Arriving in Cape Coast

Myself and four others I met in Vietnam gathered at the Amsterdam airport, and from there we flew together to Accra. Upon landing, we had to go through two checkpoints that checked our passports, visas, and yellow fever vaccinations. After that, a 3-4 hour drive from Accra to Cape Coast remained before we arrived.

We arrived at the hotel we were going to stay at for the next ten weeks around two in the morning, and were very ready to take a shower and go to bed. Unfortunately, we had no water in either the sink or the shower, so we just had to crawl into bed!

The day after, we were served breakfast, and met several people from the group we were going to spend the rest of our stay with.

We decided to walk into town to find a grocery store and look around, and being optimistic as we were, we chose to walk the nearly three kilometers in the blazing sun.

We saw a lot and were very happy to finally be in Ghana, but I won't hide the fact that the trip was very hot!

Later in the day, the rest of the group arrived with the joint trip organized by Kulturstudier, and we had a meeting and a tour of both the city and the hotel with manager Michael, assistant manager Orlando, and our seminar leaders, Hannah and Jørgen.

The evening concluded with a communal dinner at a resort by the water.

The next day was Monday, and the new routine started in earnest! Every school day we get bread, eggs, fruit, oatmeal, and an African soup/porridge called "Tom Brown" for breakfast, before we are driven to the University of Cape Coast for lectures.

After a lecture on the history of Africa, we had a talk with a local doctor who told us about the tropical diseases one can contract when living here, and how to avoid getting infected. Then we had lunch on campus, before we were given a tour of the university grounds.

My first impression of UCC was that it's an absolutely huge area! The university has almost 80,000 students and there's a market, hospital, church, cafes, a large library, and a police station all within the university grounds. It's like a whole separate community!

Until now, we had limited internet access and no 4G, so we went to the city to get a SIM card. There was a long line of locals outside who had probably been waiting for many hours.

A special 'Kulturstudier queue' was arranged so the wait wouldn't be too long, but still, many had to wait 4-5 hours in the heat before it was their turn. If you were lucky, you only had to wait for 1-2 hours. It turned out to be a long day!

Every Tuesday and Thursday we are driven to the beach after school and served lunch there. This Tuesday was the first time we were going to the beach and we were very excited!

We went swimming as soon as we arrived, and the water was so refreshing and delightful! However, the waves were quite big and strong, and carried a lot of sand with them, so it wasn't exactly a relaxing swim.

For lunch, we had delicious fish with french fries and rice, before we had two hours to sunbathe, play ball, and swim before we were driven back to our hotel, Jackies.

The day after, we had a lecture from 08:15-10:00 as usual, followed by a seminar until lunch at 12:30. We have seminars two days a week; research seminar on Wednesdays and academic seminar on Fridays.

On Thursday, we had a regular school day, followed by a class meeting. Here we went through activities happening the following week in addition to general information. After the meeting, we went to Brenu Beach to have lunch and enjoy a few relaxing hours in the sun.

After the lecture and seminar the following day, it was time for a welcome party for all the students and those who contribute to making our daily life pleasant while we live here in Cape Coast. We were served a nice dinner and had great conversations with both classmates and locals.

There was also a live band at the restaurant where we were, playing both European and African music, creating a really good atmosphere. We ended the evening by dancing with some locals, which was incredibly pleasant!

The next day, seminar leader Hannah had arranged a tour of Cape Coast Castle. Most of us didn't have many expectations about what we were going to see and hear, so we were somewhat taken aback by the horrific history that took place at the castle until 200 years ago.

We first saw the bedroom and office of the European slave trader. There were windows facing the sea and the room was large and luxurious. Then we went down to the dungeon where hundreds of slaves were crammed together in the dark, without food or any kind of sanitary facilities.

Even though most of us felt a bit queasy hearing about all the horrible things that had happened there, we were very glad to have gained more knowledge about the slave trade, both to be able to share the story further, but also to feel a bit of how fortunate we actually are.

I personally felt a great gratitude for the life we are so privileged to live, and a desire to try to become an even better person.

The rest of the day and the weekend we had off, and did as we pleased. Some went to the pool and the beach, others to the market, while some relaxed after a long week filled with many new impressions.

After this first week, I think Cape Coast is an incredibly nice city with many friendly people that I am very excited to explore further and get to know even better!