The mother of the child that has the cleft eye problem went to Tamale today! We are so happy that she went right away! In fact, her husband went with her; do you realize how wonderful that is for the baby? The fathers have more say as to what happens to the children than the mothers do. We are excited that the father wants to be involved in the child’s treatment. The doctor at Tamale hospital said that they were not equipped to do the corrective surgery. They are referring them to the big hospital in Kumasi. One of the nurses called Zorash and told her that they were sending them home so they could gather some money and other things they would need for the trip to Kumasi and when they were ready to go to Kumasi they would write a referral letter for them to take with them. We have not talked to the mother yet; when the nurse called Zorash the people had already left the hospital and were on their way back to Yendi. Zorash will talk to them tomorrow.
Amama called Zorash and told her to call us and let us know that a man was selling bags of onions out of the back of his cargo truck. She said the price was good and the onions were good. Zorash went with us to the market to help us find the guy. We bought a couple bags; we shared some with Zorash. We will have to dump the onions out of the bags because we can smell some rotten ones. We love onions!
The roofers worked again today; they got all the rafters on the round house nearest the mission house and part of the rafters on the second house. We were happy that they were able to reuse part of the rafters they removed. They drill holes in the walls of the houses so they can put quarter rods (light weight rebar) in to hold the rafters on the building. The buildings are made of cement blocks. The carpenter was surprised at how hard the concrete was. I told them that when Dad built the buildings he wanted to make sure that they lasted; besides cement gets harder with time and Dad used the proper amount of cement and a good mix of small stones. The men only worked until noon again today and they added two helpers. The heat combined with fasting is hard to take!
Meri was admitted to the hospital today. She has a severe headache and her stomach hurts. The headache is probably dehydration from fasting. After she went to the hospital and found out they were going to admit her and give her an IV for the dehydration she came to the mission house to ask if we could give her the money for her hospital stay. We felt sorry for her because she had her little boy Hakeem (3 years old) with her. We were surprised that she did not leave him home with her rival (sister wife). Steve asked if her husband was going to help her with her hospital bill. She said he told her to go but did not give her any money to be able to go; hence the reason she came to us.
Thank you for all you do!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshine
Mom and Dad took me out of my jail cell this morning before the carpenters started making all that noise with the hammers! I got out before the parents went for their morning walk. Dad said that he thought I would be fine until they finished their walk but Mom would not agree with him. She said that the hammer and people had made me too nervous yesterday and that I would not have to suffer like that again today. I was so happy that Mom was on my side! Dad even changed his walking route so that we could stay in the compound. Donkey had to leave first thing to take his son to have his broken arm looked at. Mr. Iddrisu was on leave and the carpenter foreman had gone to town. Dad said he did not want to leave the other men in the compound by themselves so we just walked round and round the compound. I enjoyed the walk but I refused to walk; I rode on Dad’s shoulder most of the time.
Did I tell you that Donkey had to buy a chicken to take to the traditional medicine man who set Zimblim’s arm? Donkey said that he also had to buy some herbs to use to wash Zimblim’s arm in. He said that the healer would break the leg of the chicken in the same place that Zimblim’s arm was broken. He would keep the chicken in a pen and watch it. When the chicken’s leg was healed he would know that Zimblim’s arm was healed and take off the splint. Is that crazy or what? I sure am happy that I am not a chicken!
Where is PETA when you need them?
Love Skeeter
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