Goodbye Ghana

            My six weeks in Ghana have unfortunately come to an end.  However, my sixth week was one of my favorites in Kumasi.  It started with a trip to the public pool at the KNUST campus, known by all as “Poolside.” The other interns and I spent an entire afternoon there.  The pool was quite big, but nearly all of the people in it stayed in the shallow end.  I learned that this is because most Ghanaians do not know how to swim.   There were diving platforms at the deep end, and I worked my way up from the 1-meter platform all the way to the 10-meter jump at the very top.  We stayed at the Poolside to watch two World Cup matches on a large projector screen.

            Tuesday, July 1^st, was Republic Day, a national holiday celebrating the day Ghana gained complete control over its government a few years after it declared independence.  Since I had the day off from school, I decided to go into the center of Kumasi on my own.  I wandered through the Kejetia market, which, as I mentioned in my first post, is the largest open air market in West Africa.  My eyes were overwhelmed by the vibrant colors of the fabrics, foods, art crafts and other objects being sold.  My ears were overwhelmed shopkeepers yelling out the names and prices of their products, and often asking me to take a look at their shop.  I had to constantly be aware of my body and where I was walking, or I might have gotten pushed or hit in the head by the large bowls many women carried on their heads.  I embraced all these overwhelming elements, and let myself get lost in the narrow winding allies of the market.  I bartered with vendors as I bought some gifts and souvenirs to bring home.  Somehow I was able to successfully navigate my way out of the market, and I decided to keep exploring the town. 

I made two discoveries.  The first one came shortly after I left Kejetia.  I saw a bell tower at the top of a hill, so I decided to go see what it was.  It was a large and beautiful cathedral that seemed to be perched on top of Kumasi.   The guard told me I could enter, so I went in and enjoyed the large interior of the cathedral, which had beautiful stained glass with some Ghanaian symbols that I recognized.  Walking out of the church, I looked at the top of the tower and thought to myself “I bet there’s a great view from up there.” And so I asked the guard if it was possible to go up, but unfortunately he said no.  And so I walked down the hill and kept exploring.  Walking across and overpass with a great view of some of Kumasi’s main streets, I saw a small market that I had never seen before.  I knew I wanted to be inside it, but I had no idea where the entrance was. So I walked around the area I had seen from above, looking for some sign or entrance to the market.  It turned out that the entrance was a tiny little ally where only one or two people could pass at a time.  I only noticed it because I saw people walking out of it and wondered where they were coming from.  In this market, which I called the secret market, vendors were selling a wide range of products including vegetables, fruits, traditional medicines, jewelry, and books. After buying some cooking ingredients from this market, I took a Tro-tro back the LC house, satisfied with my exploration of Kumasi. 

This week was also my last week of teaching at the Adako Jachie Junior High School.  I taught 9 different classes, each for one period per week, so every day this week I had to said goodbye to one of two of my classes. During these last classes, I allowed the students to spend the last 10 minutes of class to ask me any questions they wanted and to take pictures.  All of the students were very excited during these questioning periods.  Most classes asked me the same entertaining questions: are your parents’ names, do you have brothers and sisters, are you married, do you have children, what is your favorite Ghanaian food, what is your favorite sport.  Every class asked my age, and in every class cries of disbelief followed when I told them I was 19.  They told me they thought I was 25 or 30! When we took group pictures at the end of each class, the students rushed to the front of the class and surrounded me completely, each one fighting to stand next to me or at grab on to my arm. After my very last class on my last day at the school, I went to say goodbye to the headmistress of the school.  I was shocked when she interrupted all classes and called an assembly.  The students rushed out of their classes and stood in lines with their classes in the schoolyard.  The principle informed them that I was leaving, and said that I had done a great service to the school, and that they were grateful for having me and hope I return in the future.  When the students were dismissed, they all waved and yelled goodbye.  Safe to say, I walked home from school with a big smile on my face that day.

At the end of my week, Alina from AIESEC Yale arrived in Kumasi.  Unfortunately our internship dates only overlapped by a couple days, but it was really fun to see each other in Kumasi.  During my last week, all the interns that were in the house when I first arrived in Kumasi had left, and so the other interns jokingly called me the “senior intern.” This was incredibly odd for me.  I still remembered clearly what it felt like to be the new kid.  During my first weeks in Kumasi, when I was learning my way around, I was very dependent on the other interns.  They showed me all around Kwamo, KNUST campus and Kumasi.  They showed me where to buy food and other supplies, and they explained to me which Tro-tros to take.  I realized that I had come full circle when I showed Alina around the shops and markets of Kwamo, following the same exact path that the German intern had used to show me around on my first day.  On my very last day in Kumasi, we went back into the center of town one more time, and I led Alina and the other interns all through the Kejetia market and other areas in town.  It was very rewarding to be able to navigate my way around streets that had once seemed like a giant maze to me.  I am sure that Alina and the other interns will also have this same experience at the end of their internships. 

It was strange to leave the LC house and say goodbye to the other interns and Ghanaians.  By the time I left, I was so adjusted to my daily routine, and the general lifestyle in Ghana.  There is no doubt in my mind that I will return to Ghana in the future.