Tro-Tro (reminiscent of a Volkswagen van) versus Taxi. A journey to Osu for some speedy internet and delectable dinner was embarked upon by me and my colleagues. Before departure came the negotiations: 6 cedis? 8 cedis? Bargaining goes hand in hand with transportation here. We talked to the taxi driver and threw out our idea of a good price. Wait….wait….received the reply. Then to decide, would we take it or keep fighting for our price? Too much we say! A little chuckle and a wave of the hand from the determined driver, but eventually, a reasonable price is reached. All aboard!
So we crept through the busy streets at the 6 o’clock hour. Traffic was bumper to bumper…literally. The roadways are crowded here and vehicles are loaded with aggressive drivers. Our taxi came to an intersection and attempted to merge into traffic. However, the tro-tro next to us was not interested in letting us in. This tro-tro, packed with folks trying to get home and armed with a rather assertive man at the wheel, refused to let us in! His front right side skimmed the left front side of our taxi, and there was when the drama ensued. This isn’t uncommon. You don’t call the police or wait around for authorities to come swap insurance information. Rather, you just keep driving, or as our taxi driver did, reach out and pound your palm against the tro-tro, while yelling obscenities in Twi (common language in Ghana). The tro-tro inched ahead of us and seemingly won the battle. Rather than continue on and brush off the incident, our taxi driver sped behind the tro-tro and followed it down a side street coming within inches of its bumper. Eventually the tro-tro sped off, and we made a left turn to return to our original route. Our taxi driver continued to express his unhappiness, but still managed to safely deliver us to our destination.
Hard to call a winner in this battle. This time around, I’m going to side with my persistent and determined taxi driver. He seemed like he had good intentions and he got us where we needed to go. No worries my friends. Such incidents come with the territory and are part of the experience of traveling in Accra. I thrive on the thrill of it. Keeps things interesting. I know, I know, as if my simply being here isn’t interesting enough, right? ☺
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