Sunday evening from Randy ...

We have been to the US Embassy, to a medium upscale private children’s school, the King Jesus Orphanage, and a Sunday morning Methodist Service. I will try to let the youth describe the experiences through their eyes, and not through mine. I will however, tell you that Ghana as a country is nothing like I expected. NOTHING. You’d think as an adult, and having talked to Heather and Dennis, I might have been more clued in. I was not.
First of all, there are the teeming masses of both Accra and Kumasi. The level of street activity is huge. In five hundred feet of bus travel, you might pass 50 businesses. Yes, fifty. Each unique business is operating out of a 10-foot wide open stand, painted and labeled. They have open fronts that lock up at night. Some are even converted sea containers with the front doors open for business, and each business with at least one proprietor working in the stand. There are shoppers at some, plus in that 500 feet there might be also be 100 people walking. One hundred, vibrantly walking. Walking places, shopping, carrying things. Realize that the roads are all two-ish lanes wide, and the stores are about 5-10 feet from the roadside. The people are squeamishly, at least to us, very close. And they walk at a pretty good clip. And remember, all goods and wares are transported by people carrying the things on their head. Not only on their head, but on their head with no hands. That includes bananas, piles of steel wool, cloth, bowls of yams, car parts. (Hey Detroit, here the parts go to the cars for repairs, out on the road, not the other way around!).
So, we have the storefronts, then the walkers and shoppers and human transporters. Then the street hawkers who come even closer to us, easily within a foot from the bus window, selling Mentos, cell phone cards, and loaves of bread. All from on their head. Rita bought bread and some snack thing thru the window as we continued rolling slowly along in traffic, and the hawker ran to finish the transaction. Somehow the others stepped out of the way and she was able to keep up as money and goods, plus change transferred thru the window. The level of commerce going on is amazing, and everything happens at the street.
Interestingly, the eyes watching us have an openness and a clarity that isn’t hostile or cynical or surprised. Many times, waves are exchanged back and forth, plus many smiles. They are busy but also happy to see us. Between Accra and Kumasi, we go thru “country” two lane roads with vegetation up to the shoulders of the roads. The land is very green and flowers, trees and bushes are prevalent. The mountains are off on both sides, small to medium sized. Cell phone towers are on all of them. I counted 9 towers on one. We pass a lone gas station -- a “Modex” brand gas, with four relatively modern looking pumps. There, in the middle of nowhere, one attendant is at the ready waiting in the shade. Gas and potty break (truly interesting, just ask your kids). Before much longer, we are passing thru another village, same street scene as I described above only in miniature for say two blocks. Roads are paved, but lane markinsg are somewhat a suggestion and not a mandatory thing. Traffic is unbelievably heavy considering what it seems to me is city to city with country and small towns in between. Big vehicles, trucks, buses, cars, and tro-tro’s. Tro-tro’s are the Ghana equivalent of a bus. A tro-tro is a Ford Ecoonline van, with seats added. There are actually all kinds of Ford Econoline equivalents some of which I have never heard of or heard of but never seen. These vans are about 10-20 years old, dented and beat up, but not yet fully rusted, and the seat modifications allow them to seat about 25 people. I’m not making that up, they are licensed and it says so on the side in the fine print. The windows are open and they are stuffed with people. The proticol here, when passing one up, is to beep the horn lightly, and drift over to the left as the tro-tro drifts right. Any oncoming traffic understands the program (apparently) and drifts to their right. With a little luck it all works out and we’ve passed. Some passes are more eventful than others. In the city traffic, it is even more exciting as you add in a zillion little taxis. Think old beat up Ford Focus size. All licensed, with little taxi signs on top, and the four corner body panels painted orange. Luckily our driver, Solomon, is outstanding. He’s a master at the roundabout. And he safely negotiates small turn-ins and dirt roads that I would never consider even trying, not even in a car. At one narrow right turn, a bus cut around us with a left as we went right, and messed up. He was within an inch of our flank, and things ground to a halt. The tro-tro behind him had followed left, the car behind him moved up, the car behind us wedged us in, and a Vespa was cutting thru it but got stopped by the bus. Dead stop gridlock. Solomon jumped out, as did several others, people came off the “sidewalk” to help. Discussion, pointing, gestures as to the plan. No one yelling at each other, just people deciding and giving instructions. You back up, you left, cut the wheel this way and back up 6 inches, now you go two feet, stop. Now you, good. Solomon hops back in and away we go.
Oh, I forgot a key element of excitement to this street stuff. The sewer system is, in most cases, between the stores and the road. So, in your mind, imagine a 10 inch wide by 2 foot deep concrete ditch in with the people and all those walkers. No stench actually, just trickling water, but not all sections are covered by grates. So, an errant move by a car, or a bus in particular, could bring it to a complete halt as the wheel would easily fit into the ditch. I hope I haven’t scared all the parents out of their minds, because we’re in safe hands with Solomon. But I did not expect all this kind of vibrant activity just from a bus ride. It was not just a bus ride, it was an experience in itself. More later.
Randy