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The idea to go to Ghana to buy beads had been buzzing around in the back of my mind for some time but it was a chance remark at an exhibition of my partner's work that started the ball rolling. I mentioned to two friends how much I wanted to go to West Africa but was nervous about going alone. David, who'd traveled the world in his 40's then stayed at home to care for his invalid mother for 20 years immediately volunteered to accompany me. We spoke no more about it on that occasion as I thought he was just being polite but the next time that we met Ghana was the main topic of conversation and I could see that David was really serious about coming with me.

The next year saw many disruptions to my life; my father was diagnosed with cancer and I was needed to help with his care. In June 2004 he died and I went back home to pick up the pieces of the jewelery business I'd started the year before. Going to Africa seemed like an impossible dream and I wrote to David to tell him so. Luckily he changed my mind for me and we decided we would fly to Accra in January: A good time to go as it would be the dry season.Easier to get about and fewer mosquitos.
We flew British Airways from the UK arriving in Accra around 9pm it seemed to take forever to get through passport control but eventually we emerged into the African night. Our adventure was about to begin!

Nothing can prepare you for your first site of Africa. The smells, the heat, the noise are all totally unique to that continent. Thankfully these are not things you will experience in London or New York. We were lucky with our choice of guest-house, which by our standards was very basic but by standards in Ghana was luxurious. All I really cared about was a shower the fact that only cold water was available was immaterial. We arrived tired and hot and after an endless crawl in the taxi through the suburbs and were grateful to get under the shower and sink into our beds.

The next day we'd decided to try to see the 2 markets at Kaneshie and Markola having no idea of the scale of a market in this part of the world.
Despite the haze caused by the Harmattan blowing sand in from the Sahara Desert we were walking in intense heat and humidity The roads have open sewers which every so often we needed to jump across and crowds of African traders loaded with goods bumped and pushed. After 30 mins of this exhaustion set in. We did reach the outskirts of Markola but were unable to find a way in. Not a very good start to our trip.

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