Kumasi

Ayaan- This passed weekend, February 6th-7th we went to Kumasi. It was a fun filled weekend leading to an unfortunate spending frenzy on both Kaya and my part. Saturday morning we were supposed to meet the bus at 5:00am. I woke up at 4:15 and decided to call Kaya and Joanna to make sure they were away. Neither answered. I then got dressed, finished packing, and was ready by 4:30 when I attempted to wake them up again, still no answer. I was finally able to wake Kaya up at 4:45, but couldn’t reach Joanna until 4:53. What would they do without me? The bus arrived late so we didn’t depart from campus until 5:45 and the drive was about 4 hours.


Our first stop after arriving to Kumasi was the Bonwire Kente Village where men were hand weaving the Kente cloth. All the fabric was beautiful and each had a specific meaning. Somehow I managed to find the perfect fabric. The guy was trying to sell it to me for 70 cedis and wouldn’t go below 45 so I had to move on. Fortunately I found the same fabric in another section of the building and was able to buy it for 30 cedis. They definitely try to take advantage of the fact that we are foreigners and don’t know whether 70 cedis is too much or not.

From the Kente village we went to the Kejetia market, the largest market in West Africa, where we had an hour to walk around to and do some shopping. I was so close to not buying anything, but I found some really nice fabric and ended up buying six yards. From there we went to the hostel at a university campus in Kumasi where we were staying for the night. We got there early enough where we had time to go to the pool, take a nap, and eat dinner at a fast food place before going to the Vienna City Pub in the evening. The pub was so much fun. There was food, drinks, pool tables, and dancing. Although I think we, the foreigners, were the only one’s dancing. Who cares, it was fun. And I got to wear the dress I had the seamstress make me.

Sunday we went to the Manhyia Palace, where the Ashanti King lives. There is museum next to the actually palace which is where we actually went. However, the museum was the home of past Ashanti kings. I believe only two or three have lived in the new palace. It was cool to see what the traditional kings where and to learn about the traditional ceremonies they go through. We then went to the Kimasi Cultural Center. Most the places were closed since we went on a Sunday, but we were able to go to one place and buy some souvenirs. Lastly, we went to the Okomfo Anokye museum, where there is an unmovable sword, like the one in the Disney movie. They told us that many famous people, including Muhammad Ali, have tried to remove the sword with no luck. We ate lunch on the bus and headed back to the University of Ghana. It was a very interesting trip and we definitely learned a lot.