On the eve of Halloween, I woke up with a cough and a sore throat. It was market day and I felt otherwise fine, so I went out anyways. My neighbors asked me to pick up some koshi at market. Koshi are fried bean batter cakes. I told them I would and took off.
By the time I got to market, my throat felt much worse, probably because of the hundreds of greetings that I needed to respond to on my way there. I told my friend Azara, who sells a variety of things. She handed me a pill. “Tim,” she said. Tim is Dagboni for medicine. It also is Dagboni for juju, so you need to watch the context clues. The pill was a painkiller with caffeine. I figured it wouldn’t do much for my throat, so I declined it. She handed me three Tom Toms. Tom Toms are a local candy that taste and act like cough drops and have menthol listed in the ingredients. “These are very good,” she said, pressing them into my hand. I was grateful, and put them in my bag for later.
I didn’t get home until just before dark. I dropped my stuff off at my house and then walked to my neighbor’s to drop off the koshi. They wanted to talk, but my throat was tired. “I am sick here,” I told them, pointing at my throat. “I want to go home and rest.”
“Come,” Sahida told me. I followed her into her compound, where she fetched some water. She then proceeded to throw the water onto the grass thatch roof of one of the rooms of the house and catch it in a giant can that originally held tomato paste. She did this several times and then handed it back to me. “Tim,” she said, saying the Dagboni word for medicine. Then she laughed. “Kim tim.” Safura, another friend of mine who lives in the same house and was preparing food, thought the rhyme was funny too.
I started to drink it, wondering how many parasites were on the roof of their house, and how many would now be in my stomach. It tasted fine, but I only took a few sips because it looked dirty and I was worried about making myself a lot sicker than I was. I handed the tomato paste tin back to Sahida, and she assumed I didn’t understand.
“It’s a local treatment,” the landlord explained in English. “I’m not sure what the scientific reasoning for it is.” Me either.
I went home and made tea with honey and ginger, my own sore throat remedy. I’m not sure what the scientific reasoning for that is, either.
The next day, my throat felt a lot better. I guess something I tried worked.
Transportation
Travel in Ghana can be rough. Consider this text message from one of my friends. “In case any of you are having a bad day, my morning after leaving (Tamale)- arrived at station, took taxi 2 jctn, lost earring, chipped tooth on a rock n my chop, got on new tro in front, engine gave my feet burns, moved to back, flew up and hit my head, tro got stuck in puddle and nearly flipped, had 2 climb out window, walked in noon sun, til now- on top of a tro 5 mins from home. Need a godspeed or 2 please.”
Travelling is usually rough (but usually not as bad as that text describes).
The first issue is getting transportation. Most vehicles don’t leave until they’re full. This may take a few hours, but if you go later it may leave without you. Your other option is to hitchhike. I have hitchhiked on tractors, in private vehicles, in cargo lorries (safely seated in the passenger seat). I know people who have hitch hiked in tankers and on fire trucks. The easiest vehicle to hitch hike on would be a motorcycle, but sadly Peace Corps doesn’t allow volunteers to ride on motos. (Motorcycles are called motos here).
The most common vehicle for public transportation is a tro. A tro is something between a small bus and a large minivan. They are usually rusty in several places. Sometimes they are infested with cock roaches, but luckily that’s really rare. There are generally 5 seats per row, but usually there are at least 8 people sitting in each row. The last people to board stand packed together in the front or climb on top of the vehicle. In addition to people and luggage, there is usually an assortment of goats, sheep, and chickens inside and on top of the tro. Every once in a while there is a cow on top.
Cargo lorries are another thing altogether. They are designed for cargo instead of people, but usually they are full of people sitting on top of rice, maize, and whatever other cargo is being hauled. They are generally overloaded and some times tip over on the roads if the driver goes too fast. I recently took a cargo lorry back to my village from another one. I was surprised to see another woman sitting up front, generally only men and strangers (anyone who is not local is a stranger) get that privilege. She was pregnant. It was a really hot day (almost none of your transportation options includes air conditioning). We kept having to stop, first for a problem with the tire, and then for a problem with the clutch. The mate (that’s the guy who collects money for transportation) was bent over the tire when I got out of the vehicle to find shade. “That woman is giving birth,” he said, laughing. She exited and laid down in shade on the road. I heard her groan, and wondered how much worse travel would be here if you were eight or nine months pregnant.
Having to stop to fix vehicles is common. Sometimes you have to wait for someone to get another vehicle to the nearest city to buy a part, or to send another vehicle. Waiting is almost always full of false starts, like described in this message from another friend who had been stranded for about an hour already “It was so promising. Everyone got back in (the vehicle), it started, and we moved ten feet. Now we’re sitting again.”
Roads are in worse condition than vehicles. It’s not unusual for roads to completely wash out during the heavy storms of rainy season. Sometimes the roads will get fixed, more often they don’t. Some stretches of road are bad enough that everyone has to get out and walk for a small distance in case the lorry tips over on the rough spot. The people who choose which lorries take which routes assign the worst vehicles to the worst roads, since they don’t want to ruin the good vehicles.
Regardless of the condition of the roads and vehicles, there are almost always people on top. Once the mate forgot to come inside the vehicle before the last stop. He was on top of the tro in the back, and he needed to get in so he could collect the fare. He put his feet in the windows, and side crawled to the front of the vehicle that way, staying outside the entire time until he got to the door, which he opened, entered, and then closed. This is normal too. Somebody inside the tro greeted him “How’s the journey?” which made him laugh.
The best thing about travel in Ghana is the food. Almost any time the vehicle stops, there are people selling food, water, and other miscellaneous things from baskets or bowls on top of their heads. My favorite travelling snack is a hard boiled egg with pepe, which is like salsa. You can also get bofrut, which is like a donut with a tenth of the sugar, meat pies, bananas, avocados, rice, porridge (served in plastic bags, you bite the corner off and drink the porridge), mangoes, cookies, plantain chips, and many more. It’s really cheap to buy food that way, and all of it is convenient for travelling. So much better than a Snicker’s bar at a gas station, which was my American travel routine. I wouldn’t complain if women started selling red licorice here though.
The other great part about travelling in Ghana is the opportunity to meet new people. One of my closest friends here I met on the lorry. More recently, I met an herbalist who lives near me, which is something I’m fascinated by. I’ve met speakers for my community events while travelling. There are two main tros that go through my village, and I know the mates on both of them fairly well.
Another great thing about travelling here is that everyone wants to know where you are going, which means it’s difficult to get lost. The people sitting by you and the mates will make sure you get off at the right place.
Photos:
1. Food sellers are always around to provide food and water to make the journey better.
2. A cargo lorry filled with people
3. People crowd together and stand to fit inside.
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