hakuna matata

So I just returned from my 5-day travel excursion to the Ashanti and Northern Regions of Ghana. I have never seen something so beautiful in my life. If I could imagine what the Garden of Eden looked like, it would look a lot like the countryside of Ghana. This place is unbelievably gorgeous. Apparently Eastern Africa is even better according to some guys we met on our safari this weekend, but more on that later.

Friday I woke up bright and early in order to be on the bus by 6:30 a.m. I made sure to bring my pillow though so I pretty much slept the entire 5-hour drive to Kumasi, waking only for the rest stop and lunch with the CIEE Legon kids. We did our Kumasi field trip with the CIEE (my program) students that go to University of Ghana in Legon. 70 obronis? Oh lordy. It was actually fun though. We split up after lunch. 2 buses went to the cloth villages and 2 buses (including mine) went to the Palace Museum and market. The Palace Museum was ok. It used to be the palace of the Ashanti Chief until they built a new one. The coolest part of it (to me, anyway) was that the grounds of the palace had peacocks!! Sooo cool. Quick side note: Ashanti is the name of the region. Asante is the name of the people in the region. After both buses took our tours of the palace and received a little history lesson on Ashanti chieftaincy, we went to the largest open-air market in West Africa. It was pretty cool I guess. Not much different than any other markets I've been to, just on a much larger scale. I did see people selling chickens, holding them upside down by their feet. I've decided I'm not eating fish here since everyone sells it on the street, with all of the exhaust. Gross. Afterwards we all went back to the hotel and rested until dinner. Our hotel was amazing, even by US standards. The Golden Tulip in Kumasi. When Holly and I got to our room we inspected everything in amazement. Our balcony was huge, we didn't have to turn on the hot water heater for hot water, there was actual water pressure(!), there was plush carpet, and the sheets felt truly clean. It sounds like my standards have dropped, but seriously. SUCH a great hotel. Anyway, dinner was sooo good. Amazing food. The Ashesi kids split up and sat at various tables with Legon kids so we could all get to know each other. Uneventful until everyone was finishing up eating and some people started to leave. I ran over and jumped to kneel on a chair to talk to Gannett (a girl in my program). Holly got a bit overexcited and ran over too, and tackled me. She allegedly thought that I still had one leg on the ground and wouldn't fall, but I definitely ate it. In front of everyone. I have a huge bruise on my shin to prove it. All the Legon kids looked at us like we were crazy. Fun times. Anyway, ended the evening watching CNN curled up in the comfy beds.

Saturday was a LOT of fun. We woke up, got breakfast, and then the 2 buses in my group went to the Kente and Adinkra cloth villages. We were shown how they weave Kente cloth and then went around and made our souvenir purchases. Kente cloth is sooo pretty. I went a little overboard buying stuff. Oops. I got to practice my bargaining skills and for some reason a guy I bought a necklace from kept giving me free stuff! I'm sort of tired of constantly being asked if I'm American and an Obama supporter so my new thing is I'm Canadian and voting for Nader. Because Canadians can vote in the US elections and all. They never question me, though! We also met our Twi professor's son as we were leaving and were shown his house. We then went to the Adinkra cloth village and were shown how they make the dye that they put on the cloth. Some of us were able to try our hand at weaving on the loom. I have a great picture of me attempting to do that. I even had my own cloth thing made. I picked out the 2 Adinkra symbols I wanted, the cloth, and had it stamped for 5 cedi. Everyone in both the villages were very very nice. After that, all the buses met at a lake that was created by a meteorite centuries ago. We had lunch there then a bunch of people jumped in and went swimming. It was shockingly very very warm. After a couple hours of that, Mr. Gyesi bought a few bottles of palm wine for all of us to try. I really liked it. It was a lot sweeter than I expected. Before going back to the hotel, my bus stopped by the bus station to buy our bus tickets for the next day. Anyway, we got back, had dinner and then I ended up hanging out with a bunch of Legon kids until wayyy too early in the morning. It was fun getting to know new people.

Sunday we all woke up bright and early to get breakfast before getting to the bus station by 9:30. We had a long bus ride from Kumasi to the Mole Junction, then got off there to wait for the other bus to come by and take us to Mole. The bus to Mole was old and ridiculously crowded. We waited for 20 minutes after getting on the bus for it to start and I'm pretty sure I sweated out all the liquids in my body. Grossss. It was a very bumpy 4 hour bus ride. We finally got there and got our room. Not as nice as the Golden Tulip and the power was out when we checked in, but it wasn't terrible. Showering and getting ready for bed in candlelight isn't too bad.

