The month-long fasting is finally officially over. Even as of yesterday afternoon the Muslims in our area were not sure if the fast would end today or tomorrow. Before we got out of bed this morning we knew that they had broken their fast because the town was alive with the sound of gunshots; there was no way we could sleep through all that noise! When we went for our walk all the mosques in Yendi had their loud speakers on calling for the people to come to the mosques. Almost everyone that we passed was dressed in their finest clothing. Many were dressed in white. One of the customs is that when you break your fast you share part of your feast with someone. This morning Donkey’s daughter Fati and his grandson came to the mission house with a gift of cooked rice and tomato / oil stew. The stew had two tiny pieces of mystery meat. It came from Donkey’s house. It could have been anything from rat to cat to pigeon but we believe that it was beef. Ha! It was so kind of them to share with us. In turn you are never supposed to send the dish back empty. I quickly put the rice in one of our dishes and washed Amina’s (Donkey’s wife) dish. We had already packaged up chewing gum to send to the children, we also sent a 10 Cedi note (about one dollar) to Amina. We put the items inside the dish and also sent a bag of mangoes with the children. When they left they were all smiles.
Fasting is not mandatory if you have a medical condition, are pregnant, a small child or very old. We knew that Zorash was not fasting because of her ulcer but she told us that her mother was not fasting and neither was the elderly uncle that came to live with them last year. Instead of fasting they provide food for other people to eat when they break their fast in the evening time.
Today is a national holiday so none of the shops, banks or schools were open. We had a quiet day and I got quite a bit of sewing done. The workers will not come back to work until next week. Of course the night watchmen are taking turns being off. Kwabena took his time off first and when he finishes his 3 week leave Tichak will take his time off. We do not want the compound to be without a night watchman.
Jordan and Lindsay (our son and daughter-in-law) said that we should not only write the “Yendi Notes” but we should write the “Monkey Notes” to let everyone know how things are going with the baby monkey. So after I finish the notes I will add tidbits about “Skeeter”.
Thank you for the love, prayers and support.
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
Skeeter’s monkey business:
I have not been feeling so fine today! I threw up! Poor me! It must have been something that I ate. You know that I am a baby and I cannot keep from putting things in my mouth! I don’t care what it is, I will pick it up and chew on it. I even picked up a piece of a bird dropping! Yuck! I spit that out quickly! My parents keep taking me outside and I hate it! I am scared of everything out there! When I see the shadows of the birds flying over I try to make myself as flat as possible; you know I have heard that those big birds will scoop you up and carry you off! The ants are very interesting to me. I keep trying to pick them up but they are fast little things! The parents have changed my name; they can’t seem to decide what to call me. First it was “Baby No Name” and then it was “Sneakers” and now it is “Skeeter”! And they wonder why I don’t come when they call me! I liked Sneakers just fine but Mom said that she could not say it with enough “oomph” to get my attention. I have learned to drink out of the sink faucet in the bathroom. You know I believe that I am going to figure out how to turn that water on by myself! I tried to use my hand and then I tried my mouth but it didn’t work either.
Thank you for listening to my ranting!
Love Skeeter
