March 8, 2014

I woke up at 7 after a long night hanging out with the people on the trip. Needless to say I was tired, but I was so excited for the day. It was beach day. We piled into the van, broke out our bracelet making materials and cameras, and started the bumpy hour and a half long drive. The first thing on our agenda was visting an old slave castle (old as in over 500 years old). As we got out of the van men rushed us, asking where we were from and our names. Luckily our group leader had warned us about these men. They ask you for your name and when you come back from visiting the castle they hand you a shell with your name written (in sharpie) on them and demand money.

The slave castle was beautiful while being extremely depressing. There were however multiple gift shops along the tour to brighten the mood. After seeing increbile views of the ocean we were finally done with the tour and dumped in front of several small shops. The women sang to us to come inside, desperate for us to look around. I brought a few souvenirs to bring back home. Some members of the group scored knives and paintings, but I kept it simple.

We left the slave castle and started the drive to a beach resort. When we got there we went straight to a table and ordered lunch. It was a perfect scene. We ate looking out over the ocean and palm trees surrounded our cabana. After waiting quite a while, we got out food and fresh pineapple juice. After lunch, we hit the pool and free wifi. It couldn’t have gotten better, but it did.

When we were finished the pool we headed to the beach, towels and sunglasses in hand. We picked our spot and “tanned” for th next few hours. Most of us ended up falling asleep and didn’t rotate properly. We walked down to the water and let the waves hit our ankles. The water was the perfect temperature.

Our time at the beach came to a close so we changed back into our clothes and walked back to the van. The ride home was exciting. Our driver sped through the small towns, just missing the pedestrians. When we hit traffic, he drove in the wrong lane until an approaching car started coming towards us. Much to our surprise, instead of trying to get back in the proper lane, he moved to the shoulder. Finally he decided to take a shortcut, but once we came back to the main road, there was more traffic. We got to it’s source: a funeral. Funerls are a little but different here. Instead of a somber service, they throw a party featuring loud music and teenagers lighting aerosol on fire.

When we got past the funeral we kept driving. Right into a storm. The sky got incredibly dark and the driver sped up, trying to beat the rain, ignoring the numerous potholes in the road. By this time, our sunburns had set in, and many of us were talking about how much pain we’d be in tomorrow. I sat with my arm out the window until a tree branch hit the car and almost decapitated me. The rain started and we closed the windows. When we got home the ten foot dash to the house from the car left most of us soaking wet. We had dinner and hung out for a while.

After regaining most of our energy, some of us decided to walk to town to dance and get sodas. When we got there we discovered that dancing day was Friday, so we had our own party. After about an hour we walked back and hung around the house playing games until we went to bed. Church tomorrow!