Well, who knew we would be making yet another trip to Tamale today? We did not even know until yesterday evening when I noticed that the insurance sticker had not been changed in the truck. Steve assured me that the insurance had already been bought and that the sticker was at the mission house. He was right but then we realized that our drivers’ licenses were going to expire on the 11th of May. We got up earlier than normal so we could leave the mission house by 7:00. We wanted to be there as soon as the motor vehicle office opened so we could beat the crowd. We got there in good time and only a couple people were in the office with us. It did not take them very long to put the renewal sticker on our licenses and we thought we were good for another 2 years. As we were leaving the office one of the managers stopped us and told us that all the drivers’ license all over Ghana were going to expire in December. What in the world? He went on to explain that they were going to a new system and the new licenses would be biometric. Everyone had until December to turn in the old license and get the new one. Please and you could not have told us that 10 minutes earlier before we paid to renew the old one? He said that if we had the money today we could go ahead and apply for the new license. Well, of course we wanted to get the new license and be done with this! Why would we want to come back for another day of torture? Ha! Getting the new license was more involved than renewing the old one. First we had to wait, then we had to go to room #7 and give our information to a man to fill out on the computer, next we were sent outside to make copies for the next station, then we had to go to the account room and pay for the new license, then we moved over to the eye screening lady, she let us pass because we had already taken the eye test when we renewed our old license an hour earlier, then we had to have a new picture taken, also our finger prints were taken and our signature. From there we were sent to see the “big man” in room 2. He printed out a temporary license for us and sent us back outside to make copies of the temporary license for their file, next we had to go back to the account room where we bought a sleeve to hold the temporary license and they gave us back our original license. We are to check back in a month to see if the new license is ready for us to pick up.
While we were in Tamale we went to the domestic airline office to buy tickets for our trip home next month. We never have bought them this early before but there is only one domestic airline flying in Ghana at the moment and the planes are pretty well full for every flight. Steve wanted to make sure we did not have to drive down to Accra to fly home. I personally prefer to drive so I can do more SHOPPING!
We got back to the mission house around 2:30. We stopped and gave the mechanic the money he needed to order a part for the van.
We got a nice shower this afternoon so it is much cooler. Take care and have a great day!
Oh! I almost forgot to tell you that both Amama and Zorash came back to work today but they were still short-handed in the Child Center today because Steve and I were out! Such is life!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
