We made it to Tamale around noon. We made better time than we have in the past because they patched all the pot holes; there were hundreds and hundreds of pot holes. The patches made the road rough but rough is better than pot holes.
We managed to get several things done this afternoon. We got the insurance on the vehicles and the liability on the Child Center; we went to the SSNIT office and what we were worried was going to be a big ordeal turned out to be an easy fix. We went to the bank but did not have all the information we needed so we will have to go back tomorrow; we dropped the paper work off at the accountant / auditor and will pick up the audit and sign the forms in 3 weeks. The accountant told us something that was very strange. He said that we are supposed to be deducting 5% of everything we purchase and turn it in at the end of the year. He said we were not supposed to pay it from our own pocket rather we were supposed to withhold 5% of the price from the person we were buying from. Please! We told him that no one would sell us anything. He said it was only if the purchase was over 500 Cedis. Still what a mess that is going to be! We asked him if we could just pay the 5 % ourselves and he said that would work too. The money is supposed to be put back in the seller account against their year end audit. Now really, let’s think about that one! That would mean we would have to ask everyone for their tax ID number in order to turn it in at the end of the year for it to actually get back to them. We already pay a 17.5% VAT tax on everything that we buy from a business.
They had to get a new condenser for the green truck’s air conditioner. We called just before dark to see if they had it finished; they said that they had it put back together and were putting the gas in it but they wanted to keep it overnight to make sure that there were no other leaks. We will take the newer van to them tomorrow and pick up the truck so we will have something to drive and do the rest of our errands.
While we were at the stationary store buying receipt books Steve picked up some office supplies for the Nurses and Midwives Council; he likes to do little things for them because they are the ones that renew his Ghanaian nurse’s license for him.
The Indian people that run the hotel we stay in were happy to see us. The lady in charge asked us why it had been so long since we had come to stay. We explained that we had been in the states for the holidays to which she replied, “You should have told me so you could have brought me a gift!” Ha!
Thank you for all your help!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
