Today I have decided to describe my tro tro ride from the Togo border back to Accra.

Well, where do I begin? First of all, the road is totally pot holed. And I mean completly, as in, if you were on a bike, even those skinny tires wouldn't be able to navigate a safe path! So, you may wonder why I have bruises on my arms? No, not heroin marks, although the (suprisingly huge) number of people who warned me about aids and dirty needles before I came here will be dissappointed. Well, glad you asked! The driver decided that the best way to 'avoid' the pot holes was to zig zag across the road... this involves driving with two wheels on the road and two wheels on the side (aka the bush) - and sometimes as a treat we went with just 2 wheels in total. And no, he didn't choose the correct side of the road to cruise along at, he popped over to the other side whenever it pleased him. Aparently here its normal for 2 tro tros to drive face on at each other until the very (edit Mum's teaching her daughters to drive gasp here) last minute when one swerves before tooting and carrying on thundering down the 'road.'

Now, today our driver decided that today would be teeth cleaning day. Now, in Ghana there are two ways to clean your teeth. One is the boring way involving a toothbrush and toothpast and then other 'normal' way is to use a stick. Yep, a stick. You just chew it for a while to soften it up and voila - a toothbrush. So today, while our driver sped along the wonderful ghanaian road, he whitened his smile. And while he overtook other tro tro (also swerving like headless chickens all over the show) he spat pieces of trees that were previously being rubbed on his teeth.

But wait! Theres more - he did this all with his seat leaning as far back as possible. Further than the lazy driver, even further that the 'cool and casual' boy racer - I mean he could easily have a nice nap while being so horizontal. One could say that being able to multi task - teeth cleaning, stick spitting, not to mention money counting, phone conversations, singing (kindof) and even occasionally doing some road watching - is impressive. Others, eg the lucky person sitting behind the driver, would say that having at least six mini strokes (before learning not to watch the road), bruised elbows, bruised butt bones and incredible squished legs would say that it was a near death experience not to be recommended...

You would think with the number of police around you culd be reassured that any crazy drivers or unroadworthy vehicles would be kicked off the roads. But no, all eleven of the times the police stopped us, we only had to pile out of the van for him to peer in, and then pile back in. Copnclusion - any vehicle is 'road' worthy here. This may account for the multiple broken down tro tros you pass on any trip. With their many passengers just sitting on the side of the road. Although, with the number of live chickens that I have had the joy of travelling with, no one is likely to starve, or sleep for that matter.

But although it is often hard to deal with the rougher life in Africa it is balanced by the kindness that it shown by the people here. Like the lady who put a blanket around me on one of my first tro tro rides, or the guy who got off his tro tro to make sure me and Barbara were ok knowing it would be at least an hour before another way would come by, or the numerous people who have helped a kiwi girl with absolutely no sense of direction to find her way - most often taking me all the way to the destination before smiling, shaking my hand and walking back to where we started from. Or the kids who look hopefully at the funny looking 'abruni' until you smile and wave after which the smile that grows is worth at least five butt bruising bumpy tro tro rides. Welcome to Africa!