Email journal: July 30, 2006, Ghana This e-mail comes from the first British capital of Ghana, Cape Coast. This weekend I have seen two of Ghana's World Heritage Sites, the castles at Cape Coast and Elmina. The slave dungeons, particularly those at Cape Coast are quite depressing for a visitor, especially for one whose ancestors owned slaves. It was a slightly more light hearted moment when the tour guide at Elmina said something along the lines of "we have the Dutch and they are the people from Holland" when three of the five people on the tour were from the Netherlands. Elmina, while a much smaller town, seems to be much more focused on attracting tourists with a renovation plan set to be complete by 2015. Indeed, it is quite odd to see a city with a 200+ year old Dutch Cemetery and the oldest European church in Africa in Ghana and not South Africa, where I studied abroad on a Clark-affiliated program. Cape Coast, while the capital of the Central Region and home to one of the country's main universities has very much a small town feel. The guidebook says its population is about the same as Worcester, but the sense I get here is of a much closer community. I just came from watching a game of soccer right off the beach with the castle in the background, definitely a surreal experience. On a down note, the Emancipation Day activities this year seem rather sparse, so I am off tomorrow (hopefully) to Kakum National Park. Brooks