We are at the hotel in Tamale. We came early this morning to do some business and to take the van to the air conditioning mechanic. We drove 2 vehicles so we would have one to run around in while the other one was being worked on. The mechanic called about three this afternoon after he had time to tear down the air conditioning unit. They even had to take down the headliner. He found that the condenser had several serious leaks. He had the condenser in an old bathtub of water with an air tank connected to it so he could show us how badly it was leaking. This condenser is on the bottom of the van and I guess these bad roads and deep pot holes did a number on the poor thing. He said that the compressor also had a leak that he could not fix. He is going to order a new condenser and a used compressor from Accra but it will not be here until Monday. We would have liked to have had a new compressor but it was more than double the price of the used one and the used compressor came with a 1 year guarantee but the new compressor came with a 1 day guarantee. How crazy is that; made us think that the new ones were some sort of “seconds” or something.
Today was the day we bought insurance for all the vehicles, motorcycle and motor king. We had to go to the insurance office 3 times and still we did not get all the paperwork and the stickers for the vehicles. At first their printers were not working and then their network went down. Steve got all but one of the receipts and we can pick up the policies and stickers next week when we come to get the van.
The auditor had the yearly audit for the Child Center finished and ready for us to sign. They will file it for us. We are happy to have that behind us for another year.
We went to the bank and got the payroll for the next few months and we stopped by to see the lawyer. We wanted to know if we could require the workers to have medical exams and HIV testing. He said we could make a policy that medical exams are required but we could not require HIV testing; it is an optional test in Ghana because of the stigma that surrounds the disease.
Steve got his Ghanaian nurse’s license renewed; then we went to one of the grocery stores and bought a few canned goods. One of the last stops we made was to go to the phone office and pay the phone bill.
The only thing that we did not get marked off our list was going to the Registrar General’s office and trying to get the registration that the Land Commission requires to finish getting the 50 year lease on the property in Yendi. We ran out of time but we will be back on Tuesday or Wednesday to pick up the van and the insurance paperwork so we will see him then.
Thanks for everything.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
