We had to go to Tamale today to go to the bank. The building project drained all the resources we had at the mission house. We took advantage of this unexpected trip to Tamale and stopped by the Social Welfare office to buy the form we have to turn in with the annual report for the renewal of the Child Center’s license. The funny thing is we already have the form. We have made multiple copies of the form. It is not on any special letter head or watermarked paper. No one cares that we use the copy we made; we just have to go through the formality of purchasing a copy every year. They don’t want to lose out on the sale of the form. After we bought the form we went to the bank. We were so happy that this year they let us go to our own bank to get the bank draft. Getting the bank draft was a whole process. The bank manager could not find the form, yes another form to fill out! He hunted through all the papers in his desk and then had to ask 2 people where the form was; obviously they do not do many bank drafts. While Steve was getting the bank draft I sat in line for far too long to cash the check. It took Steve longer to get the bank draft than it did for me to cash the check so instead of waiting in the bank I went down the street to see if I could find plastic containers for the diaper rash ointment that we give the mothers. I was lucky and found the containers but the shop girls were not able to find the lids. I told them that we would be back next week and I would check back to see if they found the lids. When I got back to the bank the bank teller was deep in conversation with Steve; the computer rejected my signature so I had to sign the check again under his watchful eye. This is not the first time my signature has been rejected. Now where is the element of person to person contact? Steve and I have been cashing checks at this bank for over 20 years. There are not that many Americans that do business at this bank; everyone in the bank knows our names and greets us warmly when we walk in.
When we came out of the bank Steve noticed that one of the windows in the truck cap was trying to fall out. The cap is fiberglass and when they put the windows in they did not seal around the windows; they used a couple screws which had broken loose; imagine something breaking loose on these rough roads! We went to Japan Motors and had them take a look at it; they said that we could make an appointment and bring it in for them to work on. Steve was afraid it would fall out on the way back to Yendi so he bought RTV and tape and did the repair job himself. The windows have always leaked and now we know why.
We had a very nice lunch at a Lebanese run restaurant before we headed back to Yendi. They are doing lots of construction on the road from Yendi to Tamale so we did not make very good time but we got back to Yendi before dark!
Please keep praying for us!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
