We are in “culture shock” and after today who wouldn’t be? First thing this morning we took the truck to Gomda the mechanic to have the muffler repaired. Then Steve tried to load electric units on the prepaid electric meter and they would not load so we went back to town to put in a work order for the meter. The electric company sent a man out to the house to try to load the meter for us. He had no success but he tried to accuse us of stealing electricity because the little green sticky dots that cover the screws had fallen off. This is not the first time that they have fallen off. The last time they put them on they did not stay on a week. We told the guy we did not even know how to steal electricity. He said we could have paid someone to do it for us! Really! The electric company said that they had to give us a new meter and they would mount it on the pole coming into the mission house; it would still be a pre-paid meter. I asked them if they expected me to climb the pole to see how much electricity we had left on the meter. He said that they would give us a unit to mount on the house that is sort of like a cell phone. It has a chip and the units will be sent to the chip. They transferred the credit from the old meter to the new meter but they forgot to transfer the units off the card. When we went back to town to tell them they said the Yendi office could give credit; they would have to contact the Tamale office and we should come back at 3:00. When we got there at 3:00 the manager had left for the day and he has to sign off on the request. Maybe tomorrow! They also said that when they put in the new meter it would only be a single phase meter instead of the triple phase meter that we presently have. We like the triple phase because there are 3 lines coming into the house so if one line is down we can use another one. Steve had to bring the workers, wire, meter box and all their stuff to the house. As he was almost to the house the power steering pump blew up and sprayed power steering fluid all over. Then the van locked up and would not start. Steve called Gomda, the mechanic and when he finished with the truck he picked up the van. Gomda had just reworked the power steering pump yesterday so he was surprised it had a fault. He took the belt off to get it started.
On one of our trips to town Steve stopped at the bank to pay the withholding tax for the hotel/apartment that we stayed at in Accra. The bank said that he needed an invoice number and a total of the amount to be paid; not an itemized list! What! Where is their calculator? Steve went back to the IRS office and they told him to go to a different bank. After more than an hour of waiting he was able to get the thing paid so he took the payment back to the IRS office to get the receipt and the lady that writes the receipts had left the office.
Gomda rebuilt the power steering pump and after we picked up the van Steve went back to the IRS office and was able to pick up the receipt!
Now you know why we are in “culture shock”! Ha!
Enough of the complaining! Thank you for all you do for us! Please keep us in your prayers! We need them!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
