I am typing this in the Guestline Lodge in Kumasi, Ghana. I have a good size room with my own bathroom, sink and most excitingly, a fridge and kettle. This means tea. Nothing says Brit abroad like a man desperately hunting through a supermarket for milk and overpriced Typhoo.

I should probably explain how I got here. I will do the why in a day or two once I have caught up with myself. I should have been here a week ago but I made a mistake born of optimism. I believed the visa application timing information and forgot about the double bank holidays. Either one of these would have delayed my trip. Both made the rescheduling an act of faith. I rang the Ghana high commission daily to get some help, but in vain. Helpful people don't work in visa processing. Actually that's not quite true. On Wednesday I final rang a helpful and friendly lady and like that the visa was granted and dispatched. In the end the visa arrived 1 hour before I had to decide whether to change the flight again. With this resolved I rang my hotel to confirm the booking to be told they had never heard of me. The internal flight was confirmed the evening before I left and I had no information about my accommodation in Kumasi. In short the whole thing felt a little seat of the pants, but maybe that's what international travel is like. I haven't often experienced it to make a generalisation.

The whole trip has felt like a succession of tiny blessings, being upgraded on the flight; meeting a man in the hotel transport who has written papers on housing in Kumasi (V relevant to my thesis) and getting his contact number; being able to contact the organisation in Kumasi at 4am to arrange transport to the lodge; getting an email from Claire at the hotel. In short I can say God is with me and I am reassured that as I sit feeling a little lonely in a strange city I know that I am not alone.

Maybe I'm just tired, but I would like to say that I am missing you all and that without your support I could not do this. I should also say that I'm happy to be here and I am excited about what we can do in the next 6 weeks. More about why I am here next time.