Weekend in Kumasi- Nov 14-16

Before I left America a friend that works as an Art teacher in Atlanta Public Schools gave the contact information for a friend she knew in Kumasi. I contacted her as soon as I could to see what she was doing in Kumasi. Mariama is a part of the Art Education department at Kwame Nkrumah College of Science and Technology. I told her was here teaching teachers to create TLM with found objects. Then it clicked- her students’ art skills could be used to help teach TLM in Kumasi! We decided right away to meet up in Kumasi (an hour away by car, but 2 hours away by multiple tro tros).

Pool at Ashanti Gold


Pizza from Funkies
So Betsy and I jumped on a tro tro after our last Friday class and headed to Kumasi. We decided to stay at the Ashanti Gold Hotel, which is near the National Cultural Center (“Centre” here). We arrived around 4pm and called our Canadian friends from Agogo (they are here working with an organization that is working to improve literacy in parts of Africa; we have had them over for dinner and a movie a few times) that had also come in town for weekend.

All four of us met up for dinner at a place called Funkies, although no sign said Funkies- they said Queen’s Gate???. I ordered the pizza, which looked great! It had tons and tons of raw veggies on top, but the sauce wasn’t enough to balance the raw veggies dryness. I still ate the rest of my leftovers though. After dinner we all were exhausted and just went back Ashanti Gold for an early night. Once back to our room we found that we had- HOT WATER! (did I mention we didn’t have running water at our place in Agogo again?) We were both just excited about the running water- the HOT was a bonus! I took a nice long shower then went straight to sleep before 9:30pm.

Saturday, Betsy and I slept in- it was fantastic. I slept in to about 7:30am- which is late for me recently. We hung out in the room until we left for our 10:00am appointment to meet Mariama and her Department Head, Nana. The campus was very beautiful and larger like an American college campus. We meet Mariama and Nana and hit if off. We both took time to tell what programs we are currently working on and find a way to collaborate. We decided that Mariama and Nana should pack up their art education graduate students and bring them to Agogo to see our Teacher Resource Center and have us motivate them to create TLM’s of their own. They will then return to their campus and begin create TLM’s of their own, which they will be sharing with Primary and Secondary Schools on their college campus in Kumasi. I am also thinking big- that we can have an “art show” of sorts in Kumasi where we can display the TLM’s our students make with those of the graduate art students. Long term I am hoping this Agogo-Kumasi partnership will stay strong. This meet was most definitely worth traveling to Kumasi for. Thanks Cissy for giving me Mariama’s contact info!


Eggless Omelette

After our wonderful meeting, Betsy and I went to meet Laura and Rabina, the Canadians, for lunch at my favorite place to eat- Vic Baboo’s Cafe. They have the most extensive menu with Indian, Thai, Ghanaian, Chinese, and American food. For lunch I had an eggless omelette made from pea flour and veggies. It was very tasty. After lunch Betsy and I set out to go food and book shopping around downtown Kumasi. It was nice, but I was unable to find Soy Milk and that was on the top of my list. It is funny, because there is a Soy Milk sold in Agogo, but it isn’t vegan- it has milk powder in it- why?

Due to the heat we retreated to our hotel room for a bit and then regrouped for our big trip out. Where were we off to this time- only the largest open market in all of West Africa- the Kejetia Market! This was an amazing and stressful experience. I was very happy that we waited for the heat of the day to pass- and many stands were closing down. This was good, because there is way too much to be seen. This market is much like the market in Accra- that I haven’t yet ventured into- with everything you could possibly want and more. Here people come to sell food, clothes, fabric, electronics, jewelry, furniture, beauty supplies, and much, much more. We were strictly coming to look around, which isn’t easy when everyone wants you to buy something, and find new fabric for more dresses. I found some nice Ghanaian (most fabrics I had been buying were English) tie-dyed fabrics/ printed fabrics. I can’t wait to get my dresses made.


Pictures of the Market

After the market we regrouped and then went back to Vic Baboo’s for dinner- it is just so good! I had the best veggie burger I have had in awhile- so I am going to get the ingredients next time to really make sure it was vegan. I also got a fancy fruit drink with grenadine (I don’t drink alcohol- so grenadine as exciting as I get) and they served it with a candle. The A/C kept blowing out the candle so the server kept relighting it. How funny. We left Vic Baboo’s and headed to Vienna City Pub. It is the chain of the one in Accra, but not as large. I got a lemon lime Fanta, really good, and hung out with my roomie for a while.

My fancy drink

We came back to our hotel by 10:30 and I began a cheesy movie that put me to sleep. I slept in until 8:30opm- I couldn’t believe it either. When I woke up I turned on the TV and found one of my favorite movie- Wallace and Gromit’s Curse of the Wererabbit (my friend Missy would have loved this). Betsy and I got ready and then went on a trek to find an Internet close by, but our map was wrong and we never found it. After that fruitless journey we headed over to the National Cultural Centre, which would assume is closed on Sunday, and the grounds were open.


We wandered around and found out that everything started opening at 10am, which was another great surprise, so we waited happily at the Kentish Restaurant. When things opened we visited the gift shop and were able to have a guided tour of the open-air museum. It was very interesting to learn about the lives of different Ashanti Chiefs. One interesting fact I learned is that the chiefs’ cooks are all men and they have to taste the meal and see its affects before the chief has it make sure it will not make the chief sick. I bought some children’s books and then we headed back to the Ashanti Gold for check out.


This is a picture of what Chiefs use/ used to bathe. Their feet are to rest on the elephant tusks. Also- chiefs are never to be seen without their sandals.


Here is a picture of where the chief's cook cooks.


Staff of the chiefs. Each staff has a different animal for the different tribe.


Me and a stone Chief just hanging.

I had a nice time in Kumasi, but was happy to get home. Once home Rabina and Laura brought over red red and plantains for dinner. It was nice to come home to great home cooked food, friends, and an exciting feeling that APTC (Agogo Presbyterian Training College) may have a new partnership with KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology).