Kumasi

So, I've spent the past two weekends in Kumasi, which is about 6 hours north of Accra. Two weeks ago, I went with Carly, McKenzie, and Maggie. We met up with Sammy, Eric, and Kristine at the Guestline Lodge Hostel, which cost 15 cedi/night (not too expensive, but we've stayed in nicer rooms for less before). The STC bus there was 10 cedis, but it was well worth it for the air-conditioned ride. We left Friday around noon and arrived in Kumasi at 5:30. We checked in to our hotel and went for dinner at Vic Baboo's Restaurant (a delicious assortment of Ghanaian, continental, and Indian cuisine). We were hasseled by street vendors outside the restaurant for a few minutes, but didn't buy anything. On Saturday, we went to the Kumasi Children's Home and played with the children for a couple hours. They were so excited to see "oborunis" and they ran down to us and jumped in our arms upon our arrival. I played soccer with the boys while the three girls played with the girls and carried some babies around the way Ghanaians do (on the back with a cloth wrapped around their bodies). The kids all loved having their pictures taken and they asked us for a copy the next time we to Kumasi. I still haven't found a place to get pictures developed, but Carly (who is involved with Project Polaroid) might take her Polaroid camera up with her next time to take pictures of the children. After we left the children's home, we went to the largest open-air market in all of West Africa. It was rather intimidating, not to mention filthy, so we didn't stay very long. We went to the Kumasi Cultural Center to look at the craft shops there, but everything was really over-priced, so we ended up going back to Vic Baboo's for a late lunch and got some crafts from the street vendors there. Saturday evening, the seven of us went to this amazing Indian restaurant, claimed to be one of the best Indian restaurants in the "West," and it lived up to the hype. Now I'm not an expert of Indian cuisine, but the Chicken Tikki Marsala and Garlic Naan was delicious. It was rather pricey, but definitely worth every pesewa! I had a long talk with Kristine that night, about life, love, our futures, and everything in between. I was pretty tired so I went to bed early. Our bus left at 12:30 Sunday and we arrived back in Accra around 6:30.

I went back to Kumasi this past weekend with the Penn State group. We left this past Thursday and came back last night. Here is a rather brief description of what we did each day:

Thursday - 6 hour ride to Kumasi. I listened to my iPod almost the entire time (thanks Ben). Upon arrival, we went to the Arts College located just outside of Kumasi and met with a world-renowned ceramic artist who has artwork in the UN office, the Ghanaian embassy in the U.S., and several art museums throughout Europe. Afterward, we went for lunch. Next was a trip to the Kumasi Cultural Center (again) where we went on a tour of the Asante Warfare Museum. It was pretty cool! There were ancient swords and weapons of various kinds. We also received a guided tour of the former Asante King's Palace. It had a lot of artifacts of previous Asante kings. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures at either of the museums. We ate dinner and went to our hotel. I watched V for Vendetta with Mike on my laptop in our hotel room. Got to love air-conditioning and a hot shower!

Friday - We had a 2 hour drive north of Kumasi to Techiman, one of the provinces of the Asante Kingdom. There, we met with the chief for a while for him to discuss aspects of his peoples' culture. The chief sent us, with one of his "servants," to several rock formations just outside of the village. These rock formations are regarded as holy religious sites to both Christian and traditional African beliefs. We climbed up this huge escarpment for a couple of hours! It was an amazing feeling once you got to the top. Most of the people struggled climbing it, but thankfully my days in Boy Scouts prepared me well. I also got some fantastic pictures from the top of the "mountain" that we climbed of the surroundings. When you picture Africa in your head...this is what we saw (for the first time)! It was so cool. There wasn't really any wildlife, other than the usual insects and lizards, but the scenery was beautiful. I can't wait to show everybody pictures of this when I get back home. After we descended the mountain, we went to the Brobina-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary. It's this small village that monkeys live on the outskirts of and come into town around dusk and dawn. Unfortunately, just as we arrived, it started pouring down rain and the monkeys had already returned to the surrounding jungles. We saw a couple way up in the trees, but they were too far to get pictures. We went back to our hotel for dinner.

Saturday - This was a pretty uneventful day. We drove back to Kumasi from Techiman, but along the way we stopped at a craft village that made wood carvings, a batiking village (a type of printed cloth), and a kente village (a type of weaved cloth, this is the "traditional" African cloth). We were allowed some time to shop at each of the three villages. I got some really cool stuff, for myself and as gifts for others. Can't wait to show everybody what I got in December!

Sunday - we went to an important festival for the Asante people (that occurs every 40 days), but I can't remember the name of it for the life of me. We also met the Queen Mother of the Asante people. It was pretty cool, but our tour guide didn't tell us how long the ceremony would take and none of us were really prepared to sit for 4 hours without eating. Sam, our tour guide, is a great guy, but he doesn't communicate very well at times. Oh well! After the durbar, we ate lunch and left to come back to Accra. I finally arrived at the hostel on campus around 9 p.m. and went to bed very soon after.

So, that was an incredibly condensed version of my weekend, but I promise to share more about it when I return home. I have a lot that I need to read for lectures tomorrow, so I need to get going. All is well other than my trips lately. Still haven't had too many problems with bugs. Last night, I woke up in a cold sweat, my back itched, and my heart was beating really hard and really fast. I ended up having to call my mom at 4 a.m. here (mid-night back home) to ask her what was wrong. Thankfully, in addition to being a wonderful mother, Nancy Walker is an incredible nurse and told me what to do to get everything under control. We still don't really know what caused the symptoms, but they haven't recurred again. If they do, I'll probably have to go to a clinic and get everything checked out. I'm sure my mom didn't sleep too well after that phone call, but everything is fine for now! My last class of the day tomorrow is cancelled, so I only have two and I'll get to go to Pizza Inn two hours earlier than normal! I also got my first package from my mom today. It took six weeks to get here and was pretty expensive to send, but it was definitely worth it. I've been re-stocked on peanuts, hand sanitizer, K2O drink mixes, deodorant, etc. for the next couple weeks. They have this weird policy in Ghana in regards to postal services. Even though my mom paid a ridiculous amount to have everything shipped here, I still had to pay transit fees and the Ghanaian national tax on the "value" of what was sent. Luckily, the guy processing our packages was very friendly and studied at the University of Ghana a couple of years ago, so he gave me a reduced value of my package. My mom had it insured for about $75, but he only charged me for $40. The taxes and transit fees still came out to 20 cedis! I guess I learned my lesson for next time...pay the $50 charge by the airlines to bring EVERYTHING you need with you, rather than having it shipped. Well, I need to head out now.

Until next time,
Greg