My African Voice

Christmas Eve

Doesn't feel like it.

No snow.

No cold weather.

No fire hazards hanging from houses nearby.

Same old Accra.

Today, I put my new bike to the test... again. I woke up at 6am. Went to photocopy my registration and insurance information, just in case I get pulled over by the police. It has happened once on my way to Ada, but not since then. However, some people at the house have been pulled over lately on their way to Accra Central... probably cuz their black. Haha. Everybody's black though.

After making the copies, I tried to go to the Liberian embassy with no luck. It's closed for the holidays. So no Liberia in December. Think I'll make it in February after the Esoko launch.

Then it was off to Accra Central to meet up with someone I haven't seen in a few weeks. Then back home. Then breaking the law (as always) driving down the wrong way to get to GCB Tower to pick up a friend. Back to the house. Then to the mall to get some food and... unfortunately, not on the bike. Then back home. Then to the entrance to Accra from Kumasi to drop my friend off.

That was the weird part. There, the roads are dusty, so they water it. Yeah. Water it. Great, so I dont ride a jungle bike (dirt, multi-sport, enduro, etc. bike) anymore. I got a street / sports bike. Lucky for me, am cautious! I see the mukky mud and I think "I'm gonna slip" so I drive really slow. I still slip. This was pretty freaky. I'm driving in the dark dark with a new bike riding in first with my feet pretty much on the ground, walking the bike with a little force from the throttle. And the back wheel is slipping to the left and right. I think twice I felt the bike kinda drop, but it's low enough and I was prepared and my feet were down. So I kind of held it from slipping under me... the bike's really heavy though.

However, I survived. I just decided to break the law again and ride on the wrong side of the road where they didn't put water down to keep the dust from spreading. My options were, risk getting hit by extremely slow moving traffic filled with big trucks and buses and crazy tro tro drivers who should be able to see me coming .... OR .... risk skidding in the mud, destroying my new bike, getting completely dirty, and probably getting run over by big trucks and busses and crazy tro tro drivers who should be able to see me going.

Either way, I got home. Finally. And started writing this post. Although, my shoes are muddy as ever and my jeans are dirty and my t-shirt is dirty and my bike has some mud on it.

So tomorrow is Christmas. Will have to call family, friends, enemies, and the like. But it won't feel like normal Christmas. So perhaps I'll make it even less normal and do somethings I have not done on Christmas lately... like play some basketball, go to the beach, go to Church, and maybe, just maybe, get myself in trouble.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Kawasaki Ninja

No more jungle bikes... that's the new slogan.

Why? Well, I don't see the purpose. I almost always ride on paved roads. Even if its not paved, it's fine if I drive slow. And well, the bikes all erode after a while here. A jungle bike with bad shocks is just as bad off-road as a street bike. A jungle bike with bad balance is horrible because the wheels are smaller, the bike is higher off ground, and the steering gets horrible... oh, and by the way, a "jungle bike" is African for off-road or dual-sports bikes.

Anyways, I bought this Yamaha Serow 225 from my colleague a few months back and overtime it has just not impressed me. First, these jungle bikes are not really stylish. I mean, when you park it, nobody cares. Also, after dropping it a couple times, taking it to the mechanic, and so forth, I was really sick of the balance and stability... or more so, the lack thereof. I think the final nail in the coffin was that it was costing me too much. I fixed the brakes, clutch disk, seat, speedometer, and so on. And I had to fix the shocks soon. So, I figured it was in need of retiring. Or selling off.

So I go to this place to buy motorcycles. Its basically an area in Accra where the motorcycles are all lined up along the road. Like a market, but for motorcycles, mopeds, and bicycles. You walk down and ask the price and maybe test drive. I had heard stories from some people. My tech director, for example, said he got lucky. He walked down with his mechanic and spotted a motorcycle and the mechanic said he should buy it right away... my story is somewhat similar.

So I tried to get my mechanic to go with me, but I forgot to call him. Instead, I got the gardener at the house to go with me. He sometimes fixes my bike and knows a lot more about bikes then I do. I also earlier, while back in the US, from the store I bought my helmet from, I asked the sales guy to give me some shopping tips. How to test if the bike is crap or not. Because one thing is sure, they wash the bike and make it look great. But it can be crap under the shine... as was the case with the bicycle I bought from the same place, which fell apart (literally) within one day of me riding it. The gears fell off, the plastic fell off, and the teeth for the chain proved to be dull and useless. I just wasted 220 cedis. And now I have "borrowed" it to the security guard for free to use whenever... it's now so useless to me I just gave it away. Hopefully he pays for it overtime, probably will charge 140 cedis. Mainly because it looks really really good.

But back to the topic. Edmund, the gardner is a good person to go with. I trust him. He usually takes my bike to and from the mechanic he recommended to me. He also works at the house and the company, so he's easy to find. So we go shopping.

We get there and start looking. I start to smile. It's so awesome shopping for bikes. We were supposed to go on Saturday, but I had the Bar Camp Ghana 2010 program. So we went today. We look all around. Some bikes are not so bad, they say 2800 cedis for this nice Honda. I sit on it, it feels good. Seems the be the best one after looking all around.

So, first, what was I looking for? Well, I wanted a street bike... remember? No more jungle bikes. Also wanted one that was mostly upright. No lean-over crouch positioning for me. I want to see the traffic in Accra... it's pretty bad and the driving is even worse. I wanted something a bit lower to the ground. Something that looked nice. Something heavy, bigger than the dumb jungle bike I had. Something faster as well. Not really crazy fast, but fast so I can get up to speed in traffic. Something that was reasonably new-ish... that worked... that didn't require so much fixing. Like, I am so annoyed by having to fix the speedometer on the Serow all the time. Something I can put a girl on and not feel like crap for it. Something that just felt "right" when I got on it.

The Honda was that something. All the other bikes I tried just didn't feel that great. Or were too expensive. All sorts of bikes were there. Touring bikes. Cruisers. Engine capacities up to thousands of cc... Then we reached near the end and cycled to the other side. Finally, as we're ending to turn back and check out the Honda again, I see this black bike on the other side. It's a sports bike. I wonder if it's a crouch position.

Two days later, it was my bike!

Update:

I do see some purpose now. After riding in muddy road and nearly slipping with my sports bike. But, well, I'll never ride through muddy road again. Done.

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Back to Life

After a long @$$ break... am back!

Sure, I don't really have an audience, but who the crap cares. There's a lot of posts left in the pipeline that I'll upload in a few, along with a much needed theme change so that I actually get indexed by Google. But for a quick update:

• Went back to the US after my 2009 trip
• Finished my job at XC, but was kept on contract for periodic work
• Travelled back to Ghana in February 2010
• Began work at BusyLab on the Esoko application
• Have been here for about 3 months now

Oh, and there are soooo many stories to tell. Gotta start filling this blog in!

1 Comment

On the Plane to Ghana

10AM:
I gotta remember not to sit by the window for these long flights because the pressure may be greater here or something. It already is bothering me... Or maybe we're moving really faaaaaast...

11AM:
The guy I sat next to on the flight to Amsterdam was so frigging annoying! Oh my goodness! The guy sitting next to me right now on my trip to Ghana is no better. He's watching 101 dalmations... Hahahahaha!!!

11:15AM
Am starting to wonder if I can really live in Ghana given that people will annoy me soooo much. Not everybody, but many many African men will.

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