Ghana Gazette

What a nice change to have a small group - it gives us a chance to catch our breath... We've enjoyed their first week with us and look forward to a good second one coming up. They are not as diverse as some groups ... two from the United States, two from Tonga, 5 from Nigeria and 5 from Ghana. Probably of note in this group are the Kinte cloth ties that our returned missionary Elder Mintah is sewing for the groups coming through. I am not sure that they fit in the category of consersative and traditional that are spelled out in the handbook, but they definitely are African. You can see one on the front row and a couple on the second row. This small group will give us a little time to prepare for the next couple of groups who are going to be quite large.

We would like you to meet the newest, little, potential missionary in Africa...He is the first child of Brother and Sister Ampomah. He was born Sunday, August 13 at 4 a.m. and weighed in around 6# 3 oz. He is so handsome and so alert. These pictures were taken at 4 p.m. that same day....as we were able to pick them up and take them home to Teshie. Sister Ampomah is our only woman teacher at the MTC..and one of the French teachers as well...so we will sorely miss her. Baby was not due for another month...so all of her baby things were transported to her parents home, where she planned to go to have the baby. This is just the first of many surprises from this little guy... Enjoy this most wonderful time of your life...

Just across the harbour from the Elmina Slave castle sits Fort St. Jago. Built quite a few years after the slave castle, its purpose was defence - and while the castle itself had cannons and systems of defence (the picture was taken from the castle wall) the fort had access not only to the harbour but also to the ocean itself.
Below left is the picture of the town itself, its beach and harbour entrance. To reach our hotel you would follow the beach around for about 3 kilometres and it was located on the beach (very noisy for it was right on the beach) - and once a lovely place, now a bit run down, but still lovely setting. The other picture is a close up of the habour - you would think traffic jams were a city event, but here we have four boats each trying to go its own way and not very successfully - this is a very busy fishing habour and all around the area are all kinds of fish markets and small market type booths. While the boats look quite colorful, in reality they are the fishing boats that go and come daily - a few of them are just arriving in the other picture.

The Elmina Slave Castle...........
This is the entrance to main section of the slave castle - there were three floors - slaves on first, soldiers on second and the Governor occupied the top - third floor. The first two levels continued all around the fort, but the top floor was only at this one end where he lived and carried out his assignments and entertainments.







Here Wayne and Barb find themselves standing in front of the slave dungeon. This was the area that disobedient slaves were punished - the sentence was always death. There was room for about 30 slaves in an area about 12 foot square. Once put in, they were never removed and the cell was never cleaned until the last one had died - so many would be alive while many were already dead and decomposing.

This tiny door was called the Port of no return - if you look through the opening you can see the ocean and a couple of boats in the background - in trading days the ocean came right up to this castle door and the slaves were taken through here and loaded on the boats. The door is probably only about 20 - 24 inches wide, so they didn't sell or ship very many large (fat) slaves.