We’ll begin my trip at Madina a suburb of Accra in the Greater Accra Region and end at Torgbelotokope a burb of Dabala in the Volta Region of Ghana and along the way, we will mostly comment on the positives. I had to make a long round about trip from my bus stop – Firestone – to Atomic Junction because of the current expansion of the Tetteh Quarshie Roundabout – Dodowa road into a three carriage road in each direction, and the overpass to be constructed at Atomic. After the initial inconvenience of the detour, one gets onto the dusty trail of road building between Atomic Junction and Okponglo that left thoughtlessly white shirts brown after a few trips and informed my black shirted choice this time round. On the way, I see the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School on the left curiously old but still producing some of the best scientific minds Ghana has seen and across from it, the ubiquitous upshot of structures and construction work of multiple hostels to cater for the ever-growing need for accommodation of students at the University of Ghana. After that, it’s the ambitious university of Ghana Stadium rising rather majestically on the roadside that captures my attention and I wonder from whence the finances for it arise and the prioritization of projects in our beacon of education.
This brings me to the Tetteh Quarshie roundabout quite nicely designed and linked to our main motorway which has led some to the decongestion of traffic and increased productivity in some intangible way. By its side is the Accra mall, the new hangout place for high schoolers on break, and distributor of many goods South African. The road into Accra from here has the same old stuff, Airport, Airport City still under construction with a functioning Holiday Inn and a Hilton under construction, 37 Military Hospital and of course the presidential palace – see the piece below. You also see a nicely built Ghanaian College of Physicians and Surgeons which I hope is doing something positive for Ghana – watch for the entry on the practice of medicine in Ghana sometime in the future. Up next, the National Theater where I alighted at the Novotel bus stop to make my walk into the Tudu station for a tro-tro to Dabala. It was a national holiday so the city center was not as bustling as it usually is and I could drag my bag nicely on the sidewalk to the chagrin of the kayayei (porters who help carry multiple and heavy loads for quite small amounts of money). These porters are predominantly urban female immigrants from the Northern regions and are left to the elements and dangers of the streets. A few of them who could not have been older than 15 have little kids on their back or lying by them on the pavements and I’ll leave it to the readers’ imagination to ponder how the children could have happened. In the mini-van at the station, I saw another one with a storey of suitcases that must have been taller than her. She’s in the picture below.
She’s making a livelihood though and an honest one and along with her, the market women selling all wares from fruit juices to biscuits, singlets to rechargeable torchlights imported from China and the guy who wanted to sell gold-plated necklaces and a weird assortment of belts to me. Their interactions with passengers and the back and forth bargains under the scorching sun are so traditionally Ghanaian. I could drive a bargain in my time.
2 hours later, the 14 passengers to get the van full were set and I could leave for my village. This part of the trip, while longer, is rather lacking in the excitement of the previous one. The main attractions are the branch off the main road to Ada where there is the Ada Beach Resort, a party ground and a place for the holidays as evidenced by the multiple cars with families foreign and local heading in that direction. Then one arrives at the Lower Volta Bridge across the Volta River along which lies the multiple communities like Sogakope, groves, Hotel Cisneros and the Holy Trinity Spa and Health Farm. The spa is an exercise in luxury and an increasingly popular destination for tourists and the upwardly mobile Ghanaian. It boasts cruises, spa services and general relaxation overseen by Dr. Anyah. There have been complaints about quality of service, however. I might be able to tell you soon what a mole thinks about the operation.
As has become the norm in my recent entries, I’ll leave you with food for thought. The most glaring presence on our road, during my 2 hour journey, was the police checkpoints. The more established ones, including the ones fashioned out of Polytank water storage tanks did their cursory checks—for what, I dunno—and let our van through. But between these, there were others with two or three policemen ostensibly checking for defects in vehicles or licenses and reporting to the authorities for legal action/safety of the passengers. I say ostensibly because when our van got the checkpoint near Hleve, a couple of meters from the Sogakope District Hospital serving the South Tongu District, we were stopped. The driver, by whom I was sitting, went out with a 1 cedi (71 cents) note in hand and no driving documents. A second later, he was back empty handed and we were waved on. This, dear reader, is not a rare occurrence. Whatever defects our vehicle might have had, whatever defiency its driver may suffer from are forgotten and our lives and their futures are sold for that 1 cedi. Some have argued it is because civil servants are paid so little that corruption exists but is the driver making so much he can give out to these officers? And are our lives so worthless a contract between the police and law-breaking vehicle operators can buy them? May the new year bring with it hopes and changes worthy of our progress as a nation. And may God be with us all.
Prime
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This is the way I choose, the destiny I pursue
To help the unfit and the fit
To treat each according to his need
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