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This weekend I visited Cape Coast Castle, another slave castle on the coast of Ghana. It was a much smaller operation than Elmina Castle was, but it is just as powerful. We had a really great tour guide as well that did such a good job that both my friend and I were in tears at the end. Along with a full history of the castle and the events leading up to the slave trade we also got a lesson on how human beings should treat each other. At one point, in the women's slave cell, the guide told us to "cheer up, you're only learning about the past, not tomorrow." That really struck me. I'd like to believe that slavery is just in the past, but I know it's not. At the end the guide told us to follow the path of righteousness and understand that we are one humanity and we should love each other as such. Ghanaians seem to really embrace that thinking. As a white female I figured I would encounter anger or rudeness from Ghanaian people when I first arrived, but it has been exactly the opposite. I have been met with nothing but love and kindness and many times I am told I am welcome by complete strangers. This signifies that I am both welcome in their shops or homes, as well as their country. The only problem I've encountered with the people here is their sense of punctuality and work ethic. There is no doubt that many Ghanaians work extremely hard to earn a living for their families, but the people I work with at theTV station are of a different breed. Today, as I waited for the computer to stop giving me problems the entire news team for the station was sitting next to me goofing around. That lasted for 2 hours, long past my computer starting working again. There is no sense of pride in their work; no self-motivation. Media outlets have a chance to change things, to make voices heard and to influence an entire people. As the only TV station in Cape Coast, Coastal TV has a huge responsibility to inform its people and produce quality work. Neither of those things are happening. It frustrates me to know that they have so much potential power and influence and they are wasting it. But when deadlines and training don't exist it's hard to get anything done well.
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