Get Lost

As of now I'm in Accra, the capital, which means access to internet is readily available. I don't imagine that will still be true in a few weeks time, so I'm writing while I can.

Here in Ghana the way that you move around is in a "tro-tro." They refer to them as "buses" but they are nothing like the bus you think of in the States. Instead, they are jam packed mini-vans that fit 16 people in the back and 3 in front, but many more if you pack it in - and they do. It's all about making money - the more people in the bus, the more money the "Mit" (door operator) and driver receive.

Two nights ago was my first experience getting home by myself. I live 45 minutes away and needed to catch a tro-tro from Legon (campus) to Newtown. To know which tro-tro to catch, you listen to the Mit shouting out the window. So as they drive by you hear "CIRC-CIRC-CIRC-CIRC-CIRC" for Circle and "CRA-CRA-CRA-CRA-CRA" for Accra. When I go to catch the bus, it's 6:30 at night and I'm fast regretting going home my first time in the dark. I stand outside listening for "Newtown" and I'm not hearing it. Twenty minutes later I'm still standing there. Nothing.

After the fifteenth rejection, a man walked up to me and asked where I was trying to go and I told him.

"At this time of night?!"

Shit.

So he tells me that I need to go to Circle and catch the bus at the Newtown station. He tells me he needs to go that way anyway and that he will take me and show me the station. At this point, I figure there's not much I can do, and I agree.

In total I spent about an hour with this guy. After thirty minutes on the bus he taps me and tells me that we should get out and walk, the traffic is too heavy. Well, I've come this far. Winding throughout the craziness of the Circle (Times Square, but with no traffic laws, three times the people, and people selling things) we chatted about what I was doing there, how was Ghana, and if I was a Christian. He walked me several blocks past where his stop was, asking everyone where the Newtown station was. He asked my name once, then pointed me into my seat and waved good-bye. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and realized how incredibly gracious he had been. His name was Brian. I think.

I hop out of the tro-tro at my stop, ask three people the direction I need to go and continue on my way. As I'm walking down the street (around 8 pm now) a man that I come upon says "How are you?" So here I'm thinking that in Washington, DC, if someone randomly says "how are you?" it's creepy - we're taught to disengage, and to the best of my ability I did. Then I realized I was lost again.

So I told him so. I pulled out the directions I had and he asked to see. I showed him, and he brought me a block backwards where I was supposed to turn and he pointed the way. I said thank you (it was probably the hundredth time I had said it that night) and walked away in the direction I hoped my house was in. It was. I have never felt so relieved in my life. Except the next day, when I made it home a second time.

I'm incredibly grateful a) that those two men helped me and b) that it happened to me. It taught me so much about being lost and needing help, and about the Ghanaian culture. Every day we take an hour of class to talk about our experiences. I shared mine yesterday, and our teachers explained that in Ghana, it is taught that it is the right thing to do to help someone who is lost or needs assistance. It is said in West Africa that "You are your brother's keeper" and it is their belief that if they help you, one day they may need help and they will be repaid - not by you, but perhaps by someone in America when they are lost wandering around DC.

I can only hope that we would be so kind.