2nd half of kumasi

last night we got to experience the rainy season like we hadn't before. it downpoured. i can't describe how heavy the rainfall was. think hurricane. conveniently during the middle of the downpour, we had to go to dinner, which is about 20 feet from the lobby in an open bar area. there is a roof over where we eat, but only two walls, with the other two open to the parking lot and pool. we ate while watching umbrellas go flying, trees almost getting blown over and rain pelting everything. it also thundered and lightening for the first time here, and that was amazing to watch. there was lightening ever 2 seconds.

i forgot to mention how nice our hotel is. it is easily the nicest we've stayed at in ghana, but its also one of the nicest i've stayed in ever. the bed is SO comfortable. i'm sad we're leaving to go to cape coast today, i sleep so well here.

two nights ago, i met up with father anthony after dinner. he introduced me to the owner of the hotel, who is his uncle. we sat and talked for a while, and watched the spain vs paraguay game. it was really nice to finally meet him and i'm trying to plan another trip to kumasi after my internship (because we get 4 free days), depending on what my friends want to do. some also expressed interest in travelling to togo.

yesterday was a long day. we were on the bus by nine and travelled to the only military museum in ghana. i'm so mad at myself because i left my camera at the hotel and couldn't take any pictures. the museum was an old fort of the british, but before that it was built by an asantehene to recreate the cape coast castle. we toured rooms of artillery, which included the maxim gun, machine guns, etc. all from british, germans and italians during the first and second world wars, as well as items from wars within africa. the scariest weapons i saw were from rwanda, when ghanaian troops were deployed by the UN. i think brian would've liked to see this place, it would be like jumping into call of duty.

we also got to go inside the dungeons were the condemned prisoners were kept, and the ones where military men accused of petty crimes were held. the condemned prisoners cells were scary. the guide packed us in one just the way we would've been if we were prisoners. i don't know if i have ever been to a place like that before, where so many people had died. it might have been my imagination, but i swear i could feel their presence. the prisoners were put into the tiny, lightless cells and left to die. they were giving no food, no water and nothing to go to the bathroom. they lived their final days in their own filth with the noise of the british army eating dinner over their heads. the mess hall was directly above these cells.

after the museum, we went to 3 different villages: one where they weave kente cloth, one where they create adinkra designs and one where they make wood carvings. i'll have to write about those later, because i need to get breakfast before we leave for cape coast.