At the end of each day teachers on our teacher training programme share stories with their class to bring the day to a close, and a popular choice with the teachers and children alike is the Tro Tro story. This is a traditional Ghanaian tale about three friends and their journey on a tro tro (bus) to the local market. As the teacher tells the story they also act it out, which helps to bring the story to life for the children and also offers more opportunities to role play and immerse themselves in the tale.

“Once upon a time there lived three very good friends in a village called Pokore.

Pokore was a farming village and it was surrounded by many rivers. People living in the village could only travel out if it by road during the dry season. When the rainy season was gradually setting in, the three friends decided to go to the town market to buy their soup ingredients ready for the rainy season.

These three friends were Mr Pig, Mr Goat and Mr Dog. The night before market day, they did all the preparations that they needed to do before they left for the market. The following day they left for the next village to get a tro tro to the market.

The three friends boarded the same tro tro and as they were drawing closer to the market the driver asked for payment of their fares.  Mr Pig was the first to pay and he paid his full fare.

Mr Dog did not have the exact amount of money to pay.  So he paid more than his fare and waited to get his change from the driver.

All that while Mr Goat had no money on him and kept quiet about his plan to get off the tro tro without paying his fare. The market was just by the roadside and when they got there, before the driver could step on his breaks to stop for them to get off, Mr Goat jumped through the window and sped off.  Mr Pig got down slowly and gently walked away and the moment Mr Dog got off the driver took off without giving him his change.

This explains the reasons why pigs do not bother themselves about vehicles when they are crossing the road, dogs chase after vehicles and goats run away from vehicles.”