Clarice, the newest recruit is a business student from Paris who is doing a 4 month stage here.
So we set off a bit later as it was Saturday to meet Dela at the tro tro station at 9 am. It was bustling as usual but i knew the ropes now ... and looked for the small wooden signboard saying 'Kpong' (which is where we would switch tro tros for Agomanya)
We sat in the 'tin can' like a bunch of cooking sardines ... ha! ha! But once we were on the move the breeze streamed in and cooled our steaming bodies!!
The sights were starting to be familiar.. i recognized the stand of trees that i find so funny.. their trunks widen at the base and then their branches are all quite short + bunched at the top.. so all in all; they look like awkward, pot-bellied men waving their short arms!! ..All the road side stands with their produce: bright red tomatoes, avocados, pineapples and the ever present casava root..
We changed tro tros at Kpong after a quick diversion (...Dela hunted out a hotel for us to use a 'reasonable' washroom!! ...as he said there were lots of options but not all of them would suit us .. we didn't argue!)
Then we caught the other type of tro tro that picks up people along the way... the next part of the road is where a lot of it has been washed out so in the van we were not only baked but shaked!!! ha! ha!
Finally we arrived.. this time we had the luxury of just jumping out of the vehicle and not having to worry about parking..
We set off through the market .. us following Dela who knew exactly where to go... i was straggling behind a bit as i tried to snap some photos..
The first several times through a market it was like my eyes were shy and couldn't light down on anything really... now they had adjusted and i could really take in all the vignettes.. one that was lovely was a very young boy and his mother selling red tomatoes piled high... both of them were wearing these oversized straw hats... on his mother it was large but on the young, slight boy it was gigantic!! He looked so wonderful... i asked him if i could take his picture and he shook his head emphatically 'no!' which i respected...
At the beads, Dela and Clarice left me to wander once they saw the intent look on my face... i was getting the glass Ghanaian beads this time... and these would be hard to choose. These were the beads that in one way were all the same but they were painted all differently!!
When they came back i was still at it. ... choosing and negotiating... finally starting to feel comfortable in my new role as the Bead Lady!
We strolled through the fabric section but i had been totally spoiled by the hand done batik fabrics at Lady Volta... the machine made batiks just didn't appeal to me anymore...
We took another tro tro, this time all the way to the river so we could have a drink and break on its shores... again the spot struck me as so serene and quite cool.. with the water there and everything so green. Clarice is a real water nut and looked longingly at the people swimming..
She went over to talk to them. They were white people who have lived here in Ghana for 9 years... they take medecine in order to be able to swim.. I had imagined it would be somethng like this....
It was getting on so we decided to head back... to realize we were in a bit of a pickle.. we were in a spot where all the tro tros going by were all full.. we queried about the taxi but felt it was too expensive... (compared to the less than three dollars of the tro tro!!... but with hindsight a total deal... but you just get into that mode of when in Rome...) (anyways it was all part of the adventure!!)
We had to go back ... to Kpong which was about 25 minutes backtracking and once there... wait for a tro tro to fill up!! We were hot and tired .... and the waiting seemed very long... i came close to hustling for people to fill up our tro tro!!! ...i was starting to understand more and more ...
Finally, we were on our way... This time an enormous woman stopped our tro tro and a lot of people had to get out so she could get out .... to pee... she hiked up her batiked fabric gown and crouched!! Then it felt like we were surrounded by all these men 'dropping water' (they actually have a hand gesture ... slapping the top of your left hand into your palm and beseeching 'i beg of you i need to drop water' for when they want to stop the tro tro!!!) .. everyone was totally nonchalant about it but for us Westerners it was quite disconcerting!!
And then we were off again...
Clarice had certainly gotten a full adventure for her first day out! She was totally game even though i could see she was hot and exhausted... she was still smiling when we arrived in Ho ... somehow Africa does that for you.
---- Cathy and Christianne are with me on the porch working on their computers. Clarice is next to me reading her kindle... Shoko is inside -----
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