Night Run Adventure

As most of my friends will tell you, I like to climb things. I’m always on the lookout for sweet buildings that look challenging or interesting to climb. So tonight when I began my run out of Legon Hall Annex A and saw a small bus with a ladder down the back slowing down at a speed bump, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
I ran up to the back of the bus as it sped up over the “rubble strip” and jumped onto the bumper as I got a hold of the middle rung of the ladder. I hung out for a while on the ladder and then made my way up to the roof. I had to lie down fairly regularly, both to dodge low hanging branches and avoid the guard with a flashlight as we exited campus and swung onto the main road. We were picking up speed now and headlights from behind me were quickly making my position aware to everyone around.
When I realized that the bus was not going anywhere but further away from campus, I proceeded to climb back down the ladder and into the back left window, which was conveniently open. I went down the aisle of the empty bus and asked the guy, sitting shotgun where he was going and he said something that did not sound familiar. The driver then looked at me and yelled something about coming on the back of the bus so as he slowed down the bus I hopped out the window I had come and into the bustling city streets of Accra.
With headlights approaching rapidly, I quickly hopped the tall fenced median and jogged back in the direction of campus until I got to a stoplight that had just turned green. I hopped the median and then quickly into the back of a green pickup as it sped up from the traffic light. A woman in the car next to the truck tried to signal the driver, but I slunk down and got close to the cab so he couldn’t easily see me. Once the driver missed my turn off I hopped out at the next speed bump and began running in the direction I knew campus was.
Eventually the streets darkened and I reached a creek bed. Normally I wouldn’t be as cautious, but the distinct smell of feces wafting up from the darkness beneath me in Ghana meant that this was probably the local public shitting grounds. After carefully stepping across stones in the water and scaling a small cliff, I reached a nicer residential area and resumed running. I passed the “Hotel Obama” and I knew that I was close. The run back through campus felt triumphant though long and for good measure when I got back to the dorms I had to climb up the back railings to my fifth floor room. The cold bucket shower was so satisfying after a long adventure and I couldn’t help but think how sometimes getting a little lost is half the journey.