I am complaining...

Tv station DW out of Berlin is my favourite channel followed by one out of Paris.
In Sunyani I stopped getting DW and was upset so I got another tv server that had DW . The laugh was on me as it was in German.
I get my tv dish set up here and got my favourite channel back until today.
It’s gone again. So now I am 😪👿😾

SYNOD 2020

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were occupied with Synod.
It is interesting the sameness between synods regardless of where they take place, the difference is the lack of automation that exists here.
Collation of Synod materials   

collating by hand, no fancy machine taking over the task

Size of synod quite different from Diocese of Toronto, 115 participants here

there were some additional  formalities , clergy wear cassock for all meetings, 

during worship services, surplice and stole and all archdeacons and canons sit, in support, behind the bishop while he is chairing the meetings, Registrar is a lawyer from Kumasi in full regalia

                                                   
                 this is Isaac and myself
It is interesting being the obvious stranger in the group with many people reluctant to sit with me for meals, Isaac was the brave soul who sat with me at each meal so we are now friends, exchanged phone numbers to call and check on one another. Isaac called the next day to ask how I was. He has a simple phone so I connected with his priest who could get a                                                                  photo printed for him
                                                                                         

.

Its only Monday

I DID GET MY PASSPORT!!!

So off at 6 am to Kumasi, the sun is rising, the mist is disappearing, the traffic is light and BAM ****

blew a tire. ...... oh good, well there is a spare here named"take me home" tire.

Ebeneezer knows what to do, thank goodness as I call CAA but I don't think they come this far,

he runs back and picks up pieces from the car that are on the road, ??? I don't know what they are but after an explanation, they are the cover that line the wheel well ( I did not know that it even existed), so get jack out, get blown tire off,  gets "take me home " tire on and we are off again, It seems that the liner coming off the wheel-well have bent some of the metal around the wheel space.

!st stop is Immigration\; Yes I leave happy with passport in hand.

off to mechanic to see about the car and the tire:

3 1/3 hours later new (used) tire that looks in great shape, bent metal hammered out, the wheel well liner reinstalled and off to shop as we are in the big city where many more things are available than in Waiwso, then back is Waiwso by 7pm, 

very broken tire

Ebeneezer examining the situation              the liner from the wheel-well retrieved from the road

 






So off to the mechanic: now the working space for this repair man is somewhat simple compared to the computer driven sparkling repair shop that my Honda dealership has. It took 3 1/2 hours to get a tire and to repair everything, we stayed there as the repair seems to be quicker than if you leave it and come back so I am told.
Repair shop:
Cars in a variety states of repair or disrepair             this is the compressed air station,
                                                                                 a tank with a hose and a nozzle on the end

 



and I sat under a tree reading from my Ipad

Great week to look forward to

Another drive to Kumasi tomorrow, leaving at 6 am.  Ugh       passport is ready for pick up, yea!
Synod on Thursday, Friday Saturday with installation of lay canons at cathedral Sunday, a chance to wear my cassack all day for 4 days.   Mmmmmmm
Now does not seem like a week to dream about. ...      Right. ....    Church land at it’s best

a miracle ...

I worked at St. Michael's Anglican Church on the Mountain in Hamilton last summer and they generosity worked a Miracle in the form of a new Delivery Bed at the Boinzam Anglican Clinic in the suburb of Juaboso. The churches in Ghana have filled many gaps that the government would have responsibility for in Developed Countries e.g. school, hospitals. The Diocese of Waiwso Health Clinic sees 20 to 30 patients/day and they are open 24/7. Staff live on site as there is no available housing near by. The staff include a Physician's Assistant, Midwife and Nurses and Support staff. If the clinical situation is more than they can manage, they call a taxi (no ambulance available) and transfer the patient to the nearest hospital (20 minutes by car).  A new Delivery Bed was at the top of their list of needs.                                     WAY TO GO ST. MICHAEL'S

 clinic

old bed with rust down both side                              a very pink new bed

                                        

good news

passport ready for pick up, going Monday

More learning

will learning ever end,
I spent all last night until morning without my bedroom ceiling fan as when I turn the dial, it did not work.
Electrician came this am and flicked an off on switch above the bed...voila ...   the fan was turning. I did not know what that switch was for. Yes I felt stupid and apologized ++++ . He did install a door bell while he was here as I do not hear knocking on the door when I am in the kitchen or the tv is on.
 Learning ... and life long endeavour

I just learned ...

how to take selfies using the volume key..... learn a new thing every day, my teachers are usually young enough to be my grandchildren.  they know lots of stuff.

no news

no mews (slip of the spelling keys) from Immigration, Bishop and Mother going to Accra today till Friday so I will probably go to Kumasi on Monday if I get mews from Immigration   lol

Man Friday

the best part of having William as part of my team is that the washing just appears on the line to dry and all have to do is fold it and put in the drawer. I am sooooo spoiled here.

