Last weekend, I took an interesting little road trip with fellow geek Peter Beardsley to visit the village of his shadow partner, Eric, from Company Data.

There was a bit of drama before we set off. We went to Nkrumah Circle to catch a tro-tro at 6 a.m. on Saturday. The tro-tro is a form of transport I never experienced in all my travels in Europe. They are essentially large private minivans, wide-ranging in their states of (dis)repair, and have a practically unlimited capacity for passengers, according to their operators. They officially hold 20-25 people, according to their licenses. You think the tro-tro is full, and then they pick up another 3 or 4 passengers, and you realize that 3 people in a row is not enough. On the plus side, they are cheap (less than 10 cents in town, 20 cents for our destination, Pokuase, about 45 minutes north of Accra). On the minus side, you never know when they will break down. Or, as in our case, catch on fire...

Peter and I were squished into the back row of a north-bound tro-tro, waiting for it to fill up (the departure time is whenever the vehicle is filled), when suddenly smoke started pouring out of the ceiling, near the light fixture. It smelled like some kind of electrical fire. Everyone waited, thinking it might stop once the car was running, but it got worse. I was afraid the tro-tro would depart anyway. It would have been impossible for us to exit the tro-tro; the only aisle has flip-down seats that are filled once the regular seats are occupied. I thought, "OK, any second the panic will commence, just like you read about or see in the movies." Peter was sitting next to the window, thankfully open, and I said to him that we should jump out if the smoke got worse. Instead, the driver decided we should all get out and then we had to find another tro-tro. We boarded one that was not on fire and took off shortly.

The only drama on the second tro-tro came when the tro-tro operator announced the fare would be 1600 cedis (23 cents), 200 cedis higher than normal because of upcoming gas price increases planned by the new government. The passengers nearly rioted! Peter and I had nothing to complain about; the first tro-tro had quoted us a price of 2600 cedis, apparently the "obruni" (white people) price.

We got to Pokuase by 7 a.m. and hung out at Eric's family house for a while as Eric and his friend, also named Eric, got ready. Eric #1's uncle is a potter, and he gave us a tour of his workshop in the field behind their house. He had some very interesting work, including these massive water jars with different adinkra symbols carved into them. I took pictures of the adinkra for my forthcoming online guide to meanings and uses of adinkra symbols. He also showed us his kiln, completely built with bricks by hand. One wall of the kiln is torn down and rebuilt every time they fire these large pieces. It's too bad we can't bring one of these jars home--they are fabulous. But Eric's uncle promised us something smaller next time we visit.

Once Eric & Eric were ready, we caught another tro-tro to Nsawam to attend the engagement party of a friend of theirs. Once we finally found the house, we sat in the courtyard where many chairs and awnings had been set up, centered around a very decorative table with several bottles of champagne. And we sat. And we sat. The party was scheduled for 10 a.m., but nothing happened by 11:30 and we had to leave to go to our next stop, Aburi, where someone else was meeting us at noon.

Aburi is beautiful. It's a village about 30 km. northeast of Accra, in the "mountains," which are on more the scale of the hills outside of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Compared to being in Accra at sea level, the setting does feel perched up high--and it's much cooler!

The feature attraction in Aburi is the Botanical Gardens, founded in 1890 by the British. I had been wondering if there were any nice outdoor parks where one could sit and read a book or picnic or just hang out. There don't seem to be any inviting public places in Accra, somewhere you could bring your lunch and sit outside on a break. Things are pretty dusty and noisy, with the multitudes of vendors hawking every conceivable good. The Botanical Gardens actually has benches! We only spent a couple hours there, as the Erics had another destination in mind for us, but I'd like to get back to Aburi for regular breaks from the city.

Photos: typical tro-tro in our neighborhood, Osu; Eric's uncle (center) in his Pokuase workshop; the engagement party set-up; Peter and Eric #2 on the main route through the Botanical Gardens, lined with royal palms; another tree in the Gardens