Kumasi, Hive-like things, and Urinal bonding

Akwaaba! (welcome)

It has been about one week since my last post and I've been busy as ever. I started my internship on Monday and it was actually terribly boring unfortunately. Jessalyn and I got there about 15 minutes early (around 7:45am) and stayed until 12:30pm when we couldn't stay sitting anymore because it was soo boring. I think the main bosses forgot we were coming so we just sat around doing nothing the whole time. Luckily, we're at the internship today and we at least have a curriculum to start planning for Sisters in Support, the group we're leading.

Tuesday, I finally had all of my classes and found out when my tutorials (discussion sections) will be. Unfortunately, one of them conflicts with my planned internship time so now I can only go to my internship on Mondays and Fridays when we aren't travelling. Wednesday, we had our developmental studies class and our homestay meeting. I also joined Cassie, Ian, Anil, and Anna for an additional homestay "meeting" which involves a pre-dinner drink. Thursday, I woke up with a cold and just feeling all around down. I went to class and met up with Jessalyn and friends who always know how to make me feel better! Unfortunately, I had an extremely stressful evening thanks to the UW financial aid office and the bursar's office and a big tuition bill I wasn't expecting. Luckily, a late night phone call made me feel a bit better even if it did make waking up for our trip a little harder.

Friday morning at 6am we loaded the buses to travel to the Ashanti Region's capital, Kumasi. It's about a 5 hour ride...which is terrible for someone who gets carsick easily and has a cold a.k.a me. The roads here are also in very rough shape and have soo many potholes and "rumble strips" or speed bumps. When we finally arrived in Kumasi we visited a Traditional Ashanti Home in Ejisu. There are nine other such homes in the region and they are all marked as UN World Heritage Sites. These are the last material remains of the great Asante civilization in the 18th Century. These buildings used to be shrines/fetish houses belonging to some of the powerful deities in the kingdom. The traditional religion is still practiced in these homes which takes the form of consulting with deities to seek advice on specific situations and also to seek favors.

Prior to our next stop we were treated to pizza for lunch...unfortunately the pizza wasn't very good and didn't sit well with most of us after the extremely bumpy ride to our next stop, Bonwire village. Bonwire is famous for their Kente cloth and designs, each of which have a distinct meaning.

Kente Cloth

Next we went to the Ntonso Adinkra Village to learn about the Adinkra symbols and their meanings and how they're put on cloth.

Me stamping my symbol that meant hope onto our group cloth.

Finally, we went to the hotel to have dinner on the rooftop where we had a mixture of Ghanaian soup and hamburgers (the patty was the size of the top of a soda can...but the fries were fantastic! After dinner, we grabbed some drinks and headed to Jessalyn's and my room for a good old fashioned game of kemp and spoons with our twin beds pushed together as snack table, card table, and our seats. It was a pretty fun evening with all the characters in our group. We were all exhausted so we decided to go to bed relatively early, especially me and my cold-ridden self.

Saturday, we had breakfast at 8, I woke up with some crazy hive-like bug bite things on one arm and my right eyelid was swollen...still not sure from what but it was weird...our first stop was at the home of musician Prof. Agya Koo Nima to learn about and listen to Palmwine music.

Then we went to the Manhyia Palace Museum. The museum holds effigies of the past and present kings of the Ashanti Kingdom, and some gold artifacts and also tells the story of the Ashanti kingdom.

Our last stop of the day was at the largest open market in West Africa, the Kejitia Market in Kumasi. If you recall my last market experience you already have an idea of how this experience went. Luckily, it wasn't that bad. Because of its size, this market was much more organized and its actually more of a walk into shops experience rather than a million people grabbing you and yelling at you...it was still something I don't really want to do again, but it was better than the Mokola market.

Ever wonder what happens to the clothes you throw out? These white bags are filled with used clothes from the U.S. and Europe that people buy, clean, and then sell at the markets. You don't know what's in the bags before you open them so you have to choose very carefully.

Just a glimpse from afar of the HUGE market. They literally sell everything you can think of there. Really, ask me about it. I'm sure they have it.

We had dinner at the hotel again and once again brought drinks and a few bottles of wine and snacks back to our room for some more cards (old maid this time) and enjoying a terrible movie. Some of our group decided to go out that night and came back Sunday morning with some great stories.

Sunday morning I enjoyed my last hot shower for the near future...it was sooo nice!! Then I went with a few people back to the Kente village since my money problems on Thursday put my normally conservative spending style completely on hold and I didn't buy anything at all for the entire weekend. I knew that if I left without something I'd regret it so I went back and bought a large piece of Kente for a blanket, a small purse, and a scarf size piece of cloth. I can't show you a pic of these just in case I decide to give them as presents!

Then we got back in time for lunch and set off on our journey back to Legon. Unfortunately, the trip was about 6.5 hours because we had to stop two extra times for bathroom breaks…one of which I’m sure will make my parents so proud to know that my friend and I used the urinal…to be fair-the women’s stalls didn’t have a toilet or anything besides a tiny hole in the ground so after hearing of the success of a few other ladies somehow going in the urinal…we decided to give it a try…and it worked just fine. Hahahaha thinking about it still makes me laugh!

I finally got back to my house around 7:30 and was somewhat surprised by my welcome. Everyone in my family just kept saying they were so glad I was finally back which felt really good since there are times when you question whether or not you fit into the family…after last night I think I am beginning to be part of the family and not a guest! It was my sister, Seecho’s birthday so we had fried plantains and yams and wine and soda. There is always music and dancing in my house and they were sneaky enough to even get me in on the dancing…and on video. I normally wouldn’t share this but I think it’s really funny especially since it is clear that I can’t dance but the camera ran out of memory right before we had a nice circle of dancing going on with all the women in our house…including my Auntie Mary. Overall, it was a great end to the weekend and I can’t wait for our next birthday celebration.

My Auntie Grace (host-mom) will finally return to Ghana on Saturday so I’m excited to finally meet her and see how the family dynamics change with her return! Sunday, I’m going to a football (or what we call soccer) game in Accra to watch the national team, the Blackstars play Malawi. I don’t know anything about football but I’m really excited to go since it is our equivalent of American football and watching the Packers!

Sorry for the super long post but I had a lot to share with you all! Please remember that you can ask questions or suggest topics for my next post in the comment section!

Till next time!