

Article #11 in the YCC Kids Club Ghana Student Life Stories Project
Our Educational Trip to Cape Coast
By Kakraba Praise, Age 13

While on the Canopy Walk, I looked down, down, down — two hundred and fifty meters down! — and I felt like I was going to fall through the leaves and smash upon the earth at any minute!

This was on a trip to Cape Coast with eleven other students, thanks to Youth Creating Change and Bright Star Vision USA. Only students with perfect attendance and strong academics were invited along. But I earned a place in the excursion through my hard work!

The day before the trip, I felt so happy, it made me not have a sound sleep. On the morning of departure, we all gathered at 8:30am by the YCC office. Soon the bus came and we embarked upon our journey with a prayer from a colleague.

In two hours, we reached Ghana’s capital city: Accra! We were taught many new places: the National Theater, the Parliament House, and the National Airport… a place I hope I can enter one day to travel outside of Ghana.

Three hours later, we reached Cape Coast. Straight away we went to the Kakum National Park: green, peaceful, and leafy! There, I tasted a drink known as palm wine. It was so nice, and it is made from the palm trees.

The resource man came to guide us. He took us all around, and what excited me most was the Canopy Walk high above the ground. Although I felt afraid, I walked on it until I reached the other side!

After this, we then came down and had a rest. We were then ordered to board on the bus, but I felt I could stay there in Kakum National Park forever! All the same, I went.

We started on to the Prospect Lodge where we would spend the night. We arrived and were given our room keys. We had our bath, watched some movies, and soon we were called down to have our supper.

When I got there, the aroma of the food was what I first smelled. Banku! In no time, I finished the food… and you know what? I asked for more! “Ha, ha, ha!” laughed our teacher. We finished and happily entered our rooms, watched a little more movie, then went to bed.

The next day we all woke up, had our bath, held a little devotion, had our breakfast, and off we went to the Cape Coast Castle! There we were taught many histories about the country of Ghana and about the slave trade.

We were told that the slave trade was what mostly brought about the killing of our big men of Africa. Our forefathers were even beaten when working, and what most pitied me was how they were treated in their dungeon cave before being shipped across the sea.

We were told about the governors and those who ruled us as the representatives in Ghana, formerly called the Gold Coast. It was only in 1957 that we Ghanaians regained our independence.

After this, we went to the Elmina Castle, where we were also told about how our ancestors were shipped off and thrown into the sea when sick like pieces of meat.

We then left there, then traveled to the Cape Coast University and had our lunch. It was good to see Ghanaians in a positive learning environment instead of in sad museum displays about slavery!

Soon we started our journey back to Sogakope. That night, the city of Accra was so busy as we passed through it, and I was very eager to stay there once I spied the center of Accra! But on we went.

Some of our friends eventually started to doze off in the car but we then parked briefly near the shoulder of the road and I quickly got down and urinated. We chugged on, and soon we reached Sogakope where we all got down and went home safely and happily to our families.

Thank you, YCC and BSV, for a great educational tour!

Lillie’s Note: Thanks for reading Praise’s article! Please do leave him a comment, making sure to state your geographical location!