Saturday we woke up to a very wet day. We were hoping for dry, hot and sunny as we wanted to go relax and rest at a nearby pool. But what to do when the weather is rainy? All three of us decided to go to our respective work places to get some stuff done. While I was at the office getting the end of the month reports ready it started really pouring. B/c I was driving Margaret’s car, I looked outside a couple of times to make sure that the car windows were staying up. The windows have developed a strange habit of rolling themselves down at the most inopportune time – like when it is raining or when you are out in public with things in the car that you don’t want walking away. Well both times I looked the windows were up so I finished working and didn’t think about it again. By the time I walked out, the windows (all 4) were down and it was still raining. So of course I drove home with the windows down in the rain. Shortly after returning home we needed to go down town a ways to look at some furniture that someone who is returning to the US is selling. Our options were to drive the car in the rain with the windows that not only roll themselves down but now won’t roll back up on command, take a taxi or just go another day. Since Margaret and I were in a strange and silly mood and we could really use some LR furniture for a good price, we decided to go ahead and drive. Fortunately it didn’t rain too hard while we were out but still we did get wet and probably looked rather silly driving like we did. But we had a really good laugh over it and just enjoyed ourselves. Additionally the furniture was purchased and half of it was transported to the house. The rest will come when the people actually leave in a couple of weeks. PTL for furniture to sit on.
Today, Monday, the day was spent primarily at the driver’s license place and running all over to get the needed paperwork for the car M is buying. We had seen a decent small SUV on the side of the road last Friday and stopped for her to look at it. After driving it and having her mechanic/friend, Simpson, look it over, she decided to buy it. Since she was going to the DVLA (Ghana’s equivalent of the DMV) anyways I decided to tag along to get my license. I am glad she was with me for most of it b/c there are so many buildings and people going in every direction it was challenging to find the appropriate place to start. But we did. Then there was the challenge of getting in the right line and at the end of the line. There aren’t lines and ropes to give direction. Instead you sit in chairs and just move chair by chair until you are the head chair. The people here are quite kind and will answer most questions so I wasn’t lost for long. That was the line just to pay for the form to fill out to get the license. Then there were two other stops that I made it through before I was told to “leave the papers and come back tomorrow.” I made sure that I heard the man correctly and then just shrugged my shoulders, left my papers and met up with Margaret and Simpson who had just gotten the papers they needed to transfer vehicle ownership. The next stop was to go ALL the way downtown to cash the check for payment of the new vehicle. Once we found the right branch it was relatively easy to get the cash. We finally met up with the owner of the car/SUV on the side of the road and there he and Margaret conducted all the business needed to complete the sale and transfer of the car. We aren’t used to doing business like that on the side of the road but hey it worked and M is now the proud owner of a Mitsubishi Space Wagon. I personally find the name interesting. I am not sure who came up with the name “Space Wagon,” but if we were riding around in it in the states I am sure there would be many, many funny (and derogatory) remarks made esp. if one of us is blond. I think we are safe here. All in all these dealing – simple as they may seem- took about 6 hours. And actually all the work for my license and her car is not yet completed. Margaret hopes to complete everything for the car tomorrow and I hope to have a temporary Ghana license in my hot little hand by Thursday. Last Friday when M planned to buy the car, I toyed with the idea of buying her current car – a Volkswagen Golf with almost 300,000km on it. But she has had many, many mechanical problems with it so I wasn’t really sure I should try to get it. Then on Sat. when we had so many problems with the windows, I decided that I probably should pass at this time. Riding in the rain may be fun for a time or two but I am pretty sure I would get tired of it really fast.
The stuff today took so long that I couldn’t meet up with my Twi tutor, Ama. I hope we can connect tomorrow or Wednesday as I want to get started. I am learning to just go with the flow and not get too worked up when plans don’t work out. Most Ghanaians seem relaxed about these things b/c a change in plans happens so often. I am trying to follow their example in holding my schedule loosely and not getting bent out of shape when things take so much longer than anticipated or planned for. What else is there to do?
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