Fortunately, though I got lost again, I was close enough to her hall. I was furious, but satisfied I wasn’t far away from my location. So, I resorted to ordering another Uber ride. Yes, Uber again. I ordered the ride and fortunately the driver could locate me around the George Benneh circle. This time round, the GPS did its work, and he drove me to my destination, the Great John Mensah Sarbah Hall. Funnily, it would have taken me less than five minutes to walk from the George Benneh Circle to John Mensah Sarbah Hall.
JOHN MENSAH SARBAH HALL HERE I COME
You know that feeling of being out of place when you’re new to a place? Well, my first day at Sarbah Annex A did not feel like that at all. I felt very welcomed except for the usual I have to get used to this place feeling.
Having watched so many American college movies, I had expected the university dorms to look something like the ones in the movie, but I was in for a surprise. For starters, the block was a five-story building which apart from having chipped paint, had lost almost all its beautiful white paint thanks to the amount of times water had drained from mops (which students put on the balcony to dry) onto the walls of the block. The lines from the drained mops looked like a design on the wall. On the ground floor were various shops; a mini mart, a salon, a printing press, a bread boutique known as ‘Reggie Bens’ (they have the best bread I’ve tasted on campus), a tailor’s shop and a machine repair shop. They kept various items like shoes and mops on the balcony walls to dry. Once you enter the building, there were porters at the porters’ lodge to your the right and the TV room and reading room are to the left.
I walked into the building with so much confidence that the porters did not even realize that I did not belong there. I walked straight to the room because she had given me the room number. There were four legal members in the room with one ‘percher’ and I would be the sixth member of the room and the second ‘percher’. Apart from me, there was just one other fresher in the room and ‘fortunately’ we had one class together. For the sake of clarity, a percher on the University of Ghana campus is someone who is staying in a hall ‘illegally’. There was no TV in the room (unless you purchase one yourself or visit the TV room where there was a TV with a broken screen which I later on learnt was the handiwork of Vandals from the Commonwealth hall), no individual bathrooms, no kitchen (you’d have to use the balcony as the cooking space) and there was just one sink on the entire floor at the entrance of the bathroom; it was like Senior High School all over again, except with the freedom of using electronic gadgets and eating whatever I like. Plus, for a girl coming from an all girls’ school, this was an unfamiliar environment. The five-floor story building had only one ladies’ floor, the rest of the floors were for the males. Thankfully, the second floor that was the ladies’ floor (I really don’t enjoy climbing staircases).
I was fatigued from the long journey but I could not rest because there was an ongoing orientation and I still had to look for legal accommodation for myself. Having to choose between the orientation and finding accommodation was a simple decision. I looked for accommodation because:
1. I was tired of sitting down and I would not subject my butt to hours of torture again.
2. I detest feeling like I’m a burden on someone.
ACCOMMODATION SEARCH; DAY 1
One annoying thing about the University of Ghana is inadequate accommodation. Unlike other universities who make their freshers a priority and provide accommodation for them, the University of Ghana does not operate like that (note for freshers; make your securement of accommodation a priority when applying to the university else they’d admit you and you’d have nowhere to sleep). Getting accommodation in the university after missing the chance to get one online does not differ from a dog chasing its tail; both activities are ‘fruitless’.
We walked to the various halls on campus seeking for accommodation. All the halls turned us down. During those walks, I made some friends (freshers who were also looking for accommodation). After visiting most of the halls, I realized that a vast number of freshers had no accommodation. Some people, unlike me, knew no one on campus, hence they had to travel long distances to campus every day. One thing that marked the unavailability of beds apart from the signs posted on the doors was the long line of parents and students with frowns on their faces whenever we visited a hall. During this period, I realized the corrupt nature of our leaders. To get accommodation after the usual registration, you’d have to know someone who knows someone who also knows someone, or you’d have to be ready to pay extra fees either in cash or in kind (speaking from experience). It was just heartbreaking.
After realizing that if I wanted a place on campus, I’d have to pay extra fees, I decided that getting a hostel off campus was not a horrible idea. Unfortunately, because of their proximity to the campus, their owners made money off of students. It’s horrifying how heartless some people could be. Trying to make money off of other people’s predicament. Another problem was that getting a hostel close enough to campus during such times would have to involve an agent who would also have his own charges apart from the exorbitant prices that these hostels charged students during times of accommodation shortage. So, I resorted to getting a place off campus without the help of an agent since it would be the best thing to do despite it also being the most difficult. This is where the importance of connections comes into play.
After spending the rest of the day fruitlessly searching for a place and not liking any of the ones available because of the price or proximity issues, we came back to the hall exhausted. When we came back, I took a bath, ate and decided I was done for the day. There’s just so much stress a girl can endure in a day.
to be continued...
PLAYLIST
Photograph by Ed Sheeran
Memories by Maroon 5
Category: UG Escapades
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