Good news and bad news

Bad news first:

Today was the day to pick up my passport. I received a call on Monday from Immigration that the name on the letter of invitation from the bishop was not the same as  my passport. Knowing that the letter said Betty and my passport says Elizabeth, I got a revised letter stating my name as Elizabeth and went  off yesterday with my new letter. I get in the office and am told the name discrepancy is the word Canon. I explain it is a title like Rev. and he has never heard it before. I say, you are not Anglican and he is RC. He is used to Rev. Father and I say Rev. Canon is an Anglican title. At that point. I tell him I want to cry, as it takes 3 1/2, hours each way and 300 ($75.00 Canadian) Ghana Cedis for fuel to make on one trip and this is my second trip from Waiwso. It means that in total for 3 trips it will be $900 Cedis for fuel and 21 hours on the road to finally get my passport stamped AND since I only get a 3 month stamp I need to repeat this whole procedure at the end of April for a one month stamp as I leave the end of May. OH S---.  I asked what is the consequence of not renewing the stamp when I go to the airport when  leaving the country. The fine is 80 Cedis, I say that is cheaper than getting it renewed and that seems like my plan for the end of May this year.

He did give me 3 application forms and said that I did not need to come personally so if someone was coming to Kumasi they could bring the documents  to get the stamp renewed and picked up. SO I still do not have a passport and when I went to the bank later to get an advance on my visa, I needed my passport, dam, so no money. But Bank staff tell me that I can use Visa to pay for merchandise here which I did not know so .... off to buy a chair on my visa.

Good news
I got an office chair to go with the desk AND it was on sale which I only realized at the cash register, nice surprise. It took 15 or 20 minutes for them to find the chair from the stock room. I then asked if I could take the display chair when Ebeneezer was seemingly choking about putting the boxed chair together. Got the display chair  which fit in the back of the car.
       
                                                                      very comfy

Bush Meat

You can often see someone at the side of the road holding up by the tail an animal they have killed from the bush, I thought they look like big rats actually but never seen them up close. I understand there are various animals that fall under the category of Bush Meat. It is usually a cheaper way of getting protein instead of beef, pork, chicken or fish. Today I saw one animal that I found very weird. a mammal with scales, according to Google it is the only one in existence.
Google
an African and Asian mammal that has a body covered with horny overlapping scales, a small head with an elongated snout, a long sticky tongue for catching ants and termites, and a tapering tail.Also called scaly anteat
 kinda gross actually                                    PANGOLIN

the sounds at the house

living in the large city one lives in a house maybe 25 feet or more from the road, or in a apartment high in the sky, when one hears, horns, sirens, loud music, people yelling, kids playing, dogs barking

living in s small town with the road 1 foot from the windows one hears roosters calling back and forth, goats baaing to one another, chickens clucking, kids playing, individuals walking- by talking on the phone, radios blasting from a car going by the window.

I find it amazing that I can tune out the outside noise, the problem is that I end up not hear knocking on the door so often I get a phone call from someone standing at the door ...   ooopsy 

I have bought a door bell and am waiting for it to be installed

 stalls perched on the edge of the road, no sidewalk, if there is a ditch it is an open culvert

 dean's and my house, no front lawn as the dirt road goes right up to the house

Immigration

Left at 6 am, standing in Immigration.. office #3 just before 10 am. Yes in the correct place, I was told to make copies of the plane tks and .invitation letter to which I said...these are copies you can keep. I sit down to fill the application form and am told ....you have to fill it out in the hall.  Ok and out to the hall I go. Fill out form and go back in. I laugh and say...if I had a dream this could be done today,,, would that be a dream.  YES! So need to travel all this way next Friday to pick up the passport.  The good news is that I can shop for items not in Wiawso. By noon back on the road to pick up Mother Margaret and her sister from a funeral and then home. I fell asleep a couple of times on route and went to bed for a nap to be able to stay awake for part of the evening and then back to bed. Today... a day of rest forgoing a burial from the cathedral.