Trouble Magnet

In the past few days, I've been steps away from trouble more times than coincidence.

On Monday, some guy had stopped me on the street to chat just outside of B's place.  As I was talking to him, a car rear-ended a truck behind my back.

Yesterday I checked out the Koala grocery store, and the woman in front of me in line got into some kind of trouble.  When I listened in, the owner was telling her to call someone, and that she had broken the law, and he was getting a police officer.  Then the police officer came in and told her to come with him, but she said she hadn't known what she did was illegal and she wanted to stay and talk here.  She retreated into the store, and the officer came in after her 10 seconds later.  I didn't want to be around to find out what had happened.

Then, in the taxi going home from the store, the driver was pulled over for a random check of his license.  All was well, but it still made me uneasy!

Last night I went to check out an amateur choir, as I mentioned briefly in the last post.  I got a taxi and asked for the Goethe Institut, which the driver didn't know at all.  And though it's marked in the right place on Google Maps, a search of the map on my phone put it half a mile away!  It's right next door to NAFTI, the National Film and Television Institute, which map search has a mile in the wrong direction in central Accra.  Again, if you're not searching for the place by name but just browsing the map, the marker shows up in the correct place.  Of course the driver knew NAFTI but hadn't a clue where Goethe, directly next door, was.
Lesson learned, friends: don't always trust maps.  Not even Google ones.

As for the choir, it's small, predominantly but not totally made up of expats, and definitely amateur.  I don't know if anyone has ever mentioned "blending" to this group.  Still, they sing a good mix of classical, pop, art and African stuff, and I'm really excited to start singing again.  Everyone is friendly and high-spirited.  Just one month till I'm back in town for another rehearsal!