The drive to Cape Coast

As we climbed into our taxi in Accra, our driver, Kobe (see left; I'm on the left), explained that his car had been chronically breaking down. He had come from Cape Coast that morning and very matter-of-factly stated that the engine had unceremoniously stopped at least 10 times en route.

“The trip will be long today,” he explained to Renae, who regularly uses him to transport new volunteers to Cape Coast and to move Global Mamas materials between the two stores.

So we set in for a long day in the un-air conditioned cab. I, for one, was looking forward to it as it would be our first glimpse of certain sections of Accra and then of the countryside. I was not disappointed.

While the traffic getting out of the city was at times slow enough to actually really get to know the vendors that approached our window, there was never a shortage of things to look at. It could be a tro-tro full of people pulling up beside us, a couple of guys taking a whiz at the roadside (so common a practice “Do no urinate here” signs are a regular sight), a group of laughing uniformed students or some new thing being carried on a head (e.g., a sewing machine, a bucket of fish).

Frequent sources of amusement were the shop signs along the way. Ghanaians love a catchy business name and as a largely Christian nation seek to shoehorn in mention of God or Jesus wherever possible, making for some very funny results. Others appear to be the product of a break down in translation from the native language into English. Here are just a handful of the signs we saw heading west:

· Oops Night Club
· God First Spare Parts
· Peculiar Child Academy
· Doctor Jesus Prayer Ministry
· Abundant Grace Plumbing
· Near Glory Oil Filling Station

Once out of Accra traffic opened up dramatically and we rattled along in the taxi with all the abandon of an empty can rolling down a flight of stairs. Kobe, our driver (see picture above), proved a pretty taciturn sort. We briefly touched on the upcoming U.S. election and he shared his support for Obama.

When I asked about the Ghanaian presidential election, scheduled to take place on Dec. 7, he dismissed it, saying the New Patriotic Party would win. He seemed resigned to this and the fact that, as he told me, taxis drivers would not benefit from the new administration. This seemed to put him in a disagreeable temper and he remained quiet from then on.

Luckily for us, the car only broke down once, and after just a few minutes under the hood Kobe had us back on the road. We made good time on what was a beautiful drive. We passed through long stretches of lush jungle of palm and bamboo on either side of the road broken up by busy little towns.

Commerce clung to the roadside. From plain thatch coverings to just a spot of dirt, people sold pineapples, tangerines, bananas, piles of coconuts and the occasional grilled grasscutter (think nutria) splayed on a stick. Men, women and children walked along carrying their machetes from or to something that needed hacking or pushed ramshackle wooden flatbeds or merely stood, arms behind their backs, and watched the cars pass.

I could’ve comfortably continued for hours and was actually a bit sad when we finally pulled up in front of the Global Mamas store in Cape Coast. This was all forgotten moments later with the warm welcome we received from the staff at the store. It struck me that this group of perhaps 10 Ghanaians, two Americans and one Japanese would likely become good friends over the next three months, and I felt restored by that idea.