Wed. Mar. 18th

 

            Rumblings and grumblings!!

            I talked to the manager at the mill yesterday and they hope to start the cutting soon, and then 3 weeks for the kiln makes it ready for the boat sometime late April.  Well past our ticket return date.  So we will be here longer.  I can renew our visas for 3 months or a year without a problem, but the hard part is that the airline (KLM) will not give us an open ticket and we must determine an exact flight on which to leave.  Of course they want big money for the change, and if we are ready to leave in 6 or 7 weeks then it is again big money for another change.  Two or three changes and we’ve paid for new tickets without ever leaving the ground.  We will try for a flight on July 13^th.  Grumble, grumble, grummle.

            I said earlier that the power was better this year.  Well, (grumble) I spoke too soon.  The violent storm that we had about two weeks ago when the lightning flashes right overhead and power lines were knocked out and even MTN cell service was interrupted seems to have started continued intermittent service.  Now every time we hear the thunder rumble, everyone in our household starts shouting “start the pump, start the pump” because we had run out of water previously and so we pump water from the well into buckets in case of a long outage.  It has been 8 months now since this household has had any water from the Kumasi city water system to which they are connected.  Without fear of frost and with limited budgets, the water lines are very shallow here, generally not deeper than a foot underground.  As a result, in many places the pipes show due to water erosion and even foot and vehicle traffic.  This morning as Marlayne and I walked we came across an exposed water pipe in the middle of a dirt road, and a coupling was exposed that had begun to leak.  No wonder there is not enough pressure to get water up to our house!  grumble

            I have a Toyota CarinaE, but it is hard to know where to go for repairs, so I asked my business friend, Osei, and he recommended his mechanic, Kenneth.  I had Kenneth then change my oil and filter, and it seems he did a fine job.  My catalytic converter was dragging on all the speed bumps (far worse than Surrey) so I asked him to raise the exhaust system, which I could see was attached only at the exhaust manifold at the front and at the back.  He extracted money to buy hangars and repaired the problem, creating the problem of the exhaust pipe rattling against the frame of the vehicle.  Looking under the car the hangars I bought appear to be slices of a tin can welded to the pipe and then to the frame and not sufficiently rigid to stop the rattling.  For another charge, (new problem they said), he lowered the pipe so that the converter drags over the speed bumps.  When I returned the welder said it was too close to closing so he couldn’t help.  Kenneth took it to another roadside pit where he and another tied it up with wire.  Now it vibrates against the frame, but much less than before.  In Ghana, that’s a FIX!  grummle

            Next I got a hole in a coolant hose and had it replaced, but then the temperature gauge failed to work.  Kenneth tried to tell me that it was just not a warm engine yet, but he had traveled several miles.  We traveled the same path back to his area and he then tried to tell me that the needle resting on the ‘C’ was normal and when it came up I needed to check the coolant.  I don’t know if he thinks I am an idiot and was trying to ‘snow’ me or if he just has no clue.  I told him I wanted it fixed and he later called to say the repairman had forgotten to re-connect the wire to the Temperature Sending Unit.  Then, of course, the engine was too hot and I had no time to sit and wait for it to cool and so I still don’t have a temp. Gauge, and cannot seem to find the wire myself to connect when the engine is cold.  Grrrrrrumble.

            So I stopped at the Internet but they had no lights so I went out to get fuel, but the Total fuel station had no power also.  When we returned that way they had power but we forgot we needed fuel until we were past the station.  No matter, we run on the top half of the tank anyway.  Next time we pulled in on a later day, it happened that they had no lights again.  So the third time I could plainly see they had lights and a vehicle was there getting diesel so I pulled up to the pump only to learn that they were out of petrol.  Fortunately I have had no trips out of town and small 4-banger Toyotas get good fuel economy.  Maybe tomorrow.  Now we are running on the bottom half.   Grumble

            In 3 days I have probably visited the Internet 9 times trying to send my emails and blog, but either my ISP is having troubles in Quebec, or the ‘net here is just too slow.  Emails have come in but only one to Megan has gone out.  Seems strange to me how one would go and the rest just sit in the outbox.  I have gotten Meggie’s reply already without another one having been sent.  Only Ghana can turn email into snail mail!  Full of optimism I shall try another café.

            03 Co. (lumber mill) called today to enquire as to whether they should bring logs for cutting the second container.  I reminded him that the samples he was to get after our Feb. 3^rd meeting had not yet been received by myself, much less sent to Canada for approval, so we don’t know what species we want to send in the next container.  He will get the samples next week he says.  Tuesday will be 7 weeks.  In Canada it would be similar to phoning a mill in say, Kamloops, and having them cut samples of two species and send them down to Abbotsford and the whole process would take perhaps 7 hours; and here I cannot count on getting the samples in 7 weeks. Grumble

            It is kind of fun to write about grumblings and rumblings so that y’all will feel sorry for what we have to put up with, but the reality is that we are actually happy and content.  We have lived here long enough to expect that this is just the way things are here and we go with the flow.  Marlayne is having 2 sundresses made here with what I would call bolero jackets just to cover her shoulders.  The seamstress, Beatrice, was taking so long we had to explain that we wanted them for wear in Africa, not Canada.  Then she had ordered too little material for the jackets and now 6 weeks later she still has not the jackets, only the dresses.  But you see, now we are staying another 3 months so she will have LOTS of time to wear them!!

God graciously shows us small miracles just to let us know that we are still walking with Him and we rejoice in His provision and good health.  Marlayne is feeling stronger and my resting heart rate is way down as is my blood pressure which is akin to a teens’.  We are delighted with the family that shelters us, and when we asked if we could stay another 3 months they replied they hoped it would be another 3 years.  Our “babysitting services” allow much greater freedom for Pastor Turkson.  (He gets evenings out!!)  Praise the Lord.