Pickup Truck

A truck is a truck. And in Dagaraland, in the Subsaharan desert full of colorful Ancestral rituals and in praise of the elemental world, the color of the truck is important. No blood-red trucks, ever. White is uplifting, pure celebration. And a Black Toyota Tacoma passes safely as our initial test to see how long a vehicle survives in the bush. The truck arrived in May 2021. After six months of waiting for the truck to arrive in Togo and further delays as the truck crossed into Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. At last, the Toyota Tacoma, garden generator, and tools arrived safely in the village! Hurrah!

Visiting Manoa, in October 2021, I was welcomed by one of Toure’s brothers dumping cloth bags full of metal car parts onto the ground. A clanging assortment of unrecognizable parts broke off the truck during the unprecedented summer rains. Each year, Monsoon rains hit hard, breaking through the banks of the Volta River; floods seeping into surrounding farmlands, pooling around villages, and pouring onto established pathways, dirt roads, and government neglected-pot-hole highways. I drove these roads and recognize with each bump, bounce and thud, how tough it is to keep vehicles running. The jarring roads test the life of the imported truck. Sand uplifts and sudden shadowy drop-offs, lead to sunken twists and turns. After 5 months of patiently waiting for the truck to arrive in Ougadougou, the Toyota Tacoma and generator and tools have arrived safely in the village! Hurrah!