Accra and Goodbye Ghana – August 3

We wanted to make a few last touristy stops around Accra to see the important monuments and other miscellaneous places that we hadn’t seen, since we had only been in the city for a few hours on the day we first arrived in Ghana.

Our first visit was to the tomb of the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah who declared Ghanaian independence in 1957.  His tomb was a large marble enclosure, Designed by a Ghanaian architect, constructed by the Chinese, with marble from Italy.  It was shaped like a sort of tree trunk with all of the outside walls curving upwards.  A nearby guide told us that the tree shape had been cut off to represent works unfinished by the President, whose government was overthrown by a military coup.  Later, driving by the very large Flagstaff House estate where the current President’s of Ghana always live, we could see that the massive Presidential Palace was also designed similarly.  In front of the tomb, pointing inland towards Ghana, was a large statue of Nkrumah, supposedly on the exact spot where he stood to declare the independence of Ghana.  Seven other statues of horn blowers on each side, as well as one statue playing native drums and one playing a native string instrument to represent the North and the South cultures of Ghana flanked the statue.

The Tomb

A horn blower

The Presidential Residence

After visiting the tomb we took a quick tour through the Kwame Nkrumah Museum nearby, which housed many photographs of him with famous figures like, Queen Elizabeth, Fidel Castro, Chairman Mao, and President Kennedy.  They had others artifacts too, like pens or desks corresponding with some significant time in his life.

The next visit was to the large indoor art and Ghanaian wares market at the Cultural Center not far away.  It reminded us particularly of a less overwhelming and smaller Central Market of Kumasi, but the whole thing had a roof over it.  We had a chance to pick up any last minute souvenirs and gifts that we had missed from the rest of our time here.  Most of the market contained what we’d seen all over, like masks, jerseys, cloth, kente, all concentrated in area (and for higher prices too).

Our final stop in Accra was the Mall, a place that was eerily American.  We ate in the food court to provide a variety of options, both Ghanaian and American.  Here we were also able to print off a photo of us with Emmanuel to put into the frame that we all signed for him as a thank you for all his work with us!  After picking up our things from the guesthouse, we headed straight to the airport to check our bags in.  That gave us a brief time outside to say our goodbyes to our friends Emmanuel, Govina, Cornelia, and Baba.  The international terminal in Accra is very nice and we had a good time swapping photos as we waited at our terminal, but all too soon the time came to say goodbye to Ghana and to say goodbye to Helena, who took a flight to visit family in Austria before returning to the US. 

Down to just four, we safely boarded our flight around 9 PM Ghana time and started our journey home!

Written by Clayton and Mollie

Cape Coast – July 2

We had an early start to the morning, rolling out of Kumasi at 6 AM with Emmanuel and Govina.  Emmanuel wanted us to get to see a few more points of note in Ghana before our departure.  We drove directly to Cape Coast, Ghana and started near there at Kakum National Park.  The main attraction at Kakum is the canopy walk through and above the rainforest.  We all made it and while some held on tighter to the ropes than others, everyone had the courage to cross the entire way!

A view of the rainforest 

Chelsea crossing

Clayton documenting

Mike is happy

Mollie in the middle

Helena hanging on for dear life - or just tree hugging

After lunch at Kakum, we headed to the Castle in Cape Coast.  We had a very nice tour guide who gave us an idea of how the castle operated over 300 years ago.  He showed us through the slave dungeons and captain’s quarters and everything in between, including the “door of no return”.  The castle is impressive and the location is right on the Atlantic Ocean and spectacular, but yet the history is so mind-bogglingly atrocious.  Despite its history it was exciting and even peaceful to see the Atlantic from Ghana, with the waves crashing into the castle walls and the horizon spanning on, seemingly forever. 

The group with the castle behind and the dungeons below

View from the castle of the coast

That night we traveled to Accra and stayed in a CSIR guesthouse, which was very nice.  The complex was located in the middle of the section of town containing all the important government buildings like the BNI (The Bureau of National Intelligence – the Ghanaian FBI).  There were also many embassies for foreign nations.  We saw the Canadian and Egyptian embassies, and caught a little glimpse of home soil when we passed around the U.S. Embassy.

Written by Clayton and Mollie

Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary and Kintampo Falls – July 29

Today Emmanuel picked us up bright and early and we drove a few hours north, through Techiman to the village of Kranka, a site that past Pavlis students have visited and expressed interest in working with.  There we met with the Chief, who accompanied us for the rest of the day.  He told us about a community ICT center that had been opened within the last year with twenty desktop computers!  We hope to allocate some of the books in our shipment of supplies to this center. 