The next morning we woke up crazy early to go on a SAFARI! Gannett and I were walking to find breakfast and a babboon walked right by us! Close enough to touch! It was just hanging out, getting scraps of food from the ground. Omg it was crazy. We also had a ton of African deer and warthogs all over the place eating the grass. We then went on our safari where we got really close to wild elephants, bush buck, African deer, warthogs and monkeys! Warthogs are my new favorite animal. They're so ugly they're cute. Anyway, we had a walking safari through Mole National Park and took a ton of pictures. Afterwards, we took a nap until this amazing lunch a woman that lived in the village nearby made for us. Omo tuo is my new favorite Ghanaian dish. It's a rice ball in groundnut (peanut) soup. Sooo good. Later that afternoon, some of us went and swam in the pool. Babboons were playing in the trees right next to us! One even walked right by me as I was laying out. Another one stole a roll of toilet paper from the hotel office. Crazy times. That afternoon we went to the oldest mosque in West Africa in Larabunga. We walked around and got the history of the place as well as information about the village it was in. There was also an NDC political rally going on right next to the mosque which was cool to see. Apparently Larabunga speaks some language that nobody else in Africa speaks. Later on we got back to the room and played card games while it rained until dinner.

Tuesday morning was another early morning seeing as we had to be on the bus by 4 a.m. Not fun. At least this time we were the first ones so we were guaranteed seats on the crazy crowded bus. We had a lovely 4.5 hour bus ride to Tamale. We had some trouble trying to get a hotel room for 5 people so we ended up lying and saying that there were only 4, but I was a friend already staying in Tamale. However, Evelyn and I were supposed to show up later as if she was the one who picked me up and took me to the hotel. It took us half an hour to find the hotel since we started going the wrong way and got lost in Tamale for awhile. Tamale is a predominantly Muslim city where I have never seen so many people on motorcycles in my life! It's surreal seeing people in traditional clothing riding motorbikes. It was hard trying to get directions to our hotel though since the few people I stopped didn't speak English or Twi. After we finally arrived at AlHassan (our hotel), I napped for a loooong time before we walked around a market nearby. They were selling the weirdest stuff. I walked by a vendor selling cow heads and hooves. Ick. I got some sweet shades for my Halloween costume. Then the 5 of us just hung out, having a good time playing cards, singing Lion King songs and playing that childhood game, MASH. Good times.

Wednesday morning we had to be at the bus station by 5:30 to get on the 6:30 a.m. bus to Accra. I bought some nice leather flip flops for only 7 cedi, which is exciting. Then we had a 13-hour bus ride to Accra. I slept most of the way and listened to Dane Cook with Emily. They played this crazy Ghanaian movie so by the time we were almost to Accra, Gannett and I had a loud, running commentary. It ended like Hamlet-everyone died. The quality of the film and the acting was sooo bad, it made it hilarious. It was not very family-friendly though. A woman sleeps with her husband's brother b/c her husband is impotent and they want children? ick.


This was probably my favorite trip so far. I went to so many neat places and had such a great time with the group of girls I travelled with. I really want to go to this village in Western Ghana that is built on stilts in the river. Apparently just the canoe-ride to the village is worth it. It's supposed to be gorgeous. I also really want to spend the night in the rainforest one of these days.

I'm sure everyone else abroad is having a great experience as well, but I honestly think that Ghana has such amazing scenery and we've had such great experiences. Waterfalls, rainforests, SAFARIS, indigenous villages, etc. I love this place, although I really want to learn more Twi. If anyone ever gets the chance to visit Ghana or Africa, do it. I want to travel around the rest of the country, although my class schedule won't allow it this semester. :( Still, I'm having such a great time.

P.S. The election is in 2 weeks! Abroad kids - get your absentee ballots in. For most of y'all, it's the first presidential election we're eligible to vote in. We need more youth to vote, no matter the candidate. People back home - don't forget to vote! I'm planning on watching election coverage well into the early morning here at a friend's house. Should be exciting!

Sorry for the crazy long post. It was just such an amazing trip. Hope everything is going well for everyone else!

Love from Ghana!

Tidbits of the day: Brofo is a fried ball of dough that is delicious and sold all over. It's like a donut, but much bigger and without the sugary covering. Yum.

There are certain Ghanaian words and phrases that rub off. For example, people call other people Charlie, but pronounce it Cha-lay. They also call people my brother and my sister (pronounced: seesta). My favorite is when somebody says something and someone else replies by smacking their lips and saying 'eyyyyy. Sort of like if someone in the States says "come on. seriously" in a fun manner.