Group Activities

Another of our group, Alex, had an interview so he arrived early to Kumasi. At 9:00 a.m., the four of us left the Stadium Hotel and went to the Milklin Hotel where we would be staying with our group. The group was scheduled to arrive around 10:30, so we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and dangled our feet in the pool.

Once the group arrived, we went to the National Culture Center which is a traditional crafts center. We browsed the shops for souvenirs and ate lunch before leaving to visit the palace of the Ashanti Kingdom. The Manhyia Palace was the home of the Asantahene, the king of the Ashantis. The palace was built moderately recently, in the late 1800s, and four kings have lived in it. Peacocks stroll hte grounds as htey have since it was built, and the rooms have been restored to their original states.

Our final attraction was a stool village, where traditional Ashanti stools are made. A golden stool is the symbol of the Ashanti Kingdom because the Ashantis have traditionally been carpenters. We wandered through the village, which was filled with wood carvings and crafts, before leaving for dinner.

Although dinner was on our own, most of us went to a place called Vic Baboo's Cafe which Sam, Suzanne and I had discovered the day before. After delicious Indian food and creamy milkshakes (far better than Churcheese's) we split up for the evening. Six of us decided to go to a small jaz bar that we had seen earlier. AS the evening got late, we sat beneath glowing lanterns, listening to soulful jazz and croaking frogs.