Exchange for Change: Tales of an Obruni: Where from is you?

It is Sunday night and I am exhausted from the weekend. This weekend, Jen and I went into Kumasi, a city in the Ashanti Region, and Cape Coast. On Saturday, we set out to Kumasi early in the morning and rather than taking a tro-tro into Accra and taking a nice bus to Kumasi, we took an air-conditioned tro-tro to Kumasi. It was a crazy trip full of potholes, unpaved roads, and horns…lots of horns. On a side note, drivers in Ghana love to use their horns. I used to think obnoxious use of car horns was a characteristic of reckless driving in big cities, but Ghanaians use them all the time. Drivers use the car horn to tell people not to cross the road, to tell other drivers they are going too slow, to tell drivers they are in their blind spot, and to say hello. When we finally got to Kumasi after at least 5 hours in the tro-tro, we checked into a nearby hotel named Ashanti Gold Place. It was a two star hotel, but it had air conditioning so we were happy. Afterwards, we went to the Cultural Center, which houses local artisans. I was able to see some of them doing their trade and buy some gifts for home. Afterwards, we decided we wanted to see the Asantehene’s Palace. After walking through the city and being harassed by street vendors and children for money, I could not take it anymore. Blame me for being a sheltered child, but I cannot handle chaos. At one point, I caught a kid trying to unzip my backpack to try and take something from me. We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before calling it a night.

This morning we left early for a ride into Cape Coast. After another long tro-tro ride in uncomfortable conditions, we made it to Cape Coast. A taxi driver said he would take us to Kakum National Park and wait for us and then take us back. We asked him to take us to a bank first because Jen and I were a little short on cash. After getting more money, the taxi got into a small accident. (Dad, I know what you are thinking-but the accident was nothing more than the incident where Michael messed up the Prius door. It just involved two cars instead of one car and a lapse of judgment.) The taxi driver hit an open door and so he called another cab driver to take us to the park. We made it safely and did the canopy walk. Canadian engineering’s finest. The bridges were pretty shaky, but we both made it. Afterwards, the driver took us to Hans Cottage where we were able to see tons of crocodiles. We did not get to touch any because the line was rather long and neither Jen nor I were dying to do so. Afterwards, we went to Cape Coast Castle, a slave castle owned by the British. The Cape Coast Castle was recently visited by the Obama family. It was a humbling experience to see the slave cells.

Now, it is back to the reality of work for another week before my final weekend trip.