I don't think that red light means what you think it means.

I have returned.

Though it has been fewer than six months since my last visit to Ghana, I am very glad to be back.  Even in that short time frame, I have noticed changes.  Previously, I lived in a place near Dzorwulu called "Fiesta Junction", not because they throw wild Cinco de Mayo street parties, but because it is by the Fiesta Royale Hotel.  You can still direct a cab to the Fiesta Junction, but there is a new common name:

Dzorwulu - Traffic Light.

This is because the traffic light there now works.  Brilliant.  Of course, whether or not people stop for red is a different question.

I still live in Dzorwulu, but in a different part that's a bit more convenient for transportation and purchasing basic goods--no more need for frequent trips to the Accra Mall, which is close to Fiesta.  I also now have another semester's worth of Twi vocabulary, so taxi rides are getting even more interesting.

Me: M'aha madamfo, wc ho te s3n? [Good afternoon, my friend, how are you?]

Driver [not as stunned as previously, due to my improved accent]: Me ho y3.  Na wo nso3? [Good, and you?]

Me: Mepes3 me kc Engen filling station Adabraka, ehene na Museum.  3y3s3n?  [I want to go to the Engen filling station in Adabraka, near the Museum.]

Driver: Cedi nnotwe.  [Eight cedis.]

Me: Daabi, daabi, o!  Ne boc ed3n!  Te me so kakraa.  Cedi num. [No!  That's too expensive! [insert play-acting] Lower it for me. Five cedis.]

Driver: Daabi, daabi [litany of excuses here].  You pay six cedis.

Me: Aane. [Okay].

Driver: [several words of Twi I don't know]

Me: ...

Driver: Oh, so you know enough to get a good price?  That is very smart.

Me: Yes. I can also ask where you're from.

Driver: You look Asian.  Are you from Japan/Korea/Singapore/China/Korea/Republic of Korea?

Me: My family's from the Philippines.

Driver: Oh! So you are like Pacquiao!  Manny Pacquiao!

Me: Yeah, I guess. Maybe.

~~

The drivers here are generally nice, and because of my location I get to explore new areas of Accra that I have not previously visited such as New Town.  New Town is a bit of a misnomer, and could properly be called Re-Used Town because many of the shops and dwellings are constructed from re-used shipping containers and materials.  Of course, the "new" part indicates that this is an expanding part of Accra.  Urbanization, right there.  And Accra is a Millennium City.

A funny thing happened on a rainy night drive through New Town:

Driver: So [Houston?], we have a problem.

Me: What?

Driver: My headlights don't work.

You might wonder, why didn't we notice this before?  Well, given that cab headlights are so dim to begin with, they're more there so that other cabs will have at least 10 feet's notice before hitting us rather than lighting the actual way.

Driver [we're going about 15mph]: I'm not sure here.  What should we do?

Me: You're asking me?

Driver: Yes.

Me: Uhhhhh.  Oh, turn on your hazards!  So people can see us.

Driver: Oh, that's good.

We drive for another 10 minutes.  I'm okay with this, and we're not going that fast.

Driver: Actually, I think I will find you another cab.

Me: What, really?

Driver: Yes, I don't think this is safe.

Me: Seriously?

I am pleasantly surprised.  This driver actually cared more about my safety than making money off the fare.  I got into another cab, and made it safely to my destination.

No matter times you travel to a place, there is always room for surprises.  For instance, the pace of technology has picked up remarkably over the past few years.  I still have my first Ghanaian cell phone: a basic Samsung.  I did three things with it: (1) make phone calls, (2) text and (3) play Jewel Hunter.  And I thought those things were awesome.  Maybe they still are.  I got a second phone a year after that, but it had basically the same functions: I switched to have the most popular network in Ghana.

Now I have a Droid here.  It has a camera, Internet, can be used as a wi-fi hotspot.  I am tempted to set up a Twitter account so I can post photos and messages, and then have them imported into Facebook all from this phone. Look at how far we've Ghana.

Perhaps for my next post I will take photos every five minutes of my morning commute and post them to Facebook.  Caption contests?  And, yes, I do have the DSLR with me, but it's just slightly inconvenient to take to work.  But, from a more academic standpoint, there are numerous papers, which I may discuss here later, about citizens using mobiles to hold their politicians accountable. It's fascinating stuff.

~~

I will be in the country for 10 weeks, working on PhD dissertation research.  On previous trips, I have employed mostly survey methods, but this time I will work on ethnographies.  Such work starts right at the beginning of the day with my commute.  This summer, I plan to take mostly tro-tros and shared taxis to work, experiencing what people in many developing countries do every day.  Tro-tros carry around 20 people.

But I guess there's no need to worry about our headlights.  We can light the way with our phones.