Okay I need to preface this story with I wasn't actually there. I was invited to come along with Kym and Lauren to go fabric shopping but I had a class and couldn't go. So Lauren and Kym came back to tell us this harrowing tale. But I am going to tell it in the royal "we", as if I went with them, because it's so much better that way...
So yesterday we wanted to go fabric shopping... There are two places that are normally good for this - Medina and Makola Market. Medina has a smaller selection but isn't as scary as Makola. But we decided to go to Makola. So we get on a tro-tro and everything's dandy. Then after 15 or so minutes... something starts happening. Everyone in the tro-tro starts talking loudly in Twi and a woman two rows ahead of us looks frantic - like she's going to be sick. Everything is so loud that we can't ask anyone around us what is going on. Then, suddenly, a passenger in the very front seat jumps out of the tro-tro and into traffic. We're stopped at a traffic light, thank god! But he runs darting through cars yelling at the top of his lungs in Twi. He runs so far ahead of our tro-tro that we can't even see him any more... He runs back to our tro-tro and jumps in. As soon as he does, the light turns green. Just as the red light switched off... I don't even think the green light had turned on yet - the tro-tro rips out of traffic and begins swerving around cars and other tro-tros and all of traffic. The driver begins yelling out his window for people to let him pass and he whips around the corner, putting pedal to the metal.
Mind you, we still have no idea what is going on.
So we're speeding down Accra roads at what had to have been 60 mph. If you've ever been to Ghana you'd know that this speed is almost impossible to achieve because of ridiculous traffic and even more ridiculous road conditions. But they did acheive it. Finally (I say finally as if this all didn't occur within the span of 2 minutes) we pull up to the hospital. The woman two rows ahead who began this whole ruckus quickly gets out of the tro-tro. She stops with a terrified look on her face and begins to squat. Is she doing what I think she's doing? Yes. Yes she is. She's. having. a. baby. Yes, that's right. And she's having it RIGHT NOW. Another woman in the tro-tro realized the true direness of the situation when she saw the head. So suddenly all of the women sprung into action - taking off their head wraps and their baby fabric (the fabric you tie around yourself to strap the baby to your back) and begin shielding this woman as she starts to give birth just outside of the entrance to the hospital. I'm talking 20 feet from the hospital door. They stand around her with this fabric to cover her from the obvious crowd of people that has begun to form. And after a minute or so, someone comes out of the hospital with a stretcher to collect her and bring her inside. Thankfully, she had the baby within minutes of taking her in, instead of in the parking lot of the hospital where it looked like she would.
And after a minute or two of silent reflection on whether or not that really happened... we went on our merry way once again.
Now tell me that is not the best Ghana story so far.
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