Today’s excitement didn’t really happen at work, because for whatever reason no reporters showed up this morning before going on their assignments, so I was at the office again all day doin nothing much. The exciting part, believe it or not, was my commute home.
Firstly, I picked up the wrong tro-tro. The guys who yell out destinations aren’t always comprehensible for me, so I generally ask confirmation for my destination. Well today I thought I heard Nungua, and asked if that was right, and the guy nodded and waved at the van. So obviously I got in. Then he started yelling out the window “Eta” or something and we turned the wrong direction, so I was like ummm… But everyone was perfectly sympathetic and I got dropped off near a big bus depot in the neighborhood called 37 (don’t ask me why it’s called that, I dunno). The conductor guy tried to get me to pay for the short trip, and I wasn’t really planning on arguing over 40 cents, but everyone around me yelled at him and he gave it back.
So I found the bus depot ok; it’s a really huge area full of tro-tros waiting their turn to take folks to the various places. It took me a couple times asking directions, but I finally found the right section for where I was going. So we filled up and started off on our journey.
An intercalary section: The nation is generally upset right now with the NDC government, as last Friday it announced a fuel hike, to take effect Monday. I think it’s still subsidized, just not at the same degree. People are particularly upset because the party campaigned and possibly even won on a platform of keeping fuel prices down. Now that they’re in power, they’re saying “oops, didn’t realize how much money that would take.” While I understand price fluctuation, shame on you NDC for campaigning on a platform you know is untenable.
So anywho, we take off from the bus stop and people start complaining angrily in languages I don’t understand. Then we complete a circle and come back into the bus stop, where just about everyone descends. A kind woman next to me explained that they were all upset at having to pay 55 pesewas instead of the 45 that was standard before the price hike Monday. That woman and I were the only two passengers to stay on the bus; I’m not too sure what happened to the other guys or if they found a van to take them for less. To be honest, I only paid 50. That was my original contribution (and I think what they were sposed to be charging, according to the standard rate increase), and when I offered the guy a 5 pesewa coin he turned it down. Whatever.
This trend of charging more than what’s sanctioned in the increase seems to be pretty common. I’m only sposed to pay 5p more, and on both my routes now it looks like I’m up 10p. It sucks to be people for whom that is an important amount of money.
My other news is that I think I’m going to change horses midstream. While I’m getting some good insights at the Guide, I think it would be helpful to get a feel for the state-run paper as well, so in 2 weeks or so I’m going to be working at the Graphic. Hopefully it doesn’t suck. It should be a pretty good experience though, and I’ll hopefully get an idea for how much censorship there is. It will also be good for the paper I need to write – I’ll be able to draw on survey data from the state paper and its partisan top rival.
Until then I’ve got assignments (yay!). Tomorrow I’m covering a conference on disabilities that I came across all by myself, and then doing something with the business paper’s analyst. Then starting Thursday I’m going to bother Awudu while he attends parliamentary sessions and things, so that should be fun.
Health update: I’m still coughing enough to annoy everyone around me, but I feel mostly better otherwise.
Update from Day 15:
I’m writing this from the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT, where in fact I do not have a wireless internet connection. I think perhaps this is a bad sign for the center. The conference on culture and disability that I am attending nominally began 8 minutes ago, but I’m pretty sure I’m the only person here who is not setting up in some way. My commute was interesting again. I got a taxi instead of a tro-tro because there were people to share it with and no buses were coming my way. I had a nice conversation with a guy named Mark, who is an accountant here. It was a long trip, and towards the end he asked me if I was a Christian. I guess this is a pretty common thing to ask strangers. Mostly people have let me go when I told them that I was and tried to drop the subject, but Mark pressed me so I decided to tell him the truth. It was sort of entertaining, but definitely not something I should do very often. I got him rather riled up. He didn’t accept my explanation that I thought people should just be good and that would get them into heaven. Apparently I am now going to feature in his prayers, so that’s nice. My salvation is important.
People are slowly starting to filter in and I need to save my battery for the conference, so you get more on the day tomorrow.
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