No Gas in Ghana!

A few days ago, the availability of gas went away. The news was that the government has not paid the oil companies, so the supply of as is no longer. My sister and I were driving home from the market in Medina, we saw a couple of gas stations still pumping. The lines were unbelievable. There was one little gas station in our town that was still pumping. As we drove my car began to sputter and run out of gas. Luckily through the slow down and speed ups, we made it to join the line. Yellow fendered taxi’s, mixed with private cars stuffed the gas station. The picture represents only the beginning of the chaos. As we weaved our way through the line, 2 hrs later, we made it to the 1 pump nozzle that serviced all. There were lines of yellow cans to be filled. Lines of cars. Lines of motorcycles that entered the front of the line. All the people from the cars gathered around the pump calling the 1 man to service them first. There was no system to the filling, who ever draws the attention of the pumper or who knows who was how it worked. Finally we reached the pump and argued our way in. Being able to argue well even when your wrong is a trait I think I need to learn. Some people argued for us to fill the woman’s car first, as these were mostly men getting gas. Due to the elderly gentlemen who was in the taxi directly behind, he was able to push us through so he could be next. As we were pumping, they were trying to not fill the car and only give us a small amount of gas. We were able to almost fill it full. Now our 'petrol' is on conservation.

I guess this happens about once a year. It is not a common problem like rotating power outages. Power is out today, which does not cause much havoc during the day. It will come back on in a few hours. Havoc will be caused though as the “football games are on and the TV is not!” Or more havoc for me is the lack of fan to cool me down while I try and sleep. Last night fan went off and on through out the night. My sheet went on and off, on and off.

The the return of gas is unknown, but people think it will not be long. I hope it does not linger long. This could severely effect the economy.