This past week has brought much of the same activities and
I’m happy to say that this coming Friday marks 2 months! Last week held again
the same activities of going to class and my internship, but Wednesday was
actually special because it was Ghana’s Independence Day, celebrating 56 years
of independence and a stable democracy!
The night before, Tuesday, my friends and I decided to go to the Chris
Brown concert downtown. I’m not a huge fan of Brown, but some of his songs are
great, and I went with the mentality of “when in Ghana…”. After finally
tracking down tickets for general admission (20 cedi, $10 US) we made our way
down to the football stadium. It was super crowded and busy, and as expected
Chris was way late to perform. One exciting and unexpected aspect of the
concert was sneaking/army crawling under a barrier to get to the VIP section
and front rows. We successfully snuck through and managed to get to the fourth
row in the crowded and extremely hot standing section. When I say hot, I mean
sweat everywhere; I was absolutely drenched when the concert was over. But
Chris finally came on around 11pm and he sang most of his songs and some others
not by him. Overall a great experience with hilarious memories.
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| Adinkra symbols |
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| Fabric stamped with adinkra symbols |
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| My market purchases |
This weekend we traveled with CIEE to the Ashanti
region/Kumasi. It’s great when CIEE sponsors some trips because we don’t have
to deal with the hassle of trotros and they pay for everything. So Friday, we
woke up really early and boarded an air conditioned bus. The ride went really
smoothly and we stopped a t a Kente cloth weaving warehouse. Kente is a form of
weaving and each design actually has a specific meaning. I bought a stole for
graduation and the meaning is two hands are better than one and it also
represents the founders and foundation of kente. We then also went to an
adinkra symbol stamping place. Here we saw how the dye is made from tree bark
by mashing it and then boiling it down for several days. The result is a very
dark black ink that they use to stamp symbols onto fabric. The symbols all have
different meanings too, here is a website with some of their meanings. At the
end, we all got to try stamping symbols onto fabric. Later that day, we arrived
at the hotel, where there was (gasp) hot water and ac! Seriously didn’t know
how to handle that and I may have burned myself in the shower because I was so
excited/not used to hot water. Dinner at the hotel was great too, some
delicious chicken and jollof. The next day, we went to a museum about the
tribal king of Kumasi and then later we went to the largest market in West
Africa. It was huge. Honestly, if they would have brought us there in the first
couple weeks, we would have been so lost and terrified, But my group and I are
now pretty used to walking though markets and having to bargain for everything.
The market was so busy and filled with narrow aisles full of everything you
could think of: used clothes, dishes, jewelry, live chickens, fish, rice,
beans, spices and fabric. Every aisle was also crowded with people walking
through with huge amounts of things on their heads and chatting to each other.
My goal was to get some fabric to be made into some clothes and some gifts for
people back home. I can successfully say I found and bargained for 3 different
fabrics, jewelry, and some scarves from a lady near our bus. Market day well
spent, and I wasn’t even that overwhelmed. After the market, we came back to
our hotel for some free time aka nap time. That night CIEE said they would take
us out to dinner and the options were traditional Ghanaian food (fufu/banku) or
continental aka INDIAN FOOD. No questions were asked, I was getting Indian.
Four of my friends and I enjoyed one of the best meals I’ve had here: naan,
chicken curry, and other delicious dishes. I am also happy to discover how much
I really like Indian food, because apparently Sri Lankan cuisine is very
similar and based off it. Now, I’m looking forward to the food this coming
summer. After eating till we were fully satisfied we drove back to the hotel
for a quiet night from the full day. Sunday, I spent time reading before
getting back on the bus and traveling back to Accra. Sunday night and most of
Monday I spent studying for another test in history of medicine on Tuesday.
Overall, the weekend had some fantastic opportunities to see
the town and people of the Ashanti region and I really enjoyed how relaxing it
was to not have to plan everything. However, I am also glad that my friends and
I are able to travel on our own and that we take advantage of every opportunity
to do this. There is something about traveling with almost no plan and just
rolling with the punches that feels truly Ghanaian.
That’s all for now.
Love, Audrey
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