Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Little Short of Island Paradise

20 February 2010
Today our group went on a cruise to Dodi Island. The cruise itself was pleasant, though not terribly exciting. I had less neutral feelings about the destination. Dodi Island is a tiny, uninhabited bit of land where very poor Ghanaians sail out to make money from tourists from the cruise. The only structures on this island are a couple pavilions and a sidewalk that goes from one side of the island to the other. When we got off, we were surrounded by children who took us by the hands and followed us as we walked on the sidewalk, past women and children singing quietly and playing on plastic gas can drums. One of these girls, who looked about five, had a baby strapped to her back and was walking around the island like this, presumably all day. We walked up and back on the sidewalk very uncomfortably with children surrounding us, begging for money. Then we got back on our air-conditioned boat with a live band, toilet paper, and large plates of food.

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