We left the states in the afternoon on the 13th; we arrived in Ghana last night, the 14th. We had a very good flight. There were a few extra seats on the second leg of the flight on the 8 ½ hour trip from Atlanta to Paris. We were sitting on the left side of the plane in a group of 3 seats. The man that was sitting next to Steve moved to one of the vacant seats. We were very excited to have an extra seat to stretch out in. We were bumped up to economy comfort on the 6 ½ hour flight from Paris and those seats were on the bulk head so we had extra leg room. We actually got some sleep on this trip which was wonderful. We had lots of luggage, 9 large bags and 5 carry-on bags; all the luggage arrived safely.
We plan to fly to Tamale so when we arrived at the airport we did not have a driver and vehicle waiting on us. Steve called Bismarck; we rented a van and driver from him to pick us up at the airport and take us to the hotel. The driver, Daniel was mistaken about the time we were arriving so he was a little late picking us up. As we were exiting the airport parking lot the van had a flat tire. When Daniel and Steve started to put on the spare they found out that the spare was also flat. Fortunately for us we were still in the parking lot and not sitting on the side of the road in the dark. Daniel called a friend of his and he took the spare tire to a mechanic and had it fixed. By this time it was 7:30 and we were hungry. I found a small shop selling cokes and we opened a bag of chips I had in our luggage.
Last year the hotel that we usually stay in closed its doors. We have been staying there for years; the employees asked Steve if he would buy the hotel so they could keep their jobs. Isn’t it sweet that they think he could buy a hotel? The manager of the hotel has started managing an apartment building. Last time we stayed in Accra he rented us a room by the day. The place is nice and clean but has none of the amenities of a hotel; no breakfast; no restaurants nearby; no one to iron your clothes; no snack bar but the price was right so we decided to stay at the apartment again. The drain in the bathroom sink was plugged; I could see a red coke top stuck in the bottom of the drain. I bent a coat hanger and fished around in the drain until I got the coke top out. The drain is now draining. It was sort of “yucky” business but it is better than having water in the floor. “Must leave a place better than we find it!”
It was about 9:00 pm when we got to the apartment. Steve went out hunting and gathering and came back with beef kabobs, Ramen noodles cooked with canned mackerel and cabbage, bitter lemon soft drinks and a couple bottles of water. Quite the feast!
We slept well and got up early this morning so we could go to Koforidua so I could do some shopping. Koforidua is the village north of Accra that sells beads. We hired Bismarck to drive us to Koforidua. I just love “shopping”!
When we got back from Koforidua we hired a taxi to take us the office of the Ministry of Interior to pick up the quota for our resident visa. We were happy that we were able to get it this afternoon so we can fly to Tamale tomorrow. Red is going to pick us up at the airport tomorrow afternoon.
Thank you for all the prayers that have been offered up for our trip.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
