tro tro

Have you heard of a trotro?

Basically it’s a minivan. Oh, have I mentioned the roads, and road rules? Well they don’t exist, not in the way I am used to. I knew it would be different, but I didn’t expect to have to ‘empty my cup’ of road rules and road safety. Australia is such a nanny state for road safety, and rightly so in many ways, it reduces road fatalities and injuries.

But, to the trotros, there is no particular brand of minivan, any automobile bigger than a 5 seater car and smaller than a bus is a trotro. By the way, we fit 6 people plus the driver into the taxi yesterday, and it wasn’t a big taxi. The trotro doesn’t leave the origin until it is full, depending on where you are leaving from, heading to and the size of the trotro, this could take hours, or like today, you may have to wait in line as there are simply so many people headed to the same destination. The first one I went on was to Suhum, I think I counted 29 people, including me, but I couldn’t see everyone. If you are a small enough child, you will sit on the lap of your mother, father, brother, sister etc.

Forget about seatbelts, road worthy, doors that close, legroom, somewhere to put your bag and anything else you can think of, forget it. The one I was on yesterday, I think it was a 3 hour journey, the speedometer did not work, at all it was stuck on zero. That’s a good thing; I probably wouldn’t have liked seeing the actual speed. Oh, the roads aren’t necessarily paved. And if they are there are pot holes. But it’s not all bad, don’t get me wrong, it sounds highly dangerous, and goes against everything I have grown up with, but it is fun.

You bounce around, the people are incredibly friendly, on a few occasions I have had a nodder on my shoulder, the rhythm and the slight bounce puts a lot of people to sleep, and there is clearly nowhere to put your head, except the shoulder of a neighbour, that’s ok by me.  Oh, getting on a trotro, well now that’s something I haven’t done alone yet. And not really looking forward to it either.

 There are bus stops, and everyone waits, as the trotro drives past they yell out the destination, and you get on the one for you. The thing is, unless you are going somewhere close by, or a big town, like into Accra the capital, what they yell is further than you are going. And if you are like me, and not sure of the surrounding towns just yet, there is really no way of knowing where you could be headed. And it all happens quite quickly.

But, the upside is, the learning happens quite quickly too. So that is lesson one on trotros, as the time goes on, I will inform you further about this public transport system.