Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Road Trip

I had been told that Ghana had many uniquely named businesses, so during my road trip, I kept track, and I'll share some:

- Thank you Jesus Fashion House
-God's Time Enterprise
-Blessed O' Motors
- Psalm 100 Instruments
-God First Refrigeration
-Heaven's Gate-No Loans
-Have Faith in God Motors (my personal favorite)

The trip from Accra to Nalerigu was quite fun, just a bit long (about 14 hours). The scenery changes pretty dramatically over the drive, from lush rainforest to the very arid northern region that I'm in. My driver was an office assistant named Fesheni. He grew up in the town where the hospital is, and now works for the mission in Accra. We stopped at least 3 times for cows to cross the road, once for a donkey, and too numerous to count for goats....and once for "overspeeding." The speeding could be a whole story in itself, it's quite different than being pulled over in the US will have to suffice for now.

You don't have to go to market here, because all along the road people are selling just about anything imaginable. My personal favorite was the bush rats, they are much larger than those in the US (about the size of a rabbit) and people eat them here. Once or twice I had a man come up the window and insist I buy one, but I think they were more enjoying trying to shock me than anything else.

Most of the day we were on paved roads, but the last 56 km to the hospital is all dirt road. And when I say dirt road, it's very bumpy, sometimes the road would be out. I learned quickly Fesheni had different levels of concern for bumps. There were small bumps, he would tell me it'll be bumpy ahead. Then it progressed up to seatbelt bumps, that it was imperative we had out seatbelts on well before the bump. Finally there were the we need to go real slow or we will be in a ditch kind of a bump, if the road was there at all. And for added fun, due to construction and other various issues, we didn't make it to the dirt road, till well after dark.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

All I have to say about "Have Faith in God Motors" is, I wouldn't have much faith in the mechanic, and would probably take my car elsewhere. I'm so glad you arrived safely. You have no idea how much we were praying for you! Ok, maybe you do.
The baby has hiccups!

cathygopacers said...

Yea Biffy! We are so glad you made it safely! Surely God First Refrigeration would be balanced by Devil's Heating. Hard to believe you're learning about snake bites and malaria. This is great reading. Ryan Newman won the Daytona and we are praying for you!