Accra, Ghana 2021
How has your summer been? Over here at the Lester Household it has been a quiet, stay at home kind of summer. We did take a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and spent a few days before the 4th of July in Kill Devils Hill, but it has been nothing like our adventures last year. About this time last year we had just returned from a 10-day trip to Accra, Ghana and I can’t believe I never made this post. We were invited by some friends to celebrate their 10 year wedding anniversary and it was glorious. Outside of the great company, the highlights were our tour of Cape Coast Castle, a hike and canopy walk at Kakum National Park, and trip to the beach.
Cape Coast Castle Top Level Views
The “Door of No Return”
View from Castle parapet
Amazing friends after we successfully completed the ropes course at Kakum National Park
Happy Jasmine at the beach in Accra
To be honest, Africa was never on my list of places I wanted to visit. Growing up with the images shown on television did not encourage me to want that experience, but now I am forever changed. As a Black woman, to go to a part of the world where I was not a minority and everyone looked like me was a type of exposure I never knew I needed. It is a type of exposure I am sure I want my daughters to have before they go to college. Seeing the epicenter of the Ghanaian slave trade and standing where so many took their last steps on their home soil was grounding and eye opening. It made me proud that my ancestors survived the horrors inflicted on them and that I’m here living a life they never dreamed. I pray that I make them proud and accomplish whatever God has placed me here to accomplish.
Now, a trip to Africa is on my list of things to do at least every two years. We missed this year and focused on other things, but please be sure that we will be there next year and will be adding another country to our list. If you haven’t been, I highly encourage you to take the journey because you will not regret it. If you have been, let me know in the comments below what countries you have visited and what your favorite part was! I’ll add it to my list!
I love you!
