Dansoman Basic School, a Beach and the Market

Monday July 7^th

We got up about 8:30 and went down for a nice buffet breakfast. Among lots of other things they had fruit, juice and cereal!

Eric and Ernest picked us up and took us to a local school that was still in session. We were allowed to go into all the classes, see the kids, take photos, and talk to the teachers. The school was pretty basic and rough, full of beautiful kids and even had a two room special education school attached to it. It was a great experience and really gave us insight into what they are up against and why we are here.

We returned to the hotel for lunch where I tried the ground nut soup and then Eric picked us up again and took us to the local beach. We entered through a pretty nice resort. The beach had nice sand and lots of breakers of rough water, but it was filthy. The beach we littered with lots of kinds of garbage and plastic was everywhere, with lots floating in the surf. We were told last night we couldn't swim there and we assumed it was because it was rough and there were insurance issues, but now we knew why. There were no people in the water or sunbathing on the beach.

From there we went to the tourist market, which was huge. It consisted of at least a hundred stalls selling all manner of touristy stuff: bags, masks, clothes, jewelry, etc. Angela, Barb, Owen and I wandered around there for an hour and had fun brushing off the hawkers and talking to some of the people.

Back to the hotel again for dinner. I ordered Red Red with fish. It tasted good, but the fish was full of bones. It came with fried plantain and Barb and I shared some breaded, curried calamari. We enjoyed a litre of Club beer while waiting for our food. After we ate we all retired to our rooms for the night. I think everyone was tired from jet lag, all the traveling and today's activities. Great start to our trip.