We were so excited when we finally saw the documents we have been trying to get for the past year and eight months! We scoured the documents to make sure that all the mistakes had been corrected and that the men were listed as Americans. We were grinning from ear to ear when we realized that the documents were actually correct this time! We only had the documents in our hands for a few minutes when the guy that has been helping / hindering us asked if we had a gift for them because of all the hard work they had put in on getting the documents corrected. Can you believe having the gall to ask for a gift after all the mistakes and the wasted time?
Our joy in receiving the documents was short lived when we got to Yendi and tried to get the Tax Clearance form from the Ghana Revenue office in Yendi (sort of like IRS). We thought we would just show them the license and they would print out the Tax Clearance form but no such luck. They said that because it was a new organization they would have to open a new file and they would require all sorts of information about the organization and the owners. Please! After several phone calls and 2 trips to the Revenue office we think we have been able to gather the information they need to proceed. Steve will take it to them tomorrow morningbut we are not sure how long it will take to get the Tax Clearance. Since the organization is new and there has been no activity we can’t see what they have to check. Once we have the Tax Clearance certificate we will have to make yet another trip to Tamale.
While we were in Tamale this morning we bought a few more rolls of razor wire to be able to completely close in all the walls around the mission property. We also dropped off the documents that the social security office needed on the workers. They are updating all their files with the employees’ new Ghana Identification cards. We also ran down another sewing machine repair shop trying to find the belt that Timothy needs for his sewing machine. We did not have any luck. The mechanic said that type belt was hard to find in Ghana and that our best bet was to look in Accra. Of course we have no idea where a sewing machine shop is in Accra. We will look on the internet when we get home and see if we can find one for him.
Tichak the night watchman is sick; he said that he thinks he has malaria. He took an advance on his salary so he could go to the pharmacy and buy medicine. Of course he could get tested to find out for sure but that is obviously not what he wants to do.
We appreciate all you do for us and for the work.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
