My first car accident

I started my mini internship this week for a two week period with World Vision after meeting at their administration office. I am working with Association of Progressive Enterprise in Development (APED)which is the microfinance sector of World Vision in Ghana. They were very open to me going out to get field experience in the Greater Accra region. I have been learning a ton about the administration side and I am going to start getting some field experience on Friday.

On our way from a meeting on Tuesday, Lo and I noticed some serious screeching noises from the car. Not knowing anything about cars except that that can't be good, we took it to the mechanic and waited around about an hour until he fixed it. All labor and repairs cost about $3.

As we were driving down the main motor way after the mechanic, lauren was going straight through an intersection when a car coming from a cross street on the left pulled out in front of us before she had time to stop. We slammed into them. No one was hurt. It was 100% their fault.

We pulled over to a bus stop to work it out with the other driver and it was crazy from that point on. Screaming match of whose fault it was. Lauren called her boyfriend, who called her mechanic, who ended up coming to the scene to assess the damage of the car which more or less ended up being a fender bender. I asked about calling the police and quickly learned that there wasn't a reliable number to call and the last thing you want to do is get the police involved. They will ask for money for their time, they will favor those who pay them more, and they will keep your car for several days to review the accident. Insurance is a joke. It cost about $20 a year and no one files claims becuase it's too much of a hassle and it takes forever. As we stood on the side walk arguing about whose fault it was, we finally decided to give up and both go our separate ways. Fortunately, Lo drives a beater. The car she hit was a nice BMW so he will end up paying more anyway. Anyway, learned a lot about Ghana from that experience.

Have so much more to write about this week but I have 4 min left on my internet cafe at the Accra Mall. Hopefully going to post tomorrow so I can keep up with this week.