July 18 Accra, Ghana

18:33

I hope everyone reading this realizes that this journal is constantly evolving. Its full of first impressions and immediate reactions. It is made at the end of that day and there is not much reflection. That will come at the end of this trip. As a result of this kind of writing, you are right here with me in regards to emotions and thoughts. But just be conscious that everything I say is subject to change due to the new experiences that occur every day.

Today we visited the Kwame Nkrumah monument and museum, he was Ghana’s first president (circa 1957). He was a major proponent of Pan-Africanism (uniting Africa), making Ghana economically independent (not relying on Europe/US), and believed capitalism was bad for Africa in the longterm. Looking at his policies and how the people here revere him, he seems to have done a lot of good here. However, he was trying to establish close ties with China and U.S.S.R. so he was accused of becoming communist. Due to this and an independent Ghana economy hurting western interests, it is alleged that the CIA instigated a coup. Its been said that Nkrumah was given forged documents by the KGB to make him think the CIA was involved so essentially there is no evidence that the CIA really was there. But due to the CIA’s track record of these types of operations and the motivations making sense, I personally believe they did. But regardless if they did or not, there was a coup led by the military, Nkrumah never returned to Ghana and his dreams were never realized.

I had an idea today while musing over a map of Africa. Has anyone traveled to every country in Africa? That would be a crazy trip. I’m not saying I’d go to every country but even half of them would be awesome. Prepare for a year or two in order to have adequate knowledge and resources, get inoculations, grab a friend, and be careful haha. I want to go to the dangerous places. The perfect person I can think of for this expedition is Erik G (last name omitted for privacy reasons). I met him in SOI (school of infantry) and one freezing night on post – one of those long posts where you talk about every topic in the universe – we agreed to travel the world together once we were out of the Marines. At first I didn’t think he knew how serious I was, but then I realized he was more serious than I! Haven’t talked to him in a while but he’s the kind of guy you could call years later and he’d be excited as hell to hear from you.

23:47

We all just got back from Monsoons. Its a seafood restaurant in Osu that Erin & Anne randomly stumbled upon a few nights ago. We sat outdoors on a patio bathed in blue light. The whole environment of the restaurant was pretty high class. It was obviously an expatriate hangout, I haven’t seen so many white people in one place since I landed in Ghana. We all had different types of sushi and were hooting and hollering the whole night, it was a good time.

Our power went out for a considerable time again today. It just wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t.

Water is out again.