Galle/ Dutch Fort.

I thought my last weekend in Sri Lanka would be a total washout, as it started to raining non-stop from Thursday.

 We planned to go to Galle,  in southwest Sri Lanka, about 71 miles from Colombo.

We left Colombo in the pouring rain early Friday morning and it rained all the way to our destination.

Then ta-da, as we arrived, it stopped raining and has been great ever since.😊.

Latsane, Joan, Sharlene, Damith 

My hosts Damith/Sharlene and I all stayed in nice little hotel in town called Blue Heaven. Later we had a grand time hanging out at Galle Fort with their friend Latsane.

This Fort, built by the Portuguese in 1588, is on the Indian Ocean.

In 1649 it was fortified by the Dutch and is today an important architectural heritage site controlled by UNESCO.

The entire town and surroundings are growing rapidly, partly due to the influx of tourists.

However 21 years ago, much of the town was flattened by the tsunami which devasted much of south east Asia.

Thousands of people were swept away and killed, 500 just in the transport center in town alone! 

Naturally the ruins were also damaged but you
wouldn't believe it looking at the surroundings today.

A replica of the original small town.

Most of the archeological site remains in pretty good condition, despite having been badly damaged in 2004.

Miniature, showing the original design of the city.

A huge Mosque near the ruins. As it was Friday, many Muslims were busy in the area.

The very angry Indian Ocean.

Like much of Sri Lanka, this city is home to religious adherents from all the major religions, but the dominance of Buddhism which is so obvious in other areas, was not visible.

A Buddhist temple on the hill quite a distance away. I could also see a huge, old Christian church in town, from the fort.

The roof of the solid ammunition storage building.

A Muslim on her way to the Mosque ahead.

A coconut tree grows out of the large granite rock heap offshore.

These ladies in beautiful saris are teachers at the International School. The saris are their uniform.

A small cafe has been set up in the midst of the ruins.

Tourism is now Sri Lanka's second most important industry, so both local people and visitors flock this area. 

This is a recognized UNESCO world heritage site and every time I visit a place like this, I wonder why we are joking around with our sunken city, Port Royal?

 Such a damn shame.😡

Pic of the very angry Indian Ocean below!

This lovely house on the Ocean was badly damaged by the tsunami, but they fixed it up nicely.
That's where we stayed overnight before heading back to Colombo.

Young people challenging the rough surf on their boards.

There is a statue of Buddha on the hill overlooking the town of Galle.

The Indian Ocean is so rough and sounds so fierce, it's kinda scary.

The sand looks nice though.

Among Damith's friends that we had drinks with on Friday night was Dr Ruwan who served as coroner in Jamaica for 3 years.

Then to my surprise, on returning to Colombo I discovered that my wonderful hosts Sharlene and Damith, had organized a goodbye dinner for me with some of their young friends.

L-r. Charaka, his wife Tara, Dr. Damith, and Ganga.

It's been an overwhelming three weeks as there is so much to see and do in that very big island. And the Sri Lankan people are so warm and generous.

It's really true that time flies when you having fun.

And boy, did I ever have fun😊.

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Update. The rains that started on Thursday night turned into quite a storm with high winds later in the night. It damaged the roof of 
Latsans parents home in Galle. 

He is a contractor though so had already repaired it by midday Saturday when we saw him again. 👏

That same storm however killed a family of seven in another area close by. Their home  collapsed on them.🥺

It's the beginning of the monsoon season in Sri Lanka and the weather seems to be intensifying now.

Religion and slavery

Yesterday was our day to face the atrocities of the Atlantic slave trade. 

For this, we undertook the 135km journey from Accra to Cape Coast.

The roads are relatively good and we had an excellent driver in Livingston, who doubles as my informant on everything cultural, tribal and historical.😊.

He is well rounded.

Livingston is extremely knowledgeable.

Ghanaians, I find in the main, to be very polite and capable drivers and they are prevented from speeding too much due to the proliferation of speed bumps, (aka. sleeping policemen) large and small.

 Elmina Town today is a bustling fishing village, to which traders come to from near and far to get supplies.

The building on the hill is where the army barracks were for those who guarded the slaves and the fort at Elmina. In front, people hanging out at the bridge watching fishing boats come and go.

The market is below.

A long sea wall keeps out the water from the angry Atlantic Ocean.

The castle bears the memories of 'man's inhumanity to man' and the evils of Christianity.

Biblical quote in chapel above where slaves were tortured.

It was first erected in 1482 by the Portuguese as a trading center until they realized how much more lucrative it was to trade in humans rather than goods.

It is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Dutch seized the castle and fort from the Portuguese in 1637 and like their predecessors, used the promise of milk and honey through Christianity, to fool native chiefs and lull them into complacency while they continued the lucrative slave trade across the Atlantic, there.

Britain was one of the most successful slave-trading countries. Together with Portugal, the two countries accounted for about 70% of all Africans transported to the Americas.

Britain was the most dominant between 1640 and 1807 when  it is estimated that Britain transported 3.1 million Africans (of whom 2.7 million arrived) to the British colonies in the Caribbean, North and South America and to other countries.

The British took over Elmina Castle and the fort in 1837 after they claimed they had officially officially abolished slavery In 1807. However their traders either outrightly continued the trade or owned most of the ships that took millions of captured Africans to their doom.

You could often hear our guide's voice crack with emotion as he related some of the atrocities our ancestors experienced.

 He reminded me a lot of our guide at Robben island where Mandela had been imprisoned 😡.

Slaves were kept on the ground floor of the castle. The second floor was a chapel and where religious leaders lived and the third floor was the governor's residence.

Taking a break from the heartbreaking stories 

This is a museum today but it was also a chapel on the second floor. On the ground floor slaves would be paraded and buyers would inspect them through the peep hole on the chapel floor and choose the ones they wanted.

They would then be branded with hot irons bearing the names of their new owner.

The passage leading to a dungeon

This is where female slaves were held naked and chained. Sometimes they never received any food for 72 hours and all bathroom activities happened right there 😡.
The traders did not bring women so when they wanted sex, they would take one ore a few out and wash them off. The water used to bathe them came from an underground drainage which the Dutch said they could never use themselves, as it was toxic.

Those females who resisted were brutally punished.

 Those who got pregnant would be taken away to deliver and brought back to the dungeon immediately.

Their children were never seen by them.

The door of no return through which slaves were transported to small canoes. The canoes took them to the large slave ships anchored offshore.

The dungeon to which rebellious slaves were taken. It had no ventilation and they were starved to death, then their bodies dumped in the ocean.

One of the smaller religious billboards on the roadside.

I am shocked at how much Ghanaians are into Christianity today despite this stark reminders in their midst of how evil it was! (25% of Ghanians are Muslim, the rest are christian.)

This Methodist church was built in 1900.

I have never seen more posters and billboards vying for people's souls anywhere else in the world as on this road from Accra to Cape Castle. For, I dear say, at least 70% of the roadside ads were about church activities, a small number advertised funerals and memorials and the rest were commercial.

 I conclude therefore that Ghanians worship one spirit only!😁

Jamaica has just as many actual church buildings as they do (proportionate to size and population of course) but whereas in Jamaica, there is a bar beside each church (for the men?)😚, I saw very few bars along the road to Cape Coast.