Jessica & Stephen Go to Ghana

he week of November 23 marked the official start of exams on campus. Jessica muscled through three straight exams while Stephen was lucky enough to only have one. It has been nice to see the academic session wind down while having good periods to study and catch up on some last minute adventures in and around Accra.
Right before exams started we took a one and a half day trip to Kokrobrite beach and enjoyed some good food and relaxing reggae music. We traveled with some friends who made the experience more enjoyable. We also ran into some European travelers who shared some interesting tidbits about their countries and other African countries they have travelled to. Their stories have certainly made the prospect of returning to the contentment appealing.
For a day trip we took a short trip back to the wood carving village in Aburi. It was nice to have more time to get to look around and interact with the craftsmen and women. Each piece they make has a certain meaningful interpretation and it was just as interesting to listen to them describe their pieces as it was to look at them.
The day after going to Aburi we found a fair trade shop in Osu that focused on helping Ghanaian women earn a livable wage while making little unique arts and crafts. We were both very excited to see and NGO successfully making a positive mark on the country’s environment, society, and economy.

Starting on Tuesday November 3^rd Jessica and I scurried out of a power outage that spanned across Accra and boarded a van headed to Kumasi. We arrived at around 3am and waited to catch a Metro Mass Transit bus going to the Northern city of Tamale. The 6 hour ride left us exhausted but we found a pleasant Indian restaurant to gather back some energy and then found a cheap place to stay. Then we wondered off to find some of our guidebook’s recommendations in the area and found a very relaxed market nearby with hundreds of paintings, crafts, and apparel. Because not to many foreigners travel so far north, the experience was much more culturally rich and far less touristy. We perused the market for a couple of hours and then were invited to listen to some truly talented drummers. They even taught us some new rhythms to impress our drumming teacher.

            The next day also got off to an early 3am start where we walked most of the way to the bus station because our taxi driver who was “guaranteed to be there” did not show. Unfortunately upon are arrival we were informed that the metro bus to Mole National Park was booked, despite our guidebook’s instructions that you could not purchase tickets in advance. Nonetheless we found a person at the tro-tro station to negotiate with a mate to get us a fair price on a ticket passing through Larabunga. After a relatively uncomfortable 3 hour ride through dirt roads, we arrived just outside of Mole.

            While in Larabunga, a very informed and polite 16 year old showed us around his village. This village turned out to be rather bland, but it did contain one of the oldest Mosques in West Africa and a “mystery stone” that supposedly contained spiritual significance. Unfortunately we were not able to see the “mystery stone” because the locals were guarding it and wanted to charge a significant amount of money to see it. The rest of the day involved several of the village’s children following us and having us take their pictures. Once we could not stay awake any longer we found the only logging in the area which consisted of sleeping on a couple mattresses on the roof of a building built out of mud.

            Instead of paying for transportation to the park we walked 6 km to the park early the next morning. It was incredible to see the sun rise over the vast expanse of wilderness and see warthogs, monkeys, and antelope along the way. The resort there was like a little slice of paradise as it stood on the top of a large hill overlooking a man made watering hole where all different kinds of animals gather. The Mole Motel even had a swimming pool that is known for having elephants come and drink water directly out of it.   

            We then took the rest of the day to watch the animals come and go from the watering hole and went on a two hour safari where we were able to see all kinds of animals up close. The next day we hired our own private tour guide to take us on seven hours of hiking where we blazed our own trail through high grasses, into small rivers, and over several hefty hills. In those seven hours we saw hundreds of antelope, whole tribes of baboons and green monkeys, a four foot long Nile monitor lizard, and bunches of the most exotic birds in the world. Unfortunately we did not see any elephants because it was their breeding season, but we did see plenty of footprints and other evidence of their existence.

After a couple weeks of navigating the country on our own it was nice to finally have a trip that was organized by our group. A five hour bus ride quickened by the showing of two seasons of Two and a Half Men, brought us to the Treasure Island hotel. After a quick lunch we visited the national museum of the famous African tripe called the Ashanti. They ruled West Africa for a long time until their tenure was unfortunately intruded by British colonialists. However they still have a King who has a reasonable amount of clout in the region. His main purpose is best viewed through local celebrations and as a symbolic figure for the Ashanti people.

 The Ashanti are also famous for two kinds of cloth that they have manufactured throughout their existence. One is called the adinkra cloth which involves taking any kind of fabric and stamping on over 60 symbols representing traditions and proverbs. The other textile is an intricately loom weaved cloth called kente cloth.  It is one of Africa’s most famous fabrics and it is worn by local chiefs and on festive occasions. Meeting the people who weaved the cloth and seeing how long it takes them to make it was one of the more interesting things to witness in Ghana. 

During a relaxing week of relatively uneventful activity we decided to check out the culturally rich part of Accra called Osu. Osu is set up to appeal to tourists and as such there are plenty of intricate art pieces available as well as a slew of international restaurants. As long as you do not run into an overly pushy salesperson, learning about the people and where they learned to paint, carve, etc. can be a very educational experience, however undoubtedly there is bound to be a couple stands that make the experience uncomfortable. Nonetheless we have met a couple of “Rasta” (basically Bob Marley followers) friends who always greet us and chat whenever we are in the area. 

Eventually after meandering for a while in Osu we found a place called Smoothys where there just happened to be a poetry reading/ creative writing night going on. Needless to say the readings were unimpressive, yet revealing as to the state of creative thinking in Ghana. Fortunately they did have terrific smoothies.