Well classes are over. Last week was pretty hectic. I think all of my presentations and finals went well, I’m not sure if we are going to get any feedback on any of it or not though. It’d be kind of nice instead of just getting a grade, but we’ll see what happens. The weekend was really low key, which was nice. I think part of it was just recovering sleep and relaxing after the stressful week.. and the electricity was out for most of Saturday, so it kind of forced me to just sit and read a book/nap.

On Monday, we left for Kumasi- which is the second biggest city in Ghana, next to Accra. It is about a four hour drive north of Accra, and it is in the Ashanti Region. It is the traditional capital of the Ashanti, who actually defeated the British in several battles while they were being colonized. They are known as being pretty fierce warriors, and particularly loyal to their chief. We were supposed to leave around 6 AM, but the battery wasn’t working on the bus. So it was kind of like a snow day, we are all up ready to go at 6 and then we got to go back to sleep. The bus wound up coming to pick us up around 10, and actually two people didn’t come with us. They were feeling pretty sick and we knew that the road between Accra and Kumasi has some pretty bad parts to it, so they decided to stay behind and recover. I didn’t think the drive was that bad, but maybe I’m just getting used to it.

On the way there we were planning on stopping at a couple of different places along the way to see some traditional things.. but because the bus was running late, we were only able to stop at one. We stopped at an Adinkra Printing.. company, I guess. It is a traditional ink and symbols that they use on fabrics. Basically they get a kind of bark {I forget what kind} and mash it up using a mortal and pestle. Then they boil it, strain it, and boil it again. In the end it creates this think back ink. Then they have all these traditional symbols that mean different things and they put them on the cloth. A lot of times they use strips of Kente. They brought one out for us to each try it. It was cool, basically just a big stamp. I’m glad we saw it, but there were a lot of people there that were just constantly, “come see my shop, I give you good price.” And to be honest, I’m kind of sick of that. I have gotten a lot of the things I’m interested in.. but Kente just isn’t my style, and I’m not sure how to {in a nice way} communicate that I just don’t want what you are selling. I was trying to think of a place to compare these types of environments to in the states.. but there really isn’t any that I can think of. Some of the people in our group said maybe a super pushy flea market, but even that might not be a good comparison. So basically.. it’ll be nice to not be a target in that sense anymore. Anyways, by this time it was about 4 pm or so, so we got back on the bus and headed into Kumasi.

Kumasi is really cool. The British actually destroyed a lot of it at one point or another when Ghana was a colony. So the city part is much more modern than Accra, in that they have street signs.. and some of the buildings/corners reminded people of a European city style. I just liked it because it actually felt like you were in a city. Most of the buildings were a couple stories tall, and there were quite a few that went beyond three. Accra does not have any skyscrapers.. I think the tallest building might be the Holiday Inn by the airport, which is probably like 10 or 12 stories. So it was kind of weird to be surrounded by somewhat tall buildings, but I liked it. The hotel we stayed at was called Sanbra Hotel. It was cool, definitely had a city feel to it. The room was really nice, it had three twin {I think?} beds, so Ben, Patrick, and I shared it. We had A/C and hot water- which was awesome. The restaurant also probably had the best pizza I’ve had here, and it was only 5 cedis for a medium margarita. It was also just a couple blocks away from the main market in Kumasi. I forget the name of it right now.. but it is the largest market in West Africa. We drove by it several times, it was absolutely huge. I think the guide book said there are over 10,000 merchants in it. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to go in it at all, by the time we were back from things we did throughout the day it was too late for us to go in there. Anyways, we got to the hotel about dinner time, so a number of us just ate at the restaurant there {which is when we had round one of the pizza}. Afterwards we wanted to see a bit of the city, so Samuel our guide, and Afari our bus driver walked around with us for a little bit. We went to a street side bar a few blocks from the hotel and had a beer/hung out for a bit. It was fun. There were a bunch of kids hanging out dancing to the music from the bar, so a few people went and danced with them for a little bit.

The next day we went to the main hospital in Kumasi. We all got food poisoning. Just kidding. Actually, there is a version of the sword in the stone there. About 500 years ago, a priest, Okomfo Anokye, from the Eastern Region came to the Ashanti Empire and put the sword in the stone, symbolizing the uniting of all the Akan people under the Ashanti King. The legend is that when the sword is pulled out, the empire will fall apart. Apparently the British tried to pull it out with machines, and they couldn’t.. Mohammed Ali also tried to pull it out, and he couldn’t. There are some other things that the priest did within the Ashanti empire, but this was one of the more significant ones. Also- he never died, he went into the mountains and disappeared. So anyways, now there is a little museum type place around the sword, and if anyone tries to pull it out and fails, the least punishment they will get is to be slaughtered and placed around the sword {thats what the guide told us, I’m not sure what the worst punishment could be.}

