The Saga of our African Cars – John Bevan – August 15, 2009

When we arrived on this mission, we were given a nice, new Toyota Corolla with automatic transmission which is rare for here.

The first week we were rear ended at a stop light, which badly damaged the rear bumper. Even the police woman at the police station was sorry about our new car. Kofi Bolley, the Area fleet manager assured us he would take care of everything. He provided us with a replacement vehicle for a few days until ours could be fixed.

The dealer had to send to Japan for a replacement bumper since it was a new car and they didn’t have one in stock. It came, but it was the wrong one (wouldn’t you think they could have a part number on the order?) so they had to order another one from Japan – coming by boat of course since air would be very expensive. Remember, this is Africa.

In the meantime the “temporary car” (an older Toyota stick shift) stopped running – bad battery. They tried to charge it, but it died on us again. We had a two day trip to Cape Coast coming up so they gave us a Honda. On the way home the brakes went out, but we managed to get back to Accra safely and carefully.

The next day they took the Honda to the dealer to be serviced and to have the brakes fixed. After a couple of days, Kofi came to our office and very sadly explained that the car would not be ready for our weekend trip. It seems when he went to the Honda dealer to get the car, the place had been locked up by the police because they had not been paying their taxes.

So we were given a very nice new Toyota similar to the one we had started with – only it was a very nice blue color. We enjoyed it but only drove it for a few days, and they brought the Honda back for us, which makes, technically, the 5th car we’ve driven. We liked the Honda – it was automatic and easy to drive – so we really didn’t mind. By this time we were used to Kofi saying – “two more weeks” and your car should be ready.

We had to make a trip to the Assin Foso District with new computer equipment so we had to borrow a pickup truck – green Nissan – for that expedition. That was car #6!

Two weeks ago, Kofi came to our office and told us that the bumper was in, and that the car would go to the dealer that day. Finally, last Thursday, Kofi came with a grin on his face and the keys to our original car. Yipee! Four months from the original accident! We were so excited – see photos – we took a ride early the next morning and went to the bakery that has such great cinnamon rolls – they weren’t even open yet, but Blanche (the owner) “dashed” us four day old cinnamon rolls – and we didn’t even have to pay. What a day of celebration!