Travel and see — Touring Accra by trotro
Illiteracy may be a pardonable error but ignorance is certainly, a voluntary misfortune. Many of us know very little about the environment in which we live. We find it difficult to even take a short walk let alone occasional travels outside our localities for a little sight-seeing experience.
Advertisement
It is a fact that stress is having a large toll on our health due to our daily activities. Doctors advise that we take regular exercises, good rest, adopt a healthy lifestyle and once in a while take a vacation to places of interest as a way of preventing stress and maintaining good health.
A verbal intercourse between a lady and a man in Dodowa recently, is the basis for this written discourse (how unsweet English sometimes may sound in an unbeliever’s ears!).The man called out an appellation to which the lady responded” Odzua Dzi Ga?” (Literally meaning is Accra your co-equal? Tweaaaa...Anokwale po!).
I found this response rather philosophical .But then it is true that most people live in Accra but do not know Accra proper. Dear reader, do you know Teshie Tsui Bleo, Tebibiiano, Abotsi Hanya, Agbado, Agbaadzena, Akatsi -Abor, Gbegbeyise or Glefe? These are some of the communities in the City’s sprawling neighbourhood.
Touring Accra by trotro can be fun. One fine Saturday morning I left Ashale Botwe 3rd Gate enroute to Glefe. Why Glefe, I cannot tell but I was eager to know the place. A few enquiries provided the exact geographical location.
The fun started just around the 37 Military Hospital when the well-dressed gentleman next to me took out a pen and scribbled something on a piece of paper , looked out through the window, smiled and waved at the trees then clutched tightly to a Ghana –must-go bag on his lap.
He scribbled again and put the pen into a holder in his breast pocket. Instinctively, my eyes followed. It was then that I saw the pen holder; it was an empty coke can! I do not need anyone to tell me that this particular case was beyond 37.
Towards the Ridge Hospital Roundabout, several cell phones came alive with interesting ring tones. ‘Hello-o-o…yes this is Koo Manu… er—er-er.no ...I am in Kumasi. I’ll be in Accra next week…. Just then another phone rang with a sweet borborbor ringtone. Helloooooo…Efo Kodzo Avudzivi Agbametadi Tordzaglah here…Nuka...Nuka...Ameke... Tso-o-o-o-o…wrong line! He chuckled and put the phone off. I stole a glance but the tassel of the cap he was wearing covered half of his face.
Other Trending Stories
Instantaneously, another provoking ring tone came on: ’Hani emo. Hani emo, Ole seke ni wo ye, Hani emo’. Ye-e-s-s-s-s…Atwsei. Huh…the pig feet? Use all….uh-uh. Let the soup be thick…Yes...Yes… use all the cassava for the fufu…ok...ok… A few minutes later, we pulled up at the Tema Station.
Soon, I was on my way in a Mamprobi-Agege-bound trotro. On the seat in front of me was this very fat woman.
Any food item that was in sight she bought. She was on her sixth boiled egg when the bus rolled out of the station.
She was talking animatedly with a friend just as the Supreme Court building came into view. Suddenly, she burst into laughter and in the process tiny fragments of albumin and yolk escaped into the air like debris at a construction site.
Some fell on the white dress of a sweet young lady on her way probably to a wedding ceremony. She blushed and complained bitterly. The offender smiled apologetically revealing a gap where four upper incisors once were.
The driver of our vehicle was also in an argument with a passenger in the front seat and did not notice the car ahead of us stop. He braked suddenly throwing all of us forward.
At the same time a hissing sound came from the direction of the seat in front of me; the unmistakable muffled sound of suppressed flatulence. There was no doubt as to who the culprit was! Using public transport provides a lot of test on tolerance.
Soon I was at Glefe. The settlement looked like it was devastated by a Tsunami. The town is a low-lying enclave on the narrows between the Pambros salt pans and the sea. There was sea water in almost every compound. There were visible efforts to stop the erosion but the piles of sandbags are no match for the marauding waves.
According to Atsu my self-appointed guide, ‘the sand bags could not stand the raging waves whenever the sea went wild.”
On how he came to be there, Atsu said he bought a small single room one dry season and it was later that he discovered the area was swampy. “I have been living here 12 years now but hope to relocate when I get enough money.”
In spite of the nature of the area there are also very beautiful houses there. Like Atsu, I met other residents with sparkles in their eyes that held hope for the future. I met a small girl carrying her sister and another gentleman cooking in front of a drinking bar. I was amazed at their cheerful nature.
Glefe looks like a case of “illegal encroachment” which has been “regularised “ but then it houses many people and also holds the key to the future of thousands more.
Glefe brings into focus the lack of proper planning that has been our bane and an indictment on our 57 years of nationhood.
The visit to Glefe has been an eye opener. Pondering over the tour, the ride in the trotro reminds me of nationhood: different people, different attitudes, one vehicle moving towards a common destination.
It is, therefore, very necessary to tolerate each other so that there will be peace in the vehicle.
Changing one’s environment has a lot of health benefits. Therefore, make it a point to visit one community at least once in a month.
Kofi Akpabli is author of Tickling the Ghanaian- Encounters with Contemporary Culture and A Sense of Savannah-Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana