Another day in the African Jungle!
Another day in Africa. That was the thought that traveled slowly through the fog of my brain at 5:50 am this morning as I stood outside having my second ciggie of the day. I am getting a whole lot better with this early morning start, and for the third time since I arrived here, I did not have to wait for the alarm to go off. Scary! I am becoming a farmer!
Had a meeting with workers representatives today to introduce myself, and they were most accommodating. I trust that the accommodation will continue. 9 am off to the main office and was pleasantly surprised that the sat system was up and running and there was fuel for the small gennie. This is looking better already. To realize how much better when I checked it was tonight the fuel tank was full!!! Mebbe they are learning.
Today on the list was as follows:
Ghana Electricity
Get cell phone
Get drivers license
Meet Bank Manager
We started off at 1pm with the driver’s license. 2 hours later I was in possession of a temporary license valid for 30 days, with a stern warning from the nice man behind the desk not to expect my permanent license until at least 60 days “as they had a problem”. I do believe that the SA licensing department must have learnt from our lads in Tarkwa. *chuckle*.
That done we were off to the bank to draw petty cash and meet the bank manager. Nice enough guy with an unpronounceable name and wearing a suit. In this heat???
We walked out of the bank, with the accountant and driver carrying a huge bag between them. This was our petty cash for the week. 40,000,000 cedi’s (R30,000) and take into consideration that the largest note is a c20,000 note – and they are in short supply – the bag must have weighed at least 30kg. Drop it into the back of the vehicle and drive to the local clinic for the driver to pick up some medicine. No issue that you have loads of cash in the car. “people do not steal money in Ghana” was the statement made by the accountant. I shuddered to think what would have happened if we were in SA and had the equivalent of 20 workers salary in the car.
As you may have realized, it was almost 4:30 pm and the Ghana electricity / cell phone has been put off for another day. Slowly slowly catchee monkey here young tones.
Working happily on getting the books up to date, home time is announced by the total failure of all electricity to the offices as the large Gennie is turned off. Pack up – go home – and finish off the work at home. That’s what was done and time is now taken to do the blog for posting tomorrow. That is of course assuming the sat system is still working :-/
Dinner tonight was a kinda beef stew with noodles. Basic grub, and not bad at all. However I really am looking forward to my own place and been able to cook for myself the strange foods that I enjoy with SPICES!!!!
On that note, I was offered a house today. Did not even ask the price – it had five bedrooms each with their own bathroom. Did mention to our friendly accountant what part of two to three rooms did he not understand :>
Until next time then – keep on smiling :>
Had a meeting with workers representatives today to introduce myself, and they were most accommodating. I trust that the accommodation will continue. 9 am off to the main office and was pleasantly surprised that the sat system was up and running and there was fuel for the small gennie. This is looking better already. To realize how much better when I checked it was tonight the fuel tank was full!!! Mebbe they are learning.
Today on the list was as follows:
Ghana Electricity
Get cell phone
Get drivers license
Meet Bank Manager
We started off at 1pm with the driver’s license. 2 hours later I was in possession of a temporary license valid for 30 days, with a stern warning from the nice man behind the desk not to expect my permanent license until at least 60 days “as they had a problem”. I do believe that the SA licensing department must have learnt from our lads in Tarkwa. *chuckle*.
That done we were off to the bank to draw petty cash and meet the bank manager. Nice enough guy with an unpronounceable name and wearing a suit. In this heat???
We walked out of the bank, with the accountant and driver carrying a huge bag between them. This was our petty cash for the week. 40,000,000 cedi’s (R30,000) and take into consideration that the largest note is a c20,000 note – and they are in short supply – the bag must have weighed at least 30kg. Drop it into the back of the vehicle and drive to the local clinic for the driver to pick up some medicine. No issue that you have loads of cash in the car. “people do not steal money in Ghana” was the statement made by the accountant. I shuddered to think what would have happened if we were in SA and had the equivalent of 20 workers salary in the car.
As you may have realized, it was almost 4:30 pm and the Ghana electricity / cell phone has been put off for another day. Slowly slowly catchee monkey here young tones.
Working happily on getting the books up to date, home time is announced by the total failure of all electricity to the offices as the large Gennie is turned off. Pack up – go home – and finish off the work at home. That’s what was done and time is now taken to do the blog for posting tomorrow. That is of course assuming the sat system is still working :-/
Dinner tonight was a kinda beef stew with noodles. Basic grub, and not bad at all. However I really am looking forward to my own place and been able to cook for myself the strange foods that I enjoy with SPICES!!!!
On that note, I was offered a house today. Did not even ask the price – it had five bedrooms each with their own bathroom. Did mention to our friendly accountant what part of two to three rooms did he not understand :>
Until next time then – keep on smiling :>
1 Comments:
so much for 24/7/365 systems. I thought you would miss cooking *g*
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