The day started rather terribly. Rob woke up sick to his stomach with cold sweats and a headache in the middle of the night. I called the medical treatment number provided by his travel insurance but they could only recommend 2 hospitals, both in Accra, about 10 hours away. Rob ate a small piece of toast but nothing else and wrapped a wet towel around his head. The Aleve didn’t seem to be breaking his fever, either. Symptoms like this, while not fun, aren’t overly worrying in the US, but in Ghana with the threat of malaria, it is scary. We spoke to Ernest and he suggested it was something he ate and he would be better soon. Honestly, I was annoyed by this because I had never seen Rob this bad and he and I had eaten the exact same things the day before.
Nevertheless, we decided to make the drive to Kumasi and see what he left like then. I asked our driver, Sam, what he travel time would be and he said about 3.5 hours—it actually took 6 (its that Africa time thing)! As we began our journey in the morning traffic of Tamale, Rob asked to pull over and he got down on his hands and knees and vomited into drainage ditch on the side of the busy road with locals watching. He called it a very humbling experience. I think Ernest realized that this was a bit more serious than minor digestive issues. We stopped and bought Sprite and water and headed from there with Rob sitting in the front seat of the van for more air and stability.
The drive took us from a fairly dry savannah landscape to a more tropical area filled with pineapple groves, cocoa trees, and many other crops. After the long journey from the northeast to the more central Ashanti region, we were ready to stretch our legs at Ntonso, the Adinkra trade village outside of Kumasi. Adinkra is a tree found in the north that’s ground with a mortar and pestle into a fine powder and then boiled repeatedly in very hot cauldrons until it forms a black sludge. Hand-carved, wooden stamps in all sorts of designs and philosophical meanings are used to stamp cloth, and the cloths are typically used in funerals and ceremonies. I got to try my hand and stamping a scarf and I chose symbols that mean humility and service. I was also (kind of) involuntarily wrapped in an Adinkra cloth skirt and headpiece by the villagers with the repeated words of “you look beautiful.” Needless to say, their flattery did not persuade me to buy.
We then drove to the village of Bonwire, home of the famous Kente weavers to visit a workshop. All the young weavers were eager to show us their work, and quite amazing stuff it is. They have single, double and triple layers of the weave, each requiring increasing skill levels, and all the patterns have different meanings, such as “knowledge is power,” “two heads are better than one,” and “there is power in unity.” There are specific weave designs solely used for the Asante kings and other specific ceremonial designs. After much thought, I finally decided to buy a scarf of the “first lady” design, although I did do some hard bargaining on the price. We had the odd experience of having one of the young male villagers ask us our names and then how to spell them. We were ignorant of this bait and switch technique to get our names and make woven bracelets while we were doing other things. Then, just as we were getting in the van to depart, one of the guys came to me with a blue bracelet with “Lauren” in the middle. It’s cool but not anything I need. There was a time in my life when I could have used something to remember my first name by, especially on the streets of Spain at 3 am, but I’m good now. I gave the guy 50 cedis (about 30 cents) for it and he seemed disappointed. The same thing happened to Rob the next morning, so we now have matching bracelets just in case we suffer amnesia simultaneously.
After the long and exhausting day, Rob was glad to see the sign for the hotel as we neared Kumasi. After ordering room service, rice only for him, and listening to the thunderstorm and driving rain outside the window, we called it a night with the hope of better health in the morning.
