What to do if you’re trying to get to Accra on Friday night
but the traffic is at a complete standstill? Take a moto-taxi and weave in and
out of traffic on the back of a motorcycle, of course. That’s how my night
started out last night. Sir Dun and I took moto-taxis all the way to the
highway and, for the first time I can remember, I understood what people mean
when they say “white knuckling”. Don’t get me wrong, it was exhilarating, but
sitting on the back of a motorcycle as it crosses into oncoming traffic on
these pot hole-filled dirt roads will make anyone hold on to their seat a
little tighter. Just as we were getting onto the highway and I thought we were
going to travel like this all the way to Accra, Sir Dun motioned for the two moto-taxis
to stop so we could get in a regular taxi for the rest of the way. Good thing
too. I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to riding on the back of that
motorcycle without a helmet on the Ghanaian highway. Taking a moto-taxi is
definitely something I want to do again though. Taking the whole experience
into account… it was pretty awesome. :)
If you remember, I thought we were going to hang out with
all the teachers so I thought we were going to some sort of club in Accra with
them, but it turned out that we were actually just going there to pick up Sir
Dun’s cousin. I guess the teachers decided to postpone or something so Sir Dun
made some last minute plans with Hakeem (that’s his cousin). We also weren’t
taking the taxi all the way to where his cousin was. We got near the Accra mall
and hopped out of the cab and into a “tro-tro”. Basically, a tro-tro is a van
that’s supposed to sit around 10 people plus the driver (sort of like a
Sprinter van), but is rigged so that it actually fits about 15. I got to the
know the person sitting next to me pretty well seeing as how we were doubling
up in the front seat.
Once we picked up Hakeem, we drove back in his car to Tema
and went back to Monte Cristo, the nightclub he took me to on my first night in
Ghana. This time was a lot more fun though because I wasn’t dead from
travelling and actually danced a bit. The second I got on the dance floor,
everyone around me started copying exactly what I was doing. It seems their
fascination with Obrunis knows basically no bounds. Good thing I have no shame.
On the cab ride home (around 2 or so), Sir Dun also talked to me about how he
thought my first week was really successful and he thinks the kids really like
me. That alone would have made my night. By the time we got home, the landlord
had locked the gate so I had to jump the fence to get into my own house but
it’s a pretty short fence so it wasn’t a huge deal. Have a good first Friday in
Ghana: check.
Today was a really nice day to relax and do some more
reading on the balcony. Also, it turns out I was right about my running being
noticed by the locals around here. Today, a taxi driver stopped me and told me
he’d seen me a few days this week now (which is pretty surprising since I’ve
been running different places every day to try to explore as much as possible)
and said that there’s a very nice gym in Community 22 and that I didn’t have to
run outside. When I told him I preferred being outdoors on the dirt road, he
just laughed and drove away, shaking his head. He also said something that
sounded suspiciously like “Obruni”. So there’s at least one person that thinks
I’m nuts.
I’m not sure if anything’s happening tonight but I think
it’s going to be a pretty early night since I’m going to be exploring Accra
with Ben (the program coordinator) tomorrow and we’re leaving at 9. Look for
some more pictures tomorrow as well as a quick recap of some things I’ve found
interesting over my first week here!
No comments:
Post a Comment