Mr. Iddrisu forgot to alert us to the fact that the Child Center was distributing the last box of formula. We don’t want to run out so Steve and I headed to town to see if we could find some. The old man that normally orders the formula for us died a couple months ago and his shop has not reopened; we are not sure if it is going to reopen. Abochi is a young man in Yendi that can order it but he does not have a tax clearance certificate which makes it difficult for us to pay the taxes on the formula but he is better than nothing. The distributor in Tamale changed managers and the last time we ordered from him it took them far too long to get the formula to us. We found and bought 16 cans of formula this morning from Abochi and he is going to try and order several more cases for us.
After we hunted for formula we went to the IRS office to pay the taxes on the apartment we stayed at while we were in Accra. They have changed things up and now they require us to provide the Tax ID number for the hotel/apartment. What, do we work for the Ghana Tax service? Steve had to call Accra to get the information. We went back to town to give the IRS the Tax ID number, usually we just pay the money to the IRS office but no, they have changed that too. Now you have to present the receipt and Tax ID number, collect a payment voucher, go to the bank, make the payment then return to the IRS office with proof of payment and they will then give you the receipt. Please! What a mess! By the time we got the Tax ID number and went back to the IRS for the pay voucher it was too late to go to the bank.
Steve uses a car battery to run his C-pap machine. His batteries have not been holding a charge so I suggested that we start the van; remove the good battery with the old one and see if the van will full charge it. Using the vehicle to charge the battery is quicker than using a battery charger. We were going to drive the van to town and run our errands without turning off the van. Sounds like a good plan doesn’t it? After Steve got out of the IRS office he could not get the van in gear. It would not go in any gear. When he tried to put it in reverse the clutch slipped and the van died. The battery was not strong enough to start the van again. We locked the van and started walking back to the mission house. It was not long before a little 3 wheeled vehicle for hire stopped to pick us up. Then we picked up the tools and the good battery and headed back to town in the truck. We went to Gomda, the mechanic’s shop, picked him up and took him to the van. He was able to get it to go into one of the gears; the van would not shift but it would move. He limped it to his shop. He should have it fixed this evening.
This morning Zorash said that her program was put on hold because they could not find the unhulled rice they needed for the rice demonstration. I told her that we had 2 bags of rice that we would be willing to sell. She jumped on the offer. They only need 1 bag; they will get it in the morning. Which probably means Steve will be carrying it somewhere in the morning!
Thank you for all you do! Please pray for us and for the work.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
