Ghana day 8

Today was our trip back to Accra from Kumasi. It seems like it was a bit of a waste for us to come here without really being able to spend any time in the city. The planning of the last three days has been frustrating for what seems to be everybody. We’ve done some pretty cool things, but not that merit the hours of travel that were required for them. I would have liked to have just stayed at the resort in Cape Coast (Coconut Grove) for another day or so and just skipped Kumasi.

Fortunately though, we were able to make a few stops on the way out. The first one was in an area where there are several shops that specialize in the making of wood products. I strayed a bit from the rest of the group so I got accosted quite a bit by the shop owners wanting me to buy their wares. I bought a beaded mask, a symbol that means something like, “One with God”, and five small elephants.

Haggling is a way of life in Ghana so it is really hard to tell if you are getting a good deal or not. My strategy was to think about how much I was willing to pay for something first and then work towards a price a bit lower than that. I felt I bought my stuff for very good prices. Though I may have been able to get a bit lower for some items I was happy to help out the local economy a bit.

Our next stop was at a place where they make dyes for fabric. They ground up bark from a certain kind of tree (I’m not sure what the name of the tree is).


then they boil it until it turns black.


They then dip stamps into the dye and put it on fabric for sale. The place we went only makes black dyes, but they use it on many colors of fabric.


Our third stop out of Kumasi was in a little town where they make colorful fabrics. They had everything ranging from ties, to shirts, to skirts. They gave us a demonstration of how it was made. It looked very complicated. I got a tie.


The rest of the day was pretty much just driving back to Accra. We made it a bit more interesting by taking bets on what time we would get back. Since I don’t gamble they made me the bookie. I took everybody’s money and kept track of the times. I also made a rule that the house keeps 10%, so I made five cedi off the deal =).