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Part 2 of 3 (or maybe even 4)
In 2006, 1856people died on the roads! So every day to & from asebu we go through theses checks. 95% of the time we are not over loaded however, a friendly little hand shake with an officer with a couple of cedi in the palm of the hand gets your through the checks with ease. the real police do this but then there are the municipal police- not exactly sure who they are, or who they THINK they are...? Apparently they don't have real power. Any how, After been made super late for work after the two hour wait on food, the 3 of us needed to take a taxi out to the village. Most of the way there we got pulled over by the municipal police- it was just a man, a big man mind u with a big gun, standing in the middle of the road randomly stopping people. We pulled over, a short conversation in Fante proceeded then the customary handshake & we were off again. It was all very quick and bizarre so we started asking the driver questions. What was that about? Do you not have a license or rego? Is the car defected? We are not over loaded. No, he just wanted a bribe because he could ask for one with a big ass gun! Unbelievable! It's was only 1 cedi - AU$0.80 but that goes a far way here, not to mention if you stand there all Arvo doing it! Talk about abuse of power (even though they don't really have Any pull) and personal revenue raising! I knew corruption was rife here but not on such a grassroots level. These people are poor, very poor, they can't afford that- we covered the bribe.I took last week off work to travel with Eds as he headed home the following week. First We went to Busua, being a beach along the coast and stayed in a lovely French owned and run inn which was right on the water. It was gorgeous! Clean rooms, great food and the best deck on the beach over looking the water! I had a glass of wine there and showers without my shoes on!!! Also the beach was clean! No plastic bags dead animals or raw sewage! In the morning I could swim and Eds surfed in the arvo. One afternoon Eds and I thought it would be nice to walk along the coast to the next village..... Good in theory perhaps. As we walked round we were being stared at more then usual and not getting the usual response to our smiles and Fante greetings. It really should of been a dead give away that we shouldn't be there when a posie of 6 yr olds came and patted Eddie down and tried to shove their hands in his pockets to grab his wallet! Almost mugged by 6yr olds GOLD!!! But we kept on walking... Eventually every womanly instinctual alert, including sirens and red and blue flashing lights, were going off inside of me saying "I'm Not Comfortable With This!!! Turn Back!". I quietly voiced this to Eddie, and he was like "yeah this doesn't feel right. We'll just walk 10m more to where we can see the cove pretend to have a look then go." good, however when we got to this point Eds spotted a castle up on the point. "let's have a quick look over there. I haven't visited a castle" Eds casually explained & turned down a narrowing alley which was lined with fisherman - who happen to be some of the poorest members of society. "umm no Eds!!! Please can we turn back" I pleaded trying not to look terrified! "na, we'll be fine" he confidently stated, 30 secondslater "are we being followed?", "YES!!!! I'm getting the #*#* out of here!!!". So we spun around and were out of there (in one piece thankfully). We had to drive through dixcove, this particular village, later in the week which was also eventful... The fisherman were untangling there nets in the middle of the road (as you do) so our taxi driver drove strait over they top of them (as you do) which the fisherman didn't appreciate. Instead of keeping on driving, our taxi driver STOPPED & lent out the window and started yelling back at them! Come on dude! As we were starting to be surrounded by angry fisherman, a mentally and physically disabled girl stumbled toward the car and half fell in eds window dribbling, moaning and waving her arms about (and she had the scabbiest face I have ever seen). JUST DRIVE DUDE!!! Then to top things off as we were finally driving away, this guy with elephantitice on his leg came up the street in the middle of the road dragging his fatty limp leg! What more can you throw at us dixcove? We drove out of there laughing - It was surreal.The 2nd half of the week we spent at green turtle lodge further along the coast which is an English owned eco friendly lodge. We had a bungalow with solar power and a self composting toilet and a shower which actually drained sufficiently! As the name suggests the beach is a turtle nesting ground but unfortunately it's not turtle season. Then we went back to cape (which took about 4hrs), emptied our bags, repacked and headed off to Accra - the capital. This journey should take 2 hrs... 5 hrs laterwe got there. Traffic is stupid in the capital - infrastructure does not support thepopulation in so many ways, but especially the roads. Ghana's population is about the same as Australia's however it is about the size of NSW in regards to land mass. Extremely over populated! So, catching a tro round a huge city at night with a back pack in stinking hot weather, grid locked traffic, having not eaten or drunk anything for 5 hrs and not knowing where your going isn't much fun. Fortunately for us, the gentleman we were sat next to on the tro was going the same direction as us & offered to help us get out into the suburbs (mind u, following him throughout the markets onto another tro in my delirious state I was questioning whether we were being led into a trap rather then someone actually being kind to us. Luckily it was the latter option). Then to top things off a kind young lady walked us to our landmark in the burbs once getting off the final tro!
please read on for part 3.....
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