Next, we went to the only armed forces museum in Ghana. I wish I could have taken more pictures here, because John would have loved it. But I wasn’t allowed to inside, just on the outside. The museum is actually a fort, which is the site of a battle between the Ashanti and the British. The British came up from Cape Coast and demanded the golden stool {that Okomfo Anokye conjured from the sky}, but they fought the british instead. Several officers died, and they actually were only able to capture the stool and head back to the coast when another regiment of troops came as reinforcements {for those wondering, the stool has been returned since then}. The museum had a bunch of old guns and uniforms from Italy and Japan that Ghanaian regiments had captured during WWI and WWII. There was also some stuff from their peacekeeping efforts with the UN in Liberia and Rwanda. All in all, it was a pretty cool museum. From there we went to this pretty cool restaurant for lunch. I had redred, it was pretty good..

After lunch we went to Manhyia Palace Museum. This was on the palace complex, which is actually almost like a little village inside Kumasi. There were a bunch of different gated sections of the complex. It is where the current chief actually lives and works. However, the palace museum is where several of the previous chiefs used to live. What happened was when the British were fighting the Ashanti, they captured the chief and exiled him to Seychelles Islands. Upon his return, they built this house for him as a sort of repayment. However, he wouldn’t accept it and insisted that the Ashanti would pay for it. So it was essentially a tour of his home and office. It really reminded me of the tours like that in the states that you can do of Lincoln’s home, or Mark Twain’s home.. or whatever other ones you can do {sorry I forgot mom}. It was cool though, I think our guide for this museum is probably one of the best we’ve had. He made it entertaining instead of just reciting a script of information. After our day of museums, we went back to the hotel and had round two of pizza.

Then on Wednesday we went to the Kumasi Cultural Center. I was a little hesitant about going here, because I have had such a bad experience at the one in Accra. Basically the cultural centers are where a bunch of craftsmen and artists hang out and sell traditional stuff to tourists. The one in Accra is infamous for being pushy and basically what I was describing about the cloth place. So I really just didn’t want to go through that in the morning {or anymore in general, to be completely honest}. However, the place was really nice. It was like a big park that was fenced in, in the middle of the city. Everyone there actually had a shop building, not just a bunch of shops under a big market roof like in Accra. So people didn’t leave their shops to try to get us to come look at their stuff. It was so much more peaceful.. and everything was marked for a price, so there was no bargaining or anything. And the stuff was priced very well, not overpriced or anything. It was basically a night and day difference between the Accra Cultural Center. I’ve been looking at getting a cool African painting, but I’ve been looking for the right one. Unfortunately a lot of people here seem to claim what they are selling is their original work- but then you see it at five or six other shops.. but here, I found a guy who was actually in a wheel chair and paints with this mouth. He had paintings I hadn’t seen before, and was actually set up in front of an easel. So I got one from him that I think is pretty cool. After the cultural center, we were going to head back to Accra. So Patrick, Amy, Corrie, and Naomi stayed in Kumasi. Technically we are now on free travel, and they were planning on staying there an extra day. So instead of them coming back with us and then going back up there, they just stayed there.

On the way back we stopped at a bauxite bead making village. It is a type of bead that is made from bauxite {duh} that they mine from the hills about four hours away. Each bead has to be cut down to the right size, and then they use a bow drill to put the hole in it. From there it is polished on a polishing stone for a few hours. It is a pretty labor intensive process, and they definitely have a unique look to them. Now that we are back in Accra, we are on free travel.

Rachel, Ben, Chelsea, and I are planning on spending most of the time in a town in between Accra and Togo, it is called Ada Foah. Its supposed to have some of the best beaches in Ghana and just a really cool place to go hang out for a couple of days. We have to be back on Sunday the 29th for church, and then we are heading up to Akrofi-Christaller for the night for a final retreat. Afterwards we are having a going away party on Dec 1st. It is for everyone that has been involved in our semester, just to say thank you and what not. Then the next day we fly out.. I think our flight leaves around 11 pm or so, and we are leaving for the airport around 9 pm ish.. We fly through Frankfurt again and then into Detroit. If everything goes according to plan, we should be in Detroit around 6-7 pm on December 3rd! I probably won’t be able to be on the internet at all during free travel, so I might not really be around until we get back around the 28th or 29th. Hopefully I’ll have time to do a quick update about all that stuff, but I know those days are going to fly by with packing and everything else, so if not I’ll definitely try to have something up shortly after I get back {but that might be wishful thinking as well, I suppose}. Anyways.. so that is the last of the excursions for the semester. Its been fun, I’ve really learned a lot. This post is probably more than enough, sorry.. but thanks for reading and I’ll be home in two weeks exactly.