Power Optional

We have spent 30 hours without power. It is amazing what can be accomplished by candlelight. Thankfully is has not been too hot so it was bearable to sleep without a fan. Life in Africa certainly demands flexibility and creative problem solving. People go about their business unphased by the lack of electricity. People are used to it. Of course it is novel to me, but I rather enjoy the excitement and the challenge to adapt.

Yesterday Laura and I took a trotro to the market. A trotro is the standard Ghanaian public transportation. Usually a trotro is a mini-bus with four or five rows of seats. Each seat sits four + adults. The whole experience completely violates any of my cultural standards about personal space. People sit on each other, climb over each other and hold each other’s children, suitcases, and baskets of chickens. It is hot and sweaty and often physically uncomfortable. Trotros have no schedule, no specific stops, no set route, no standardized licensure…. To a Westerner, they are pure chaos. They are manned by two people: a driver, who drives like a stuntman on speed, and a conductor who is a young man (age 13-25). The conductor has a very important job! He hangs out the open door or window and yells the destination to people outside. The destinations are abbreviated and often are accompanied by a hand signal. For a trotro going downtown to Kwame Nkruma Circle, the conductor yells “Circ Circ!” and waves his hand in a circular motion. At a busy intersection, 20 trotros line up with the conductors yelling the various destinations. At a big intersection or station, drivers do not like to leave until the trotro is absolutely full. Everyone has to sit in the hot trotro waiting until it fills up. This can take hours- literally, not hyperbolically. In the past I have been tempted to yell the destination myself in order to round up more people.
They are uncomfortable, dangerous, slow and confusing, but I have a special place in my heart for the trotro. It is such an African experience! I love rubbing shoulders with strangers and watching the landscape fly by. I did not really feel like I was back in Africa until I rode in a trotro. It is a great way to interact with “normal” folks, and watch life happen genuinely, without packaging or performance. I can sit and listen and watch (as long as I move my feet every few minutes so some blood can circulate down there)!