We were supposed to leave the mission house at 5:30 this morning. Mr. Iddrisu was to meet us at the house. He was a little bit late; Steve called him to make sure that he was awake. He said he was on his way. As soon as he got here, we jumped in the vehicles. I drove the red truck and Steve drove the van; Mr. Iddrisu and Timothy rode with Steve. I was halfway to Kulkpeni where we were going to pick up Timothy when Steve called and said that he just remembered that Mr. Iddrisu would need his prescription glasses to take his eye exam for his new driver’s license so they were backtracking to Mr. Iddrisu’s house. We met up at Timothy’s house. We were supposed to have the red truck at Japan Motors at 7:30; we were about 15 minutes late because ¾ of the way to Tamale I saw that Steve had his blinker on. We pulled over; someone in his car needed to stop and go to the bathroom!
After we dropped off the truck at Japan Motors to have it serviced, we headed to the eye doctors to have Mr. Iddrisu’s eye exam. He passed the test. We then went to the bank with Mr. Iddrisu and Timothy’s Ghana Cards to have their verifications done so they can continue to sign on the checking account. The network was up this morning and their computers were working. It only took about 20 minutes to take care of that problem. We needed to get money out of the bank but we did not want to have to carry it around all day so we decided to go back later. We were finished with Timothy so we gave him his transport and sent him back to Yendi on a bus.
Our next stop was the vehicle registration and licensing office. We dropped Mr. Iddrisu and told find out how much the license cost and we would come back and give him the money. We took the blue van back to the guy that tinted the windows last week; the tint was so dark you could not even see into the van if your face was pressed against the window; we knew the police would not like it being that dark and would try to fine so we decided to change it for a lighter color. After we dropped off the blue van we were on foot for a little while; it was hot but we decided to get our walking in anyway.
By this time, it was time for lunch so we went to the Lebanese / Indian restaurant and had a lovely lunch; well, I had a lovely lunch and Steve had a lovely salad, bread and dip; they forgot to put his order in. By the time we realized they were not bringing him his food we had finished eating so he cancelled the order. The girls were very apologetic; his vegetable rice had been cooked so we took that as a takeaway dish.
When we went back to the bank, the officer told us he was happy that we came back because he got a message from Ms. Lydia, the lady that is in charge of getting everything the bank needs to keep the account active, and she we had to have our ID and photos reverified because the verification they did last week did not work and had to be redone! Please! Give me strength! At least we were in Tamale and did not have to make another trip! We got back to the mission house about 4:30 this evening. We stopped to check on the work at Kulkpeni but the place was covered up with people! Kwabena, the night watchman that had a snake bite a few days ago, lost his older brother. The people were gathering to make plans for the funeral.
Thank you for all your help.
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
Today started out pretty awful because I saw the parents drive away early this morning! I was so excited when I saw them come back this afternoon; they did not have to stay overnight! I was starving when they got home. I drank a full bottle of milk /cereal without even coming up for air! I tried to eat some of Dad’s rice but it was weird; I like white rice but that rice was yellow and it had strange Indian seeds in it; it also had English peas, corn and carrots. I could not believe that Dad was really eating that stuff; I would smell my little potion of food and then jump in his lap; pull on his shirt so his head would come down and I could smell him to see what he really was eating! It was the same thing. I figured out that if I peeled the peas and corn, they were almost edible! I say almost; you should see the stuff I threw out on the floor; I just pretended that I was eating to make Dad happy! Dad always snacks on something before we go to bed; usually an apple or a tangerine; I am holding out for a better snack!
No More Indian Food; I am an American!
Love, Skeeter
