This week has gone quite quickly due to the additional evening activity of unpacking!! Monday was spent almost entirely at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Center trying to register my car and obtain a license. The experience easily out surpasses any negative visits to the DMV in the USA or the DVLA in the UK, however following a second visit on Tuesday afternoon (well technically two visits, one in the morning and one in the afternoon), my car is now registered. Albeit in the wrong name – but it is registered and legal to drive!! The driving license so that I can actually drive the car (neither my UK or USA licenses are acceptable here) – well that didn’t go so smoothly. The short version is that I can’t obtain a Ghanaian license until either I have been here 12 months or I have my residence permit and a support letter. The support letter is easy, the residence permit not so easy! I also cannot obtain an International Driving Permit here as it would then only be valid for use internationally outside of Ghana, so after a great deal of research and some help from our amazing head of travel in the US - Jill, I have now couriered an application for an IDP to AAA in Florida and am waiting desperately for its’ return. It is so great to have my car, but for now I can only look at it!
Tuesday entailed a visit to PG’s to obtain curtain rods which are to be fitted tomorrow, again a simple task you would think since they were already selected and the ‘order’ confirmed via phone so that we could just pay, collect and leave. Well we did manage to do that without any problems, it was just time consuming as usual. Now I just have to hope that Bridget has finished making the curtains, but I can’t reach her as her phone is switched off and has been for two days now…………
Most of this week, we have had very limited internet or email due to various issues, such as ‘it’s the rainy season’, ‘someone in the vicinity is using a radio that is interfering with our signal’ and ‘they are installing the fiber optic cable’ – all interesting reasons, particularly the use of a radio! And; all equally frustrating when trying to actually achieve some work.
On that front, things seem to be settling down in Ouaga which is good news; we may be able to make some progress in Burkina Faso soon. In all likelihood it appears as though Lome, in Togo may be my first work trip from Accra, thankfully it is also the easiest with direct flights of only about an hour duration – just French speaking, but………. I’ll address that when I get there possibly before my trip back to Wilmington in less than a month J
The unpacking status as of this evening is that the bedrooms are pretty much finished, the kitchen and dining room are done, the living room still needs some work and has boxes to be emptied and the office/scrapbook/workout room hasn’t been started. I also have some major sorting of clothes to be done as I definitely have too many!
Thankfully I made it through unpacking the box that had inadvertently included several of the dogs things – new leashes, dingo chew bones and their ‘coats’ all of which shouldn’t have been packed but instead gone with the ‘girls’ to their foster home with Chip and Anna. That could have been rough if it happened on a tough day………My fun moment of the day was when Solomon arrived back in the office having kindly cashed two reimbursement checks for me so that I could have money for the weekend. I have 500 GHC in 1 GHC notes – just to put than in perspective that is about 500 x 75 cents/50 pence notes – he was being considerate as he thought it would be helpful for me to have some small change. The remaining 1,000 GHC is in 5 GHC notes!! I think I have enough small change for the next two years! Bless his heart!
This time in four weeks, I should be just finished having my manicure and pedicure, which I might add has been booked since before I left for Accra in February! I can’t wait……..
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