We are still in Tamale! We are not all that happy to be here but here we are all the same! As we were leaving the hotel this morning Belvin, the Indian manager, met us. He knew about the trouble we were having getting a bank draft yesterday; as soon as his bank opened this morning he called and asked if we could come to the bank and buy a bank draft without having an account with them. The bank manager assured him that we would have no problem getting one. We were so excited! Belvin told us the name of the manager that he talked to. We had no problem buying the bank draft but when the teller tried to print out the check his printer failed. He tried and tried to get it to work. We sat in the bank for over an hour before the teller gave up and had Steve resubmit everything and start over. The second time the printer worked and we got the bank draft. We rushed to the Social Welfare department and submitted the forms. The Social Welfare officer looked over all our forms and did not find anything extra that we needed. We paid for the processing fee and headed over to check on the van at the air condition shop.
We got bad news from the repair man. He said that he found a leak in the condenser. He called someone to weld it but he did not think he could get the weld to hold. When Isaac, the A/C repair man found the problem he knew he was going to have to order one from Accra so he took the van to the guys that were going to tint the windows so they could get started on that job. The part for the van is supposed to arrive on the bus from Accra tonight and he is going to reassemble the van tomorrow and hopefully he will be finished by noon.
Later this afternoon we went to the shop to check on the window tinting. The windows are darker than we expected them to be but it is what it is. I guess if we want to take a picture, we will have to open the window to do it. The good part about the darker tint is that it will be more difficult for the children to look in the window and holler, “Seminga, Seminga!” which means “White man”! Ha! We must look for the silver linings! Isaac, the a/c guy ,volunteered to drive the van to Yendi tomorrow after he finished working on it; that is sweet but we declined the offer because if something happens to the van or he has an accident we do not want to be responsible for it. We decided to spend one more night in Tamale. We tried a different hotel tonight but the air conditioning in the room is not able to cool the room. Fortunately, there is a floor fan in the room so at least the air is moving. The bed is softer! Another silver lining!
Take care and enjoy your weekend!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
