Driving in Africa is pretty much a free-for-all. The rule of the road is: size matters. Ten of us from the ship were coming home last night in a tro-tro (small bus) from a weekend getaway in Cape Coast. Our driver pulled into the other lane to pass a car, which turned out to be six cars. All of a sudden there was a big truck coming straight at us, so he swerved back into our lane, cutting one car off, very nearly rear-ending another tro-tro, and sending us towards the ditch on the side of the road. He then over-corrected and we swerved back across both lanes of traffic, then back towards the ditch again, this time we were up on our two right tires. It all happened so fast and it's mostly a blur, but I clearly remember looking at the two people on my right thinking they're going to get hurt when I land on them and saying a quick little "Oh Jesus" prayer. We bounced back onto our left tires, rattled and spun around a little more and finally came to a stop on all four. Then we quickly closed all our windows as all the people from the surrounding cars got out to yell at our driver. We were a little shaken but relieved. It could have been bad...big ditch, big windows, leaking engine, night time in the country in Africa. The rest of the weekend wasn't nearly as exciting, but it was very good. We went to a 500 year old slave trade castle. It was fascinating and disturbing. We walked through a rainforest and over top of it on rope bridges. And we stayed at a beautiful resort on the beach. Except for the ride home it was a lovely weekend.
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