Yesterday Dawda the mason told us that they wanted to come to work very early and take off part of the afternoon because he had “something doing”. We told him that we did not care if they took the whole day off work. He said they would still come to work but at different times. We expected him early this morning; when he had not shown up by 9:00 we asked Mr. Iddrisu where he was. We found out that he wanted to attend a presidential rally; the party he is going to vote for was having a rally yesterday. At first they planned the rally in the afternoon but later decided that it would be better in the morning so people could still go to work so they changed it. We asked Dawda if he rode his motorcycle in the rally; he said he walked with his group. We can always tell when the men are campaigning because they take the mufflers off of their motorcycles and drive carelessly through town. The motorcycles are decorated with their party’s flags and colors and most of the people in the rally are wearing their party’s colors. The spectators and those on the parade route have all sorts of noise making instruments with them. It is noisy pollution at its best!
Divine came again this morning. This time it was not about the churches’ paperwork; he is organizing the farmers in his area so that they can get the government to subsidize their lost crops. This morning he asked Steve to type out the list of names of the farmers who wanted assistance. Not only the names were on the list but each person’s Ghana Card Number as well as telephone number. Steve spent almost all of the morning typing up the list. The government is supposed to give each farmer 1,000 Cedis for each acre of crops that they lost. This will be nice if it actually works out but many people are signing up that are not even farmers. Meri signed up and she has never farmed anything a day in her life; her husband is a school teacher and sells sugar in the market; as far as we know no one in her family is a farmer. I don’t know how the government is going to decide who gets money and who does not. Divine says that the government is going to send out agents to inspect the farms before they release the money. Please can you imagine how much money they are going to waste paying the agents and how much money the agents are going to take from the farmers? It seems to be more politically motivated than anything; after all this is an election year.
We bought a baby walker for Adamu, the severely malnourished little girl. (they call them baby sitters, I guess because the