Off to Kumasi we went! This is Yaw's home region and he seemed eager to share it with us all. Kumasi is in the Ashanti Region and is full of tradition and pride. Kumasi has traffic unlike any city I have ever traveled to in the world. There are stoplights but they are not used and there is CONSTANT gridlock. Insane! Our driver, Wofua is incredible! We shifted our plans a bit and ended up going to the Kings Palace. Here we learned more about the Ashanti culture and the role of the chief. Here we learned a lot about traditional life in a village and the structure of the Ashanti culture. It was really a good preparation for our visit to Aduman (Yaw's home village). The rest of the day was free for us to wander through the markets in Kumasi. The markets are where most Ghanaians do their shopping - nothing like our grocery stores! We are spoiled! You could pick and buy whichever chicken or goat of your liking, you could buy flip-flops or clothing. Whatever you wanted you could buy, but the sanitary conditions where enough for a 1 hour visit to seem like 3 hours. You smell women cooking stews over wood fires, dead fish, chickens and goats ready to be bought and of course, the smells of sewage and waste. The smells can be overwhelming but they really are part of the whole experience.
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