AHHH-CA-CA-CA-CA-CA-RAHHHHHH

That's the screaming sound the tro-tro conductors ('mates') make to let you know that their tro-tro (which is like a 15-passenger minibus ... but rusty and filled with 30 passengers) is going into central Accra's Tema Station, one of the most important hubs in the capital. I took (my life into my hands) one of these into the city this morning around rush hour, and it was actually incredibly fun! Now that I've lived to tell about it. I also made a couple of Ghanaian friends (they were impressed with my rudimentary Twi, lol), and they really liked exchanging business cards with me and even offered to pay for my ride. They were very happy to have made a Harvard friend, and kept asking about the Business School (seems to be quite popular). People just kind of hop on and off wherever, and whenever the tro-tro stops people swarm around outside it selling anything from little satchels of ice water to Mentos to flip-flops. It's so crazy. Go capitalism!

This morning I met with a couple of officials at the Ministry of Ports, Harbours and Railways who have agreed to assist with my survey research. One of them, the Director of Ports, is a KSG MPP so he was very glad to see me there. I later realized that this guy was in charge of the ports of an entire country, one of the most important in Africa and that had recently discovered large oil reserves off the coast. Whoa. Intense. I'm going back on Monday morning to explore Tema (just like the station) Port and start setting up the pilot survey.

Afterwards I decided to do some sight-seeing around the Osu area, which is basically the trendy expats site. I certainly attracted a lot of attention from the locals (again, the accent? :P), who tried selling me lots of things. I'm not the kind of person who likes haggling, but when I responded to people in Twi (basic phrases: wo ho te sen, ya frewo sen, me ho ye, me da ase...), they would smile and be even nicer. And then cut the prices in half and call me their friend, lol. I picked up a Black Stars jersey (match on Sunday perhaps!) as well as some bead bracelets for peeps back home. Then I had some fried chicken and Ghanaian fried rice for lunch. Mmm mmm.

Getting back to the University (where I am now) requires 2 tro-tros and a transfer. I picked one up in Osu headed to '37' station (mate: "37 37 37 37 37!!!"), which is another huge hub of tro-tros. This was one of the most intense experiences of developing-world, Hernando de Soto-style capitalism that I've ever had. Imagine 150+ minibuses crammed into about 2 acres of space with seemingly no organization. People are running around everywhere selling you anything from yogurt to moisturizer creams to those ubiquitous Mentos. And there's no like Grand Central board telling you where the tro-tro you need is. But I just asked a couple people and they knew exactly where the Medina tro-tro was (network economics). In other countries, conductors might cheat foreigners. Not in Ghana. The social pressure from the other Ghanaians in the tro-tro ensure that foreigners get the right price (social capital in action, price theory). For my three tro-tro rides today, which covered around 40km, I paid a total of around 1 Ghana cedi (about 1 US$). And there's no actual schedule for when these things leave, but you never wait more than 20 minutes. The supply and demand of tro-tros at this hub going to their multitudinous destinations somehow clears so that this happens (market efficiency). There's no central authority dictating all of this. Just the invisible hand.

Apparently the tro-tros are even unionized. Wow.

I should be meeting an Ec prof this afternoon, and tomorrow I'll probably explore some more of Accra now that I'm acquainted with the tro-tros. I think a mosquito actually got me this afternoon despite my permethrin treated clothes and insect spray. Hmmm. I'll probably be okay--hopefully it wasn't carrying dengue fever (more a problem in Asia than Africa).