We spent the weekend in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. The weekend ended up being a huge adventure.
We went to a kente cloth (traditional Ghanaian fabric) factory. One of the men who makes the fabric offered to show me how to weave it. He showed me how to use my feet and hands to weave, which I definitely did not master. Then he said, “Give me your camera, let me take a picture of you.” I guess he really understands the importance of Instagram. After he took my picture he said, “I taught you how to weave now you have to buy my fabric.” So I guiltily bought the smallest kente cloth he had, which was beautiful and which I probably would have bought it even if he had not said that.
We also visited the second largest market in Sub-Saharan Africa. I have never really considered myself claustrophobic, but at the market I suddenly became super claustrophobic. As I entered the market, a man grabbed my wrist and pulled me over to him. People touched me and moved me and grabbed me and hit me, trying to push their way through the crowd. A man sat on a step, kneeled over and begging for money. He was so still, I honestly could not tell if he was breathing or not. Women carried bowls on their heads and I had to duck to not get hit. We made it to the fabric section where Leslie said we could stay with her or look at more of the market with Sonny. About half of us decided to stay with her. I ended up having a great time meeting new people and talking to the women who were selling the fabric.
When we were leaving Kumasi on Sunday we stopped at Lake Bosumtwi, which is a very large, beautiful lake that was created by a meteor. It is said in Ashanti tradition to be where the Ashanti souls go. Our driver got lost on our way to the lake, so it took almost an extra hour to get there. A handful of people in the group swam in the lake, but when they got out, one of them got sick and the other fainted.
On our way back to Accra from the lake, we drove through many rural areas of Ghana. As we drove through a remote village, a baby suddenly ran out into the road before the bus could stop. I screamed, thinking the worst was about to happen, but somebody picked the baby up just in time and everything was okay. After only about an hour or two into the drive we stopped and got gas, but our bus would not start back up. We sat outside the bus, exhausted and starving. We tried to play games with rocks and water bottles to distract ourselves.
We heard a boy yell, “The rain is coming!” I was very confused then all of a sudden a monsoon of rain started pouring down and we all ran back onto the bus. Finally, after being at the gas station for about an hour, the bus was fixed and we were back on the road. It took us forever to get back to Accra but we finally made it. I had never been so happy to see my rock hard mosquito net covered bed.
Comments by jaclynr