The masons started making the bathhouses at Kulkpeni today; they are going to make 3, each has 2 rooms; this will be a nice addition for the seminar. It takes 400 people a long time to take their baths each evening. The Ghanaians don’t like to eat their supper until after they have had their bath. Not only does it take a long time but it also takes a lot of water. Many of the teenage boys just walk down to the river to bathe. Everyone is encouraged to bring their own bath bucket so they can fetch their own bath water from the well that is just beside the Church’s property. Usually the men make sure that there are at least one or two girls in their group because they make the girls fetch bath water for them.
We went out this afternoon to check on the building and to give Timothy the money that he will need for tomorrow’s building. Timothy is overseeing the project and we are happy to let him do it! Kwabena and Tichak, the night watchmen, are also actively participating in the project. Kwabena has a motor king and he is helping fetch water, sand and cement.
This morning the ladies that work here got the corn and soybeans washed. We will be roasting the grain tomorrow and hopefully on Wednesday we will take it to the grinding mill.
While we were walking we met Divine, he said that he was going to pick up the men that were going to thrash his soybeans. We asked him if his children had any soybeans to sell. We were pleased that they did. We like to buy his children’s soybeans because they work very hard to get them. After the thrashing machine leaves a field his children sit on the ground and pick up the ones that fell from the machine. The children sell whatever they are able to pick up and use the money for school uniforms and other things that they need. Divine said that the oldest child had 4 bowls to sell and the younger ones had 2 and 3 bowls to sell. We bought all the children had to sell even though I just bought soybeans yesterday. Children selling things is my one weakness! There is no telling how much lukewarm lemonade I have bought and drank. If Steve or the grandkids are with me they have to drink lukewarm lemonade too! Ha!
This afternoon we went to the market and bought plastic bags, another bag of rice, canned tomatoes and a case of pasta. The canned tomatoes and pasta are for the seminar. The rice is part of the workers’ holiday gift. We bought 100 pounds of rice a couple days ago but when Steve got it divided between all the workers we did not think that it would be enough so we bought another 100 pound bag. The old lady that we bought it from wanted to know why we did not buy the oil from her this year hence the reason we bought the pasta and the canned tomatoes. We must share the wealth!
Take care and have a good week!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
The Monkeyshines
Today was wash day so I got to play outside for hours while the parents were washing clothes. Mom saves all the wash water to use to flush the toilet and to water the plants. I am not sure if the plants like soapy water or not but we have not had any rain in over 3 weeks because we are well into the dry season and there has been no rain. Hopefully the plants can strain out the soap bubbles. I, on the other hand, love to eat soap. There is always a little drop of soap hanging from the soap dispenser; I cannot resist licking it off every time I walk past it.
Mom has been making a soap paste out of lye soap for the ladies who cook for the seminar to smear on the bottoms of their big cook pots. The soap helps keep the smoke and suet from sticking to the bottoms of the pans. They do all the cooking with firewood. Before Mom put the boiling water on the balls of soap she had to use a hammer and break the balls up into small pieces. A couple of the pieces flipped out of the bucket; I tried a piece of that soap and it was awful. If you want to eat soap I recommend that you stick with the liquid soap out of the dispenser and leave the lye soap to the professional soap eaters!
No More Lye Soap!
Love Skeeter
