Jan. 5

Today we got a tour of Cape Coast Castle. The Castle is actually a slave castle on the coast of Ghana that has been there for around 500 years. Many European countries operated the slave castle during those years, including Portugal and England. The castle was a midway point for slaves to be held before getting on the boats for the Americas. The castle’s “balcony” area looked out over the ocean, it was beautiful. You could see fishing boats coming in and going out, it was really a site to behold. The tour of the castle was very emotional; most of us stayed very silent and respected the historical significance of the slave castle on society. The tour ended with everyone going out the “Door of no return,” to the ocean, but on the other side the fishing village was full of life. People were patching netting, getting ready to push out, bringing in the days catch, and on the top of the door it said, “Door of return.”

-Caroline Freese