When I heard that the
national service postings have been made available online, I asked Kofi to
check for me. Interestingly, I was posted to the Upper West region to teach in
a school called Lassia Tuolu Senior High School. When Kofi sent me a text to
inform me about my posting, it was a bit surprising and interesting at the same
time. Surprising because I did not choose the Upper West region of Ghana as
part of my list of preferred regions and interesting because I wanted to start
a travel blog because I enjoy travelling and I’ve been dying to go to the
northern part of Ghana and even though I’m yet to volunteer for and NGO, I
would like to do volunteer work with any free time I had as well. So as soon as
I heard of the postings, I made travel arrangements to go to the Upper West. I
then asked my friend to buy me a ticket for the bus bound for Wa the next week.
The bus was billed to take off at 5.00 pm on Wednesday, therefore wielding my
ticket which I bought in advance for 50 cedi I set out to board the bus. Yes I
was on my way to Wa then onward to the town of Lassia Tuolu in the Upper West
region of Ghana. I reached the State Transport Company STC yard at around 4.30
since the bus was scheduled to leave at 5pm upon enquiring from the counter on
which bus I was supposed to board, the lady informed me that I would have to
change my ticket from luxury to standard since the luxury bus would not be
going anymore. I was therefore given change and asked to wait for the bus. To
cut a long story short the bus which was scheduled to leave Accra by 5 left at
7 en route to Wa with me fuming in it.
After Nsawam the road
gets very terrible until the bus reached the town Bunso where we were given a
ten minute break to stretch, go to the bathroom and buy some snacks after which
we continued the journey to Kumasi. In Kumasi we stopped at the STC office in Oforikrom
where we were given another ten minute break. After the break in Kumasi we
continued with the journey to Wa through Bamboi, and Bole. The trip from Kumasi
to Wa takes a bit of time i must say. Upon entering Wa the first stop was the
UDS campus where a few students alighted and we moved onward to the STC station
in Wa.
I got to Wa around
7.30am after a few enquiries, i found the NSS office at the Regional
Coordinating Council where I was made to sit outside and wait because their office was not opened. Upon waiting for a quite
some time with a couple of other service personnel we saw a lady walking in
front of us, we asked her where she was coming from and she responded that she
was from the national service office meaning the office has been opened all
this while without us knowing. I rushed to the office to go through the
registration process so that I can make it early to lassia tuolu for the second
part of the registration so that I can make it back to Wa in order not to miss
the night bus bound for Accra.
Quickly,
i asked directions to where I could get the bus bound for lassia tuolu I was
showed a rickety urvan minibus which I payed 3 cedis as the cost with my new
acquaintance whom I met at the NSS office and was also bound for the
next town to teach called Obed. The sun was up so it was
a really warm day and boy! Were the car seats hot. Upon sitting down in the
minibus I thought it would take just a few minutes for it to be full but apparently I was wrong It
took a little over an hour and thirty minutes. My second shock came when I
realized we had to sit four people per row in a bus that was originally
designed to sit 3 people then the third surprise, the space between the driver
and the second row seats had another row which sat an extra four people
including the drivers assistant (mate).
Therefore
with the sun up and scorching, a very warm bus with people really sweating and
bodies packed with heavy loads on top of the bus we were ready to go. But wait!
The bus wouldn’t start, after much jostling on the drivers part the vehicle
still wouldn’t start. Eventually some of the drivers colleagues had to push the
vehicle from behind and in the process the driver will then start the vehicle
in a way only Ghanaian tro tro (bus) drivers know how to do best. Even with
that the car wouldn’t start and why should it? A car that is that has an
overload of 8 more people with so much luggage at the top will surely have its
challenges. Bottom line, some passengers had to get down for the bus to be
lighter. After much jostling and pushing of this rickety van it finally started
not albeit with this really deafening sound.
The
driver drove to the highway and we turned left after a few minutes drive I
could see we were venturing away from the city then onwards we went upon
reaching the edge of the city I saw the St. Francis Xavier School. After driving
for a few minutes we passed through Nakore which is a small near Wa right after
Nakore road transitioned from good to bad the once bitumen road we were on
turned red and laterite with lots of dust and sitting by the window of the bus
I really had to bear the brunt but the driver was clearly oblivious of all this
dust and was speeding away. Even though the road was quite poor and all this
dust made me uncomfortable, the scenery on both sides of the road was quite
picturesque and amazing to look at I must add. There were scores of bill boards
telling you to vote for this presidential and parliamentary candidate or the
order. It looked very much like we were still in election years. After a few
minutes, one passenger on my row got down leaving us with three people on my
row making it a bit comfortable oh but my comfort wouldn’t last very long.
Because we reached a town called vierri which seemed really busy because it
looked like it was a market day. There, a few passengers alighted whiles a lot
more got on board.
The
women who got on board at vierri had baskets of tomatoes with them, the drivers
assistant therefore had to get down and tie the womens baskets of tomatoes on
top of the bus. And lo! The bus would not start again but luckily for us we
were on a slope therefore all the bus needed was a little push from the mate
who upon much observation and hearing the women call him got to know that his
name is Angola. The bus started again with all the deafening sound again and
sped downhill, the mate therefore had to run to catch up with us. Whiles
driving through small villages, i saw people mostly women and little girls
carrying bucket loads of tomatoes, yams and charcoal apparently going to the
market in vierri to trade them.
A
few minutes later, I got to the town of lassia since i was new to the place I
asked one passenger a young man who looked like he is in his mid-twenties to
alert me when the bus reaches the town. Just as i was about to tell the young man not to forget to remind me when i reached my destination, a young boy told
the driver that he wanted to get down, this boy had on a school uniform and it
looked like he was going to lassia tuolu secondary school so I inquired whether
he was on his way to the school and he answered yes. But the gentleman I asked
to alert me told me we are yet to enter the town but if I’m going to the school
then I should follow the boy going there.
I
therefore got down and followed the boy who was heading to the school with his
sister, apparently he was also a fresher on transfer from another school. Upon
reaching the school I told the first person I met who I presumed was an
authority of the school about the purpose of my visit. Coincidentally, the
assistant headmistress was listening and asked me to follow her to the office.
There he inquired where I came from and what subject I was there to teach to
which I replied economics and which she said that’s alright. I told her I was
in a hurry to go back to Wa since I will not be passing the night therefore if
I don’t get to Wa on time I might miss the night bus coming down to Accra. She
then quickly endorsed my forms and asked me to come the following week so
that I can start work (teaching).
I
left the office to go back to the main road to wait for a bus bound for Wa.
After waiting for about thirty minutes a minibus came almost full. We cramped
ourselves (there were three of us) into the bus. I saw my friend Obed who I had met at the national service secretariat. He came to the town in a white
stripped shirt which by now had turn reddish brown due to the laterite streets.
I was soo tired that I passed out as soon as I sat in the minivan. We finally
reached wa around 3.30 in the afternoon. I rushed to the accra bus terminal to
buy I ticket for my trip back to accra. After all that stress I awarded myself
with a big bowl of fufu and guinea fowl soup.
