I have a headache! This place gives me a headache and makes my eye twitch! Can you tell I am a little “culture shocky”? (I don’t even think “shocky” is a word; I think that I will add it to the dictionary. We have spent hours today in offices! We had to go and come, go and get another document, go and type up another letter; the paperwork is ridiculous. This morning we called the bank to find out if we could open a joint saving account with several names on it; No. If there were more than 2 signers we had to open a “group” account. If you make a joint account you have to write a letter to open the account, make up a group name for the account, write up a constitution for the group, provide 2 passport photos for each of the signers, bring voter ID’s for all the signers, and have someone that knows the signers stand as character witnesses to them. Please all that for a savings account! We need the account so Mr. Iddrisu won’t have excess money in the safe in his office. You know there is a Corona Pandemic going on and all this going and coming in and out of crowded office buildings is crazy. By the end of the day we were able to get the savings account set up but we were not able to deposit any money into the account because the bank closed while we were at the GRA office trying to get that Tax Clearance Certificate.
The GRA office called Steve this morning while we were waiting to get the passport pictures made and told him that the network had finally come back on and the Tax ID Number had been printed. He said that we had to come to the office and talk to the “big man”. He said it should only take about 10 minutes and we would have the Certificate. Well, 10 minutes ran into an hour because the manager wants us to register the elders at West Hobbs Street as a business. They just could not understand how the elders came to own the land. We explained that it was “willed” to them when my parents, Royce and Cindy Reynolds died. I begged him to help us figure out a way so we did not have to register; he was pretty firm in his decision. He then said he did not like the letter head we used because it only had an American address. We had to come back and make a new letterhead and resubmit the application letter. We are supposed to go back tomorrow with the new documents.
Nana Bekum, the evangelist from the Chereponi district, came for a visit this morning. He rode for several hours to get here. He just wanted to come and greet us, bring us some yams, and check on us and Mr. Iddrisu after the robbery. Isn’t that sweet? He stayed and visited for a while. The people here are so good to us.
Please keep us in your prayers.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
