7 - 10 days in Ghana

Hey CK from UK!

I spent five weeks in Ghana ten years ago. My intention had been to work with Habitat for Humanity for two weeks (which I did) and then to spend three weeks on my own. I was forty-eight then, having traveled out of the U.S. at that time only to Canada. I thought I'd catch Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, maybe even Mali.

But no. I ended up staying almost in the same place in Ghana for those three weeks, and that's actually what I'd recommend. THAT'S how to get a feel for a country, I think, rather than racing around trying to see everything. Frankly, there's not much to see in Ghana, in terms of "tourist attractions." The zoo and museum in Kumasi, for instance, were disappointing. That day would have been better spent making friends with some kids hanging out at the post office, listening to them, eating with them. For me, it was all about the people, who are fabulous: friendly, helpful, full of laughter.

I'd say go to a town like Fuso, which is a sort of hub for buses, and find a place to stay, and then STAY. Take a day trip or two if you can, just to visit other villages. Maybe from that, you could hook up with a family who'd take you in for twenty bucks anight. I wandered down to the house of the woman who washes hair -- I don't want to call it a salon -- with a woman I'd met via Habitat. We went to her cocoa farm. She showed me her church. We ran across some men making palm wine (which is actually a distilled liquor, not a wine at all). While we waited for my bus, a couple boys came along and made rope from a tree so they could carry some wood home (on their heads, of course).

Go to Kumasi's big art market and Accra's, too, and see the slave castles at Cape Coast if you must, but give the bush a chance. Just sit and talk with the people. I'm smiling now, just remembering it.

Happy Trails!
Barbara

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