First days in Accra and Kumasi

The Nanaimo Rotary Ghana Mission team and their Vancouver Island University partners met up at the Amsterdam Airport on April 23 at 1 p.m. We flew together on KLM to Accra, Ghana and after a 5 hour flight finally arrived in Africa. It was culture shock for first time visitors, the crush of people waiting for arrivals outside the Accra airport, the heat and humidity, the electric vibe of being on a new continent.

Our first evening and first full day in Accra (capitol of Ghana and its largest city) were spent visiting the Canadian High Commission to discuss our current and possible future projects in Sunyani with representatives of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Highlights of the stay in Accra included a trip to the coast, visting the Artist's Alliance Gallery with its fabulous African art and antiques, meeting the friendly locals, breakfasts and drinks on the patio at the Byblos Hotel, and learning to deal with the persistent hawkers of crafts and souvenirs.

Saturday, April 25

Up at 5:30 a.m. to pack and get everything loaded on the Toyota Coaster bus for the 200 km trek to Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city. Breakfast in the Hotel Byblos Courtyard and then everyone in the bus.

Michael our faithful driver from the Sunyani Polytechnic estimated it would take 4 hours at the most to get from Accra to Kumasi. The traffic was horrendous and it took seven hours of steady driving with a short break at a rest stop. What an adventure, passing trucks with precarious loads of wood, water, fuel, hawkers and vendors of bread, giant snails, fried plaintain, trinkets everytime we slowed down. The road from Accra to Kumasi follows an ancient trade route (tbc) and it’s Africa’s version of a 200 km strip mall. Every 100 metres is a container made into a stall, shop, restaurant, etc. Most with religious branding – God’s Own Transmission Repairs e.g.

At last after leaving West Africa’s suburban sprawl we arrive in the savannah (tbc) green and lush – cocoa trees, calabash – Magpies everywhere. All too soon nature succumbs to traffic – vehicular and human – as we enter Kumasi celebrating 10 anniversary of its latest chief. Kumasi’s squalor, noise, the crush of humanity on the march to survive, concrete block buildings in various stages of construction and collapse, hawkers and vendors with bread, fruit and god knows what else on their heads. I’ve got to go back to tomorrow and get some photos.

Finally we arrive at the Kumasi Cultural Centre at about 3 p.m. for lunch, a look around the museum and the artisans shops of paintings, batik, wood carvings, metal work. The restaurant is overwhelmed with an Italian tour of visitors and the press to watch some ceremony involving local chiefs. At last I manage to scrounge up some quarts of Star beer (Guiness subsidiary) and we sit down for our first authentic Ghananian dinner – plain rice, spicey rice, battered fish, spicey chicken, fried plaintain and a spicey lentil dish.

Last stop our rooms at the KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Engineering) Guest House – comfortable, clean rooms, good showers – and a complicated but working Internet connection. The campus outside the City of Kumasi and its so quiet you can hear the sounds of nocturnal insects and other critters. Brief dinner with the gang and then off to my room to write this extended email.

Tomorrow is a long day with a baby naming ceremony, an engagement party, and then a celebration involving Vancouver Island University’s Ghana partners at a football stadium. We hope to make our final destination and the working site of our holiday – Sunyani by 6 p.m.