Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret. - Bill Bryson

27-28 October 2019, Kumasi
Homey Lodge 144GHC (R411)

R&R and blog days…
I want to describe, or at least try to, how extraordinarily kind people are to us, using our October 26 day trip by way of example.
We planned to visit three different villages northeast of Kumasi on a round trip that would begin and end in the city. A block from our lodge we flagged down our first tro-tro (mini-bus taxi) of the day. The lodge receptionist had proposed we take a tro-tro to Kejetia market and from there another to Ntonso, our first destination. Tro-tro “staff” comprise a driver and a general factotum who sits by the sliding door. The latter touts for customers by yelling the vehicle’s destination out the open window. When someone on the sidewalk waves at the taxi, he whacks the roof with a flat palm, the sound telling the driver to stop. Out he hops to let the passenger in and assist, if needed, with babies and bags. A double-whack, and the driver is off again. He lets people out where they ask. He manages the fare, taking money and giving change. It is his job essentially to ensure the tro-tro is profitable by keeping it filled to the brim, no matter how often passengers get off.
We told our guy we wanted to go to Ntonso from Kejetia. This resulted in some laughter and some discussion we could not understand, but which we trusted would deliver on our request. At Kejetia, the tro-tro’s final stop, everyone got out. As we did so, one of the passenger’s said he would show us where to get the Ntonso tro-tro. Clearly this had been decided during the on-board discussion, and our benefactor literally walked us nearly 500m through the street market, through the new undercover market, not yet open for business, and across the street beside it, to flag down a vehicle headed for Ntonso. We had enough time only for a quick handshake and heartfelt thanks and we were on our way.
We tried to explain to the assistant that we wanted to get off at the Adinkra Cloth Village in Ntonso. He did not know of it, but a woman seated in front of us said something to him and his face relaxed. It was clear she had told him she knew where we wanted to be and would assist. Our taxi was only partially full and at some point we stopped and were all asked to get in another half-filled taxi with a different assistant. The woman, without prompting from us, immediately told the new assistant where we needed to be, and repeated this to him when she got out before our stop.
After the Adinkra visit, we bought a softdrink before flagging down our next tro-tro. We had mentioned to the shopkeeper where we were headed, and as we crossed the road to await a passing tro-tro, we heard him yelling out our destination to an approaching driver, who immediately stopped to pick us up for the ride to Adanmwase.
Done with our visit to the Kente Cloth Village, we were advised to take a share-car taxi to Ejisu en route Besease. In Ejisu, our taxi driver passed us on to someone who ensured we got in the next Besease-bound tro-tro. There, a fellow passenger walked us 400m or so through the village to the Asante Traditional Shrine, a completely unsignposted tourist attraction.
Returning to Kumasi, we thought we would need to go first to Kejetia and there get a taxi to the Kumasi City Mall, but our Kejetia-bound tro-tro driver let us out at a considerably better alternative and showed us where to go for our penultimate ride of the day, the last being a taxi from the mall back to Homey Lodge.
And so we were passed from one benefactor to another, each willing to go out of their way to assist two strangers in town for nothing more than a smile and handshake. You’ve gotta love Africa.