Now I know what they mean when they say, sarcastically: “Welcome to Africa”. No matter how well you plan, you should always be prepared for something or someone to change your agenda for you. This morning on the way to pick us up from our hotels (we’d stayed overnight in two different hotels or lodges (or as we jokingly called them: Motel 6 and Motel 4), our coach had to stop to get air in one of the front tires. No problem; we were good to go and excited to be able to visit with our S.I.S.T.A Scholars again. We were all eager to continue our tour of the campus buildings, attend a class session with our young scholars, pay their school fees for the school term and say our goodbyes.
Well, as I said, Welcome to Africa! About 10 minutes from the school, we blew the same tire we’d earlier topped off with air. Fortunately, we were in the middle of town and were able to pull into a petrol station. A tire shop was steps away and the owner sold our driver a ‘new’ tire. Brothers came from all directions converged to help with the tire. Folks are always eager to assist you in Ghana with a genuine expression of “how can I help you my sister or my brother?”
While we waited, I wandered around taking photos and taking in the early morning sights and
sounds and smells of Bolga’s main thoroughfare. Women prepared to open their stands for business; children rode bicycles and motor bikes to school; adults raced to work, school and
who knows where; children and toddlers sat on back seats of motor bikes, holding tight to the waists and shirts of parents and older siblings or held firmly onto handle bars of motor bikes and bicycles; and babies snoozed while wrapped tightly in colorful cloths on the backs of helmeted motor-bike mamas.
Twenty three people are gonna get into THAT?????
Our guide arranged for us to ride to the school in a TroTro, one of the rickety mini-buses and vans crowding the roads and highways across Ghana and used by most Ghanaians to get around. All 22 of us and our photographer piled into the TroTro; more than a few of us were a bit reluctant. Riding in a TroTro is an adventure. It is hot and crowded, the seats were sticky vinyl and about 12 inches across with about 6 inches of leg room between the rows. There were 4 seats in each row and a jump seat at the end of each row which you pulled down and unfolded after each row was fully occupied. The windows only opened on the sliding door side of the mini-bus. The floors were lined with some sort of metal, maybe aluminum or shiny tin. However, when the driver started up and we were off, the floors proved to be very thin and vibrated in waves under our feet.
But I have to say, it was amazing!! It was so much fun!! The driver blasted some Ghanaian Hi-Life music and we danced in our seats, laughed like we were out of our minds, song along with the music as if we knew the words and had a crazy good time. We all roared with laughter, the driver turned up the music (at our request) and we set out for Bolgatanga Girls Senior High School. We had such fun! This was just another of the priceless adventures and experiences we’ve had on this Journey. Never in a million years did any of us imagine that we’d be riding in one of those dusty little vehicles we’d seen blasting along on the roads and streets of Ghana. And I’m sure none of us ever imagined that we would look just as ridiculous piled in on top of each other like the many TroTro passengers we’ve seen along our way.
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