By my watch, it is 15 and a half hours until we leave Lancaster for Accra, and I am writing this post balanced precariously on top of my suitcase in a vain attempt to close it shut over the vitally essential sarong and extra pair of shorts that I have attempted to cram into my bag…

We have a packed itinerary awaiting us over the next week, with trips to a museum, a castle, the beach, and a national park planned. As well as this we will attend a church service, university lectures, an inter-university debate, and a pineapple factory(!) I am, like many of the others, ridiculously excited, slightly nervous, and, as usual, desperately unprepared. Acquiring essentials for the trip has proved to be an interesting challenge on the tail end of my

Just one more, wafer thin, skirt…

student loan, and on seeing the price of suncream and deet insect repellent, I quite seriously had to consider selling a few of my less vital organs to fund these necessities. In the end I decided I would simply have to forsake the £15 factor 50 with added moisturiser and instead buy Boots’ last 2 bottles of extra-reduced children’s suncream for £2 on buy-one-get-one-free. Bargain – bring on the sunshine! For the past fortnight I have been collecting useful things for the trip and letting them accumulate in a mountainous heap on my bedroom floor.  With my suitcase at the ready I decided to tackle said pile, which, on removing one item, collapsed around me like a set of Jenga that primarily comprised underwear and After-Sun lotion. This was not a good start, and has acted as a greater incentive to leave the chaos that is my flat in Lancaster for our hotel in Ghana as soon as possible.

As time is running out, I shall end this post and attempt to excavate my passport from the museum of curiosities that my desk has become over the past term. I should probably attempt to brush up on my Twi phrases as well, as so far I only know ‘mɛto kubeh‘, which I am told means ‘I will buy a coconut’ …

Charlotte Davey