Episode 1 | WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?

First week in the University-not just any university, the University of Ghana-has got to be fun, right?

This write-up is about my experiences in the university but let me give you a little background.

Drum-roll please…

I’m Selorme. I completed Senior High School (OLA Senior High School) not so long ago. I was enjoying my three months at home when my elder brother ‘heroically’ gave my dad a call that changed my life. In short, my brother was the reason I packed my belongings and started my journey from my comfortable abode to the premier and largest university in the country. Now let’s move to the story.

Drum-roll please…

After my brother had made the life-changing call to my dad telling him about the fact that the University had opened up for freshers, my dad decided it was time for me to leave home. In fact, he had already made my brother pay my academic fees for me, so I had no say in the entire non-existent ‘discussion’. So, being the heroine I am, with no guarantee of ‘legal’ accommodation, I took up travelling to the Greater Accra Region in my quest to attain a higher education. Because I had no legal accommodation, my brother planned with a friend of his for me to ‘stay’ with her while I searched for my place.

On a beautiful Wednesday morning, I started my journey to Accra. Sitting in a bus for a straight four and a half hours on a road dotted with man-hole-like potholes should have made me aware of the fact that University would not be rosy at all. The only good thing about this travel was that I was ‘wise’ enough to not carry all my belongings to campus as if mom had kicked me out of the house (I carried only my pink and white dotted traveling bag and a one-hand, African print school bag). After enduring the pain of sitting for a straight four and a half hours (my butt and my legs really hurt) and finally arriving in the Greater Accra region, the driver drove the bus to the Tema station where I alighted. Thanks to my photographic memory which had captured my one-time visit to the station from about two years ago, I found my way to the bus station where I board a trotro which was going to Madina. While in the car, I spoke to my brother’s friend, and she said I should alight at ‘Legon second’.

FINDING ‘LEGON SECOND’

This was the excruciating part. How on earth was I supposed to find ‘Legon second’ when all the times I had visited UG campus I was in a bus that drove us straight to our destination on campus and picked us up right after the event we came for?

Finding ‘Legon second’ was like finding a needle in a haystack. While in the trotro, a lady alighted at ‘Legon first’ (which was the first bus stop on the University of Ghana overhead) but since I was looking for ‘Legon second’, I sat in there looking to no one in particular for help. And oh, have I told you of my pitiable minimal Twi speaking ability? So here I was in a bus full of people who spoke a language I was now learning. I sat silently in there till the driver drove to ‘Zongo’ junction (I recently learnt that’s what they call the place). While sweating under the blazing sun with my luggage after alighting, I tried ordering an Uber. After innumerable attempts to describe my location to the Uber driver, guess what? The Uber driver also got lost.

Despite the in-depth description I gave to the Uber driver, he just couldn’t figure out where exactly I was and the GPS was of no help. So, I cancelled the ride. Under the blazing sun, sweating like a pregnant hyena, I sought another solution to my predicament.

NOTE; do not let any taxi driver in Accra deceive you and take exorbitant amounts of money from you for a journey you could have easily completed on foot.

I was just standing there wondering what to do next when this taxi driver approached me. He asked where I was trying to go and I told him. The words he spoke afterwards, the supposed fare for the journey, were just preposterous. Having paid less than GHC3.00 from Accra Central to Madina, paying this driver over GHC10.00 for a ride from Zongo Junction to ‘Legon second’ was the last thing I wanted to do and coming from a place where bus fares were higher that taxi fares did not help at all. After a few minutes of exercising my bargaining power, the taxi driver refused to drive me to ‘Legon Second’ at a fare lower than GHC12.00 and I refused to pay any amount higher than GHC10.00. well, luck was on my side because there was another driver around who had witnessed my ordeal and willed take the fare I proposed. He saved me at last. I told the driver I would alight at ‘Legon Second’ and we began the journey.

Do you know the sad thing about not knowing your destination while travelling? Anyone can be drive you anywhere. Just like if you don’t know your purpose in life, anybody could just drag you wherever they are going. Anyway, the driver drove to the Okponglo gate of the University and told me we were at my destination. I paid him and alighted. I called the one I had to stay with and she said I was at the wrong location.

​

to be continued...

GLOSSARY

Trotro - a public transport bus that carries people from one location to the other and charges fares arbitrarily based on the length of travel.

PLAYLIST

Supermarket flowers by Ed Sheeran

Halo by Beyonce