Driving in Ghana

Let’s take a timeout here and talk about the driving situation in Ghana. Good heavens, we only thought it was bad back home. Erin compares it to Mexico City, but John says it has to be even worse here. It’s literally bumper to bumper traffic on every road throughout Accra from sunup to sundown. Sometimes we try to take shortcuts but the end result is always the same – lots and lots of sitting motionless in the car. Not even Pamela, a native Ghanian, was brave enough to drive us around this week. We’re so happy to have Richard’s very capable driving skills at our disposal, and even happier to still be alive to tell about it!

We have never seen such maneuvering in all our lives. In Ghana, it’s not uncommon to see hundreds of pedestrians and hundreds of cars all sharing the same two-lane roads. We try to keep him below 80 kilometers an hour, but boy that sure seems fast when there’s little kids walking all over the road, not to mention all the street vendors and the other (slower) cars that we overtake. We’re amazed that we haven’t hit anything (or anyone) yet.

Last night (Monday night) we did witness two “incidents” on the way home from the Ernst & Young office. One was a side-impact collision in the middle of a roundabout (loaded up with 50 or 60 cars), and the other was a car losing its bonnet (the hood) about 20 feet in front of us. While it’s common for drivers in a collision to get out and argue over whose fault it is, Pamela prefers taking an approach of “you fix your car, I’ll fix mine, let’s both just move on with our lives.” It sure is easier to just keep on driving that to have to get out and talk to the other party. The drivers behind you will appreciate it too.

Yeah, so on an average day we spend anywhere from four to six hours a day in the car. Today was better, maybe only three hours. Erin has decided that she doesn’t want to move to Ghana because she absolutely would not be able to live with all this traffic. I guess we won’t be moving here anytime soon.