First Day in Cape Coast (PIC HEAVY)

I went a little picture crazy my first day in Cape Coast so this gets its own post.

First, a modeling session with Lukeman and Amissah.  Max had sent some clothing that his brother had made.  He is a designer in Chicago:

Lukeman and Amissah begged me to take it easy this day and wait until the next to go and see everyone.  Instead, we went to town and went to Lukemans house were I got to meet my dogs and get a lovely video for Shawnkeisha:

Penny

Brownie

The Pups house at Lukemans house.  Outside of the "dog house" is fenced in as well.  The larger area is a failed garden.  When the dogs grow up, Lukeman and his father want to keep chicken and goats in this area.

Walking from the dog house to Lukemans room.

Twin mode

 From here we went to Nana Otoo's house to see Twiba.  Apparently she is the one to go to for all your rasta needs.  When we arrived, Otoo's hair was being done.  We went to Tel Aviv for a bit while we waited for Amissah's turn.

photo credit: Waters

Tel Aviv overlooks the fisherman, Coastal Beach and Cape Coast Castle.  By the way, Coastal Beach has EXPANDED GREATLY.  The cinder block addition that you can see in this photo is an additional room (the size of upstairs) and it walks out to a patio area and a freaking POOL.  Not in this picture is the Coastal Canoe.  (Photo credit: Waters)

Water and I at Tel Aviv (Photo credit: Amissah)

Kids bathing and playing in the shallow water (photo credit: Amissah)

photo credit: Waters

Men making/repairing a fishing canoe (photo credit: Amissah)

No big deal, just a kid on a surf board in the middle of the ocean.  (photo credit: Amissah)

Lukeman keeping a child from choking on plastic outside of the Otoo family house.

the amazing future father making friends

more of Lukemans newly acquired girlfriends

Twiba doing Amissahs hair

Right after this, Mary called Amissah's phone.  She had spoken to Max and heard that I was in town (I should mention that the date that I was arriving was "Top Secret" and very few people knew).  He jokingly said that I was in Michigan and she was mistaken. At this point, I couldn’t hold my excitement anymore, I had to go to town to see everyone.  Most of them didn’t know I was coming, or didn’t know the date.  When we walked into Castle Beach, I could have cried I was so happy.  I see Mary and Oboye dancing… Waters and Monney playing drum.  It was an amazing feeling.  Later, Otoo shows up and I get a big hug from him as well.

Monney

Takyi relaxing after a hard practice

Waters

Anthony

Back (left to right): Joseph, Kwesi, Monney.  Front (left to right): Amissah, Waters, Anthony, Lukeman

This video may not be the greatest quality (it decided to focus on Oboye and Otoo's head rather than the drummers), but perfectly shows why I fell in love with Cape Coast an the people so fast.

 One last thing to mention about this day... I ate this:

My favorite non-traditional-Ghanaian food in Cape Coast.  Coconut Curry Chicken from Castle Beach Restaurant