Kumasi!!

Last weekend ISEP took us to Kumasi! It is the former capital of the Ashanti Empire - which was described as "a peaceful empire that expanded through warfare and conquest." We spent some time going around the city and buying excellent presents for people.

A mask that customs would never allow me to bring into the country, no matter how much I wanted it (unfinished wood, potentially with invasive bugs in it).

Adorable graffiti

At the cultural center, where we bought presents and talked to people!

Here's where we learned about the Ashanti Empire!

At night, we enjoyed turning on the A/C in our rooms really high and sleeping under blankets for the first time in weeks, after taking showers with hot water and eating delicious buffets.

Was this beef stroganoff amazing? Yes.

The second day, we went around the various craft villages around Kumasi. They were all very tourist-y and there were a lot to very pushy salespeople. But they were also super interesting!

First, the Kente weaving village!!

Woven Kente cloth! Pretty, and expensive!

Pretty weaving set-up!

I'm weaving now! Shortly after this photo was taken, a bunch of Ghanaians wanted me to give them money for "teaching me". I wouldn't give it, as they did not teach me; another nice man who didn't ask for anything in return did. But, still, it was fun.

After that, we went to the Adinkra cloth village, where we learned how to make the dye and used it to stamp symbols on to Kente cloth.

Smashing this bark to release the colors that will eventually make the dye used to stamp Adinkra symbols onto cloth.

The stamps for making the Adinkra symbols on the cloth. Each one has a different meaning, or set of meanings.

The fir tree in the top righthand corner of this picture represents adaptability and defiance. The Asian-looking symbol in the center represents the all-powerful God. The heart-like one stands for cooperation and relationships. Obama reminds everyone how pleased with America Africa is for electing a black President (Ghana especially, as Michelle traced her ancestors back to here).

Finally, we went to the wood-carving village, where I spend more money and took fewer pictures. Here's another cool mask though.

The carver whose shop we spent the most time in was a nice man who let us use his bathroom in exchange for us coming into his shop to look around (competition is pretty cutthroat in these villages). It turned out that he had some really unique stuff in there and that his grandfather was the one who first brought wood carving to the village ages ago. When we left, laden with purchases, he gave us each a free necklace with the African continent on it. Hooray friends!