We have done nothing productive today! It has been raining all day. If you remember our friend Mr. Shaibu Adams needed to change Cedis into dollars to pay his son’s university fees; he tried but he could not find the dollars because there are very few tourists coming to Ghana because of the Covid pandemic. Since we could not legally give him dollars in exchange for his Cedis we decided to go to “Plan B”. We took Mr. Adams, his Cedis and our dollars to the FOREX (foreign exchange Bureau) in Tamale. We sold our dollars to the FOREX for Cedis and immediately after our transaction he bought the dollars back. We got a receipt for the exchange. It all seems like a lot of trouble but it was the only legal way we could figure out to get Mr. Adams the dollars he needed. Of course the transaction cost us because we do not get as good of an exchange rate in Tamale as we do in Accra and we had to pay for the diesel to drive to Tamale and back plus it wasted the whole day. But at the end of it all we helped a friend and besides “it is never wrong to do the right thing!”
It rained all day long; it is still raining. There was serious flooding on the streets in Tamale. We saw one filling station that cars were stranded in; the water was up to their floor boards. The fire service truck was there because evidently the water flooded the fuel tanks because when we drove by the smell of gas was very strong. One man was walking through the water to get to his shop; the water was up to his mid-thigh.
Red also called to let us know that he needed more paint for the tables he is making but he could not find the exact color that we had chosen. On our way into Yendi we stopped at the hardware store and bought a couple gallons. Then we dropped them off at his house.
We met Abinata, John Kanbonja’s widow on the way; she has HIV and was sick with a cough. She had been to the clinic that is near the mission house but her health insurance had expired. We gave her money to pay the clinic fee plus the money to renew her health insurance and the health insurance of her youngest son Michael. Because it was raining Steve also gave her the money to hire a vehicle to take her back to her house. She usually walks the 5 miles from Yendi to Kulkpeni but he did not think that it would be good for her to have to walk in the rain when she was already sick.
We appreciate all the prayers, love and support.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
