Day 9 - Acquiring the archaeology permit, negotiating more construction and preparing to leave Fort William...temporarily

Today was not truly eventful. Tom went to Cape Coast Castle to negotiate with the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board to finalize the archaeology permit for the excavations to take place in the near future as well as confirm the plans to put a toilet and a shower in the fort.

Yes, at present, there is neither a toilet nor a shower in the fort itself. Ghanaian males only use the toilet when they have to take a crap. If they simply need to urinate, they will pretty much do so at anywhere I suppose. I have seen far too many people urinating where they please here. We have a super secret spot in the fort where we urinate but if we need to go number 2 there are a few options. One option is to go to one of the nearby rest stops or hotels and use their public restrooms that are fairly well kept; by far the best option and the most executed. Another option is to use a bathroom which Tom termed a “violently abused” public toilet in the village. Anomabo, like other villages on the coast, is a fishing village. When we sit on the bastion of the fort on the far south/southeasterly side, we can see a number of fishing vessels that go out every morning. So, the public bathroom is used and managed mostly by fishermen I presume.

To use the public toilet, it costs about 5 pesawas, which is about 3 cents. But since we are not from around here (that is Ah-broh-nees), the boys that manage the restrooms tried to charge us 1 cedi (about 60 cents). We told them there was no way we were paying that and we told them that it was 5 pesawas. They asked us how we knew and we pointed to the wall of the bathroom that said “5 pesawas”. Trying to swindle an Ahbrohnee huh? After you pay the fee they hand you about half a page of a 5 year old Italian newspaper. And believe me if even I could read/speak Italian, this newspaper would still not be intended for reading material. Luckily I had toilet paper with me. Next, you grab a bucket so that you can put water in the toilet bowl and flush it. I won’t go into detail of the toilets, but it was easily the most disgusting bathroom I have ever been in. And I have only used this toilet once and only once during my stay thus far, thank goodness, and hopefully it will stay that way.

The third option is to just crap on the beach, and this is what most of the locals do. This could be because most people can’t afford a toilet of their own, can’t afford the 5 pesawas to use the public toilet, or this is just how they have been taught as an acceptable means of discarding their waste. If you walk along the Anomabo beach in the morning/afternoon, you will find a number of children of all ages playing soccer, nearly three or four games going on. Up on the sand you will notice the area where high tide has made its mark on the beach. This is where you will see people of all ages squatting and taking a crap. Once high tide rolls through, it washes away the waste. I can’t wait until we have a working toilet in Fort William.

And maybe a proper shower might be developed for the fort. This is how you presently “shower” in Fort William. There are a number of cisterns that catch rain water. You take a bucket and lower it down and fill up about two buckets. We have spot in the fort designated for washing and I think you can figure out the rest.

So yes a shower and a toilet soon would be great. We are preparing to leave for the Anomabo Beach Resort tomorrow for some r and r then head back to Accra to pick up our van (it has been in the shop getting a new transmission) so that Peter doesn’t have to keep driving us all over the place.

A real shower and a cleaner toilet are on their way! I am told that the Anomabo Beach Resort has water heaters for their showers. Now this will be a treat!