So, this is it. I’m going home tonight.
What have I learned from my trip? Quite a lot about fiber arts, for one, but also a bit about Ghanaians. My experience has been that Ghanaians are quite friendly and welcoming – even someone passing by is likely to call out “You’re welcome!” (meaning, you are welcome) [...]
Yesterday was a tough travel day from Bolgatanga back to Kumasi – we got to the bus station around 8am, and didn’t get in to Kumasi until around 9pm, for a total of 13 miserable hours on the road. I staggered into the guesthouse and slept for 10 hours, punctuated by coughing fits from this [...]
http://www.travelingtiger.com/travelingtiger/africa/ghana/ghana.html
Added a section on adinkra, brassmaking, and indigo dyeing and cotton spinning. I may update the “Around Ghana” section if I have time.
This morning we went to Sirigu, home of SWOPA – Sirigu Women’s Organization of Pottery and Art. This co-op sells, well, pottery and art – superb potters’ work and canvas paintings reminiscent of the painted houses here. I had decided to come here for a potters’ workshop, despite having little to no knowledge of pottery.
The [...]
Today we went to the market in Bolga (really Bolgatanga, but everyone calls it Bolga). Chuku started by taking me to the fugu vendors, just to look around – they showed me a couple of fugu, and I was thinking of buying one in my size – the one I bought two days ago is [...]
Went to Bolgatanga today, in the usual crowded minivan. We arrived early, and discovered that the Bolga market wasn’t until tomorrow, so we went off to Paga and the crocodiles.
The sacred crocodiles of Paga: there are several legends about it, but the gist of it is that a hunter was lost in the woods and [...]
This morning we slept in, since we didn’t have to be anywhere before dawn (thank goodness). Also, Ghana shuts down on Sunday mornings (everyone’s at church), so there wasn’t much point in an early start. We ate breakfast at Swad Fast Food, a somewhat misleadingly named restaurant that, per the guidebook, is the best in [...]
I look…shocking.
After two weeks here, in a sea of black faces, I took a look in the mirror and almost didn’t recognize myself. I’ve gotten so used to seeing African faces, and so seldom see mirrors, that my own face looked…alien. Strange. I haven’t seen another Asian face since I arrived here. I must be [...]
Today I woke up at 5am with the muezzin call to prayer reverberating in the air. We aren’t in the Muslim area of Ghana yet, but clearly we’re getting closer. Tomorrow we’re headed to northern Ghana, which is the Muslim area.
After a leisurely breakfast, Chuku and I went off to the Internet café and [...]
My apologies to you all - I was actually headed for Kumasi, not Medassi (which city does not exist except in my befuddled brain). Kumasi is the ancient capital city of the Ashanti empire, which (before British colonization) covered a far bigger territory than Ghana. The Golden Stool (which symbolized the high chiefdom) [...]