Tro tro

I have been so busy lately and have so many experiences to post about! I would post more often but we haven't had internet. So for today I will tell you about my first experience leaving Accra and riding a tro tro to Hohoe.

A tro tro (aka tro) is essentially a modified van with extra seats added that functions as a taxi for 15 people. There is a tro station, but it is not what you would typically think of as a station. It is a dirty parking lot in the middle of the city with dozens of vans crammed in. It is crowded with people – some screaming out the destination of their tros and loading luggage, some looking for transport, many carrying items for sale, and others doing who knows what. When we got out of our taxi a man came up to us and took us to the tro we needed (for a 2 cedi fee of course) and we loaded on. We got the three seats in the back row. It cost us 11 cedi each. The tro has no certain leaving time – it leaves when it’s full. Thankfully ours was mostly full by the time we got there and we only had to wait about 20 minutes to leave. There was too much luggage to fit in the trunk, so they tied the door shut with some string. We drove the whole way there with a half open trunk, but thankfully nothing fell out. Clearly this was not an unusual problem. 

This was my first time getting out of Accra since I arrived in Ghana. The countryside is very interesting. Most of the time we were driving through green brushy areas. Occasionally we would pass through a small town, often with sales people who would run up and try to sell us items as we passed. Our driver stopped in one town and our entire tro became surrounded about 3 women deep, all trying to sell us food and drinks. They would pull open the windows and hold their products inside trying to entice us. We bought one water satchel to share. The farther we went the more the scenery became like the Africa I pictured. The areas looked poorer, and there were huts with straw roofs. The entire way we constantly saw goats and chickens along the road. We passed many schools, all with children wearing orange and brown uniforms. We also saw many beautiful mountains.

Another thing about tros is that you can feel every single bump in the road. And since this is Africa and the roads are not up kept, there are a lot of bumps and potholes. Tros also do not slow down for speed bumps. At one point I literally flew a foot up into the air out of my seat. The farther we got away from Accra, the worse the roads became. 

Overall the tro actually was not as bad as I was expecting. It seemed to go by pretty quickly! And all the scenery made for an interesting ride.