Johnny's Ghana Adventure: Back in Accra

July 24^th, 2013 11:30am

I made it back to Accra early this morning, around 4am, after 9 days exploring the northern part of Ghana. I had a great trip and some very exciting adventures. I thought I’d write about some of the more exciting events during my trip as it would take me a week to list everything that happened day by day.

The first and most exciting event was also the scariest thing to happen to me in Ghana so far. I was in the city of Tamale walking down the median between the express lanes and the collector lanes. I was on the median because most of the collectors’ lanes are taken up by vendor and parked cars and there are no sidewalks. I had just finished talking on the phone to my mother to get a phone number to straighten out a small banking issue. As I was walking back to my hotel a young man grabbed my satchel out of my hand and tried to run off with it. I luckily still had the shoulder strap around my body so before he could get more than a step the strap caught and I happened to have my feet firmly planted at that moment and he jerked around and fell backwards into the road. This was the moment he decided to let go of my bag. He landed in the road and a car stopped just in front of him. I think I was in shock, but an instant later a crowd gathered and everyone started yelling, pointing and discussing what had happened. People came from the shops on both sides of the road. People also stopped and got out of their cars, almost thirty people gathered on the median to give their point of view. Most of the people thought it was disgraceful that that kind of thing could happen in Ghana in broad daylight. Many of the people thought he most likely must have been a Nigerian. Ghanaians seem to blame all their woes on either the Chinese or Nigerians. The guy who tried to grab my satchel just sat calmly in the road and he made no attempt to run or get away at that point. I did not know what to do and to be honest I was worried the whole thing would somehow be blamed on me. After about fifteen minutes the police showed up and talked with a few of the people who had gathered around and then they left with the would be criminal in the back of their truck. The police did not talk to me at all and after they left I slowly walked away waiting to see if anyone would try and stop me, but no one did and I hurried back to my hotel and had pizza and beer.

Every other story is kind of a letdown after my action packed brush with Ghana’s darker side. I spent to first days of my trip in Kumasi. I got to see many of the local crafts and how they are made. Kumasi is the capital for the Ashanti people, Ghana’s largest tribe. They are famous for the Kente cloth they weave and make into traditional clothes. I also spent a day with a guide named Comfort touring around the Kumasi market, it is said to be the largest open air market in western Africa and has around fourteen thousand vendors. There is also a lot of production going on inside the market; they have many tailors, wood and metal workshops and every kind of food imaginable. While in Kumasi I also visited the Ashanti cultural centre and the three hundred year old sword that was placed in the ground and it is said that if it is ever removed the Ashanti tribe with come to an end. I did not try to pull it out, Muhammad Ali tired when he was the heavy weight champion and I figured if he couldn’t do it I don’t stand much of a chance. I also went to the Kumasi zoo, not a place to go if you like animals it is closer to an animal prison than a zoo, but I happened to be walking by and had some time to kill.

I traveled from Kumasi up to Tamale by bus. I spend two days in Tamale just relaxing and walking around, they have a smaller market where I got to see how leather shoes are made staring from the animal pelt.

From Tamale I traveled by Metro Mass bus to Mole, the bus was three hours late for our departure and a few of the tourists who were not used to Ghana were having a bit of a hard time dealing with a scheduled bus being three hours late. After the bus did arrive and we got moving, we got about thirty minutes down the road when the bus broke down. This caused the tourists to again go on about the quality of service, I even heard one person wonder if the bus company would be giving refunds. We had to wait another hour for a replacement bus to arrive, but we made it to Mole in eight hours and I was told sometimes the bus does not make it at all.

I went on a safari in Ghana’s Mole national park and got to see many different animals, including elephants which I’m told is rare during the rainy season because they are not tied to the few small lakes as there is water everywhere. We had been walking for almost two hours when our guide spotted elephant foot prints. He started to follow them and we walked around the main lake and as we came around the last bend he pointed out a herd of six elephants coming out of the jungle to play in the water. It was pretty exciting to see them come out of the jungle, they are not as easy to spot as you’d think for their size, they do blend in well and they also move very slowly. I got to take a lot of nice photos and even a video I’m hoping I can get to post.

After my very nice stay in Mole I had another run in with a couple from France who were not quite ready to deal with Ghana and how things are done or not done in this case. The bus to leave Mole leaves once a day at 4am and everyone who is leaving that day gets up early to catch it. Now most hotels would have a person on duty to help people with their check out at four in the morning as that is the time most people are leaving. But not this hotel, if you had not paid your bill the night before you were not allowed on the bus, I’m not sure why the bus company would care but in this case they made it their business to make sure the people had paid. Well this French couple had not paid their bill and did not speak English very well so things stated to get pretty heated as the French lady had boarded the bus and refused to leave, to ensure the bus would not leave without them. As someone who speaks French I tried to help, I had to tell the French man to speak slower a few times but we finally came to an understanding that everyone was happy with. The French man thought he could pay by credit card, but the hotel only accepts credit cards during the day and not at 4am, and he did not have enough cash to settle his bill. Also the couple had upset the security man from the hotel and the bus operators and they were refusing to accept even a cash payment until 6am, when people offered to lend then some cash. I believe they were also insulted by the fact the French man was going to leave without paying, something that would never be done in Ghana. After about ten minutes the man from the hotel decided to accept the cash payment after a small tip was added for his troubles and let the bus go on its way with the French couple included. As soon as the bus got to Tamale the French man when to an exchange place and returned to money everyone had pitched in to let the leave the park in one piece. I have found you will get a lot farther with people from Ghana if you smile and don’t make a big deal about things, there is always someway to work things out. It also helps not to be in a hurry, being in a hurry is never going to end well and I don’t thing Ghanaian respond well to people who try to rush things. This was part of the French man’s problems he was running back and forth between the bus and the hotel, he needed to take a deep breath and I believe things would have gone a lot easier for him.

Johnny

Medicinal herbs at Kumasi Market

Kumasi Market, the dream, the sign has been up for over five years

Kumasi Market, the reality

The Ashanti 300 year old sword

Kente cloth weavers

The local chief’s throne just outside Kumasi, the chair on the left is for his translator because you can’t speak to the chief directly and the right stool is for the queen-mother.