Day 6: Agogo (Wednesday, April 8)

After breakfast today, the first thing we did was head out to the office to process and bottle honey. We managed to get the sample of honey to process because of the brave efforts of head beekeeper George - he went out at 4 AM to get the honey, and even though the bees were calmer, he still got stung up badly. We bottled quite a bit, too - about 24 8-oz bottles are coming back with us while the rest stays with the cooperative.

Immediately after that, we went to go visit the home of Paulina, one of the cooperative members. It was very humbling to say the least - for her to invite the students into her very simple, but clean, one-room home was a courtesy that very few people can recieve.

Next we headed out to the Asante (Ashanti) capital of Kumasi, home of the chief of chiefs, the Asantehene, and quite a few craft specialists. We did some company shopping, and heard some stories from master storyteller Sly Hutchinson, but pleasure mixed with business when we visited Mahysia (MAN-seeah) Palace, where former Asantehenes lived. It was an awesome tour, and we even spotted Nana Sarpong in a picture there.

No, this isn't the palace. But no pictures were allowed there, so...

When we finally got back to the Pentecost dorm, we got ourselves together for a really early morning - we were going to burn through the 4+ hour trip to Accra to meet the newly-elected president, Professor John Evans Atta Mills.

But that intrepid record of our journey will have to wait for another time.

Sean Heron

Secretary, Honey Project, and xChange Agent