Ghana

Good morning everyone! Mike and I made it safely to Ghana and it is quite the country! Our bus arrived without difficulty in Kumasi around 9 pm Thursday night. Given the 9 am Wednesday departure, we were sitting on that bus for about 36 hours. That’s our longest bus trip so far and luckily we were given the front seats behind the driver so it was a fairly comfortable ride. We had this huge blue bus with really good windows so (though we were still sweaty) it was more pleasant than the ride to Bamako. We crossed into Burkina Faso with no problems, rolled through the country and then arrived at the Ghanaian border around 2 am. We had to sleep at the border until it opened at around 8 am but in general, all the border stops went smoothly. The whole trip was about 1200 kilometers (746 miles).

Ghana is so different from Mali. It is green and wet; we have already been through 3 big rainstorms. The landscape is gorgeous and there are even hills and cliffs (unlike very flat Senegal). Even though it is a bit humid, the temperature is much more pleasant. I can finally sleep through the night without waking up sweating! Also, it is great to be in an Anglophone country again but the African accent is going to take some getting used to. In Kumasi we had a hard time finding cheap lodging. Oddly, all the cheap hostels and guest houses had no openings. So, we showed up at the Presbyterian Guesthouse at like 10:30 pm with few other options and ran into two other American students with the same problem. Lawrence, the very pleasant night guard, informed us that there were no free rooms until the next day so I asked him if there was any other possible option for the night. In the end, he let us stay on the veranda, a kind of open hallway, for free.

Friday we spent the day walking around Kumasi. It is Ghana’s second largest city and the capital of the ancient Ashanti Empire. It is a pretty cool city and full of activity! Walking through their huge market downtown was the first time that I saw Africans walking at the same rapid pace as me. There was a light, afternoon rain shower as we headed to the National Cultural Center. We wandered around the grounds and saw a small museum dedicated to the Ashanti monarchy, which still exists today. We also tried some local cuisine called “fufu” which is ground cassava (manioc) root in a very spicy groundnut (peanut) sauce.

Saturday morning was an early exit to head to Accra, another 255 km south-west. We left around 7 am and got into Accra at 1 pm. We walked around central Accra for about 2 hours and had the same odd problem finding cheap lodging. Both the Methodist Guesthouse and the YMCA were totally full so we ended up finding a nice little hotel called the Date Hotel, located on Adama Road (my Senegalese name.) We got settled in and then explored the area a little bit. There is a bit market a few kilometers away and lots of great little local food shops. I saw the ocean again for the first time in 3 weeks. I didn’t realize how much I missed it, but I got really used to its constant presence in Dakar (which is surrounded by the Atlantic on 3 sides).

Sunday we were awoken to the sounds of loud gospel music. Ghanaians are very serious about their religion and the country is about 70% Christian. It sounded like the church service was quite lively. Today we are going to the market, looking for cheap wi-fi and getting a better sense of our surroundings. I am excited to explore Accra and the surrounding areas for the next two weeks. It will be nice to not have so much ground to cover for a little while. I like to think of it as the vacation part of my summer vacation.

The next big date is June 18th when we fly to Johannesburg, South Africa (though our flight path takes us through Addis Adaba, Ethiopia) for the southern portion of our African adventure. Have a great week and I will update you again before we leave Ghana.