Saturday, October 29th

We ran out of gas today in the van as we were pulling into a gas station. We literally rolled to a stop in front of the pump. That was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened today. I spent close to an hour trying (unsuccessfully) to upload a fundraising proposal. After a short spell at the office going over finances, we went to visit Dr. Addae’s children. They live with their grandmother. The family structure here is different than at home and I’m not really sure how it all works. All explanations so far have been a bit vague! His son Kwaku, who is 13, was seriously injured a few weeks ago at his boarding school. He was on the top bunk and was hit in the face by a ceiling fan. He has a pretty nasty scar on his forehead that stops about 1 cm from his eye, so he’s pretty lucky. Dr. Addae has pulled him out of that school and is looking at legal action. It sounds like a pretty sketchy place, although it has a very good (and apparently underserved) reputation among Ghanaians. We didn’t get french fries today. We did have fried yam chips, which are similar, but not as good. I have decided that I am not going to write what is GOING to happen because if I do, it never happens. Making predictions here is impossible! I’m just going to report the news, not forecast it. The president passed by us on the road today. It was a pretty impressive convoy, although it wasn’t huge. The old president had a jet but this one has decided not to do that to set an example. Dr. Addae was less than impressed at the convoy, but when I said that our government (ab)uses a Challenger jet, he admitted that auto is probably the least extravagant way for the president to travel! Ed. note: I just found out that usually, his convoy is way bigger.