Our first tourist stop of the day was at the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, a well-established presence in the Ghana tourism industry.  The welcome area is very well-kept, with a guesthouse and an office where you pay for entrance and sign the guestbook.  Our guide, Brandon was a volunteer who had just arrived a few weeks ago from Ontario, Canada.  It was fun to talk with him and he was very enthusiastic about the sanctuary! 

Right at the beginning of our walk through the sanctuary we were able to see Colobus monkeys very close up, in the lower branches of some trees right by the path.  These monkeys are usually much harder to see and never interact directly with humans.  They are quite large and have amazingly long tails!  We also had the chance to feed some Mona monkeys, which are the same type as we got to see at the Duasidan sanctuary where we are doing our project. 

A Colobus monkey

The whole group got to climb on and in a ficus “tree”, which is actually a parasite that grows around a tree, eventually killing it.  In this case the original tree had decayed away, leaving a huge cylinder to climb through!  We all got in on a good group photo.  Brandon was also a very helpful guide in that he is a very good photographer! The other cool tree we saw was a conglomeration of trees and vines and we had a cool photo shoot there too.  Before we left we had a chance to stop at a local gift shop to buy a few carvings and masks. 

The group in the Ficus tree

Group with Emmanuel in the conglomerate tree

Our second tourist stop of the day was Kintampo Falls, a set of three waterfalls!  The first stage was pretty interesting, with the water surging over a huge rock outcropping.  There were a few holes in the rock where water would also gush through.  The second stage was small, but the third stage was very spectacular!  We walked down 152 steps to the base, where there were a handful of Ghanaians already enjoying the falls.  We didn’t waste much time getting down to our bathing suits and jumping in too!  We climbed and slid in, around, and behind the falls for about 45 minutes, having the time of our lives! Best. Water. Park. Ever. 

Group with Emmanuel at Kintampo Falls

On the drive back, we picked up the Chief again and dropped him off close to Kranka, then made our way back to Sunyani, all tired out from the day.  

Big Trees and Kente Cloth - July 7

Our night at the Bobiri Butterfly Sanctuary was filled with sounds of the forest; we were lulled to sleep with noises of frogs, birds, and all kinds of insects.  We struggled out of our comfortable beds and into the kitchen around 7 AM.  Thrilled to have a large kitchen (and stove-top) at our disposal, we decided to make French toast.  Without milk or cinnamon or vanilla, and with honey as a substitute for syrup, we all enjoyed a warm and filling breakfast. 

Around 8:30 AM, one of the Bobiri guides arrived and ushered us through a couple of the forest’s trails.  We eagerly followed as our guide, another Emmanuel, cleared our path with a machete.  Emmanuel introduced us to many of the forests most notable trees, trees, mind you, that stretched high (higher than we could see) into the sky.  We climbed around wall-like buttresses of trees more than 300 years old, we played with rubber from a rubber tree, we (well, some of us) tasted the bitter bark of a Mahogany tree, and we dodged (some better than others) stream-like armies of biting ants.  After several hours out on the trails, we returned to our rooms and prepared to once again hit the road.

Huge buttresses on a huge tree!

Our guide demonstrating the use of a vine as a resting spot

After we piled into Govina’s truck, we were escorted to Bonwire, a town noted for producing a traditional Ghanaian fabric, kente cloth.  While there, we were able to watch craft-masters create marvelous designs with complex looms and diligent well-practiced fingers.  The craftsmen were eager to share their knowledge, they even allowed Mollie and Helena to sit down and try it for themselves!  Of course they sold their crafts there as well, so everyone got another chance to improve upon their bargaining skills.

Kente cloth community showroom with looms in use and fabric on display

Later in the day we gathered our line-dried laundry from Emmanuel’s home, grabbed two duffel bags full of useful items (left from previous cohorts), and bought some fresh bread and vegetables from a small market at KNUST.  We then drove (with Govina) back to our KNUST dormitory base in Sunyani.  When we arrived in Sunyani we were able to get good use out of our headlamps and flashlights—our entire dormitory was without power, and being 7 PM, Ghana was already very dark.  Unsure if the power would come back on at all, we delayed further unpacking, snacked on bread and peanut butter, and debated if we should go elsewhere for food and potentially electricity.  We were both surprised and excited when the power came back on around 8:30 PM.  Using hot plates, rice cookers, and cooking ware left from previous groups (thank you!) we prepared and enjoyed a makeshift stir-fry dinner.  We concluded the evening with a group meeting and discussion of plans for Sunday.