Kiva Stories from the Field

Kumasi

14 November 2007 at 19:31 obruni Leave a comment

I’ve been in Ghana for 3 months now. I thought my culture shock stages were over after the tro-tro (mini-van bus) dodging, fou-fou (sticky plantains mixed with cassava) eating, sun burning, marriage proposing, etc etc…, but I was wrong.Last week I started my Kiva internship, which involved me moving from Cape Coast to Sinapi’s head office in Kumasi. When I stepped off of the jammed packed tro-tro and into Kumasi, I thought I was stepping off of a plane and into a different country. The hustle and bustle of Kumasi is a different beast. The goats and chickens don’t wonder the streets like they do in Cape Coast, I have to constantly avoid the exhaust from the tro-tros, and there’s always somebody trying to sell me something. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this city.

But now, a week later, I’ve gotten to really enjoy being here. The entrepreneurs that I’ve been interviewing and my co-workers at Sinapi have been extremely welcoming. They’ve taught me some Twi (the local language), how to eat banku (a fermented corn and cassava mixed dough), and unraveled a bit of the chaos in the city. They’ve reminded me the how to enjoy the weirdness of traveling to a different place.

Entry filed under: Ghana, KF3 (Kiva Fellows 3rd Class), Sinapi Aba Trust. Tags: Roslyn Wang.