Emergency road service

To answer some questions, a tro-tro is a 12 to 15 passenger van (often holding as many as 25 people) that make regular runs between villages, towns, and cities. From my village I usually have to take a taxi to Osiem, 60p, and then a tro to Kofaridua, 1 cedi 70 p. Today I caught a tro in my village that was coming all the way here, so It took less than three hours. They are sometimes brand new with AC, and sometimes not. On the way we encountered a problem on the highway and the PCV I was meeting here had to help push their tro to get it started halfway here. Ours had no problem, but I thought you would be interested in this part. I have not been on any road in Ghana that is more than two lanes, except for the ones that are under construction and may be four lanes of dirt or mud. Anyhow, if your vehicle breaks down and will block the lane, or if there is an accident. the procedure is this:
Take your cutlass and cut down as much greenery from the roadside as possible, and strew it in the lane for at least 50 yards on either side of the accident. Whaddaya mean you don\t have a cutlass? At home we call them machetes, but here its a cutlass and everybody has one, including little three-year olds who aren\t as tall as the cutlass is long. Anyhow, that\s the drill. No flares, no traffic cones, but everybody knows what the signal means and it seems to work. We wormed our way around the stalled cars, and had no problems.

Talked with the kids this weekend and got most of the news from there, but there is some local stuff here that I need to get updated on. The Ghanaians, Christian and other, have an absolutely admirable ability to accept the one true god along with the other ones. So here\s what happened a couple of months ago, when I was in homestay in a different village. Two boys were doing something bad with the lottery. I don\t know if the lottery itself is evil, or just what they were doing, and I have been told both. In any event, one of the river goddesses turned them into snakes to punish them. Somebody, maybe the parents, took them from the jungle, or the forest, because a real snake would recognize that they were not real and would kill them. So they were taken and kept for safety in a locked room while they contacted a fetish priest to try and reverse the spell, or undo the curse, or whatever. In that room, however, the snakes began to vomit money, both Ghana Cedis and US bills. (20, but I\m not sure of that part. No euros.)It was a big deal in my homestay village, but there were big color posters at some of the news stands in bigger cities as well. I saw before and after photos of the boys (and snakes), and it was very sad. Anyhow, the last I heard is that it has taken the priest a long time, but he says it takes a lot of different items for such a big curse. However, some people are beginning to think that perhaps he is more interested in the money than in rescuing the boys. Ya think? I will visit my homestay family soon and try to get an update. I mean, I\m sorry about Walter Cronkite and all that, but I think they ought to forget the money and get those snakes turned back into boys so their families can get some relief. I will keep you posted.

A ghana cedi is currently trading at about 1.46 for one USD. Peace Corps pays us six cedis a day, and I think minimum wage in Ghana is 3cedis a day. Even in the part of my village that has electricity, almost 2/3s of the families aren\t connected because it costs 175ghc for the meter and the hookup. My first project is the guesthouse and the visitor center, but my secondary project is to see what can be done about that. Will keep you posted, as well. Gotta go, last tro leaves in about an hour and I have to carry all this wine to the lorry station. Miss you all. Keep those cards and letters coming in!. Cheers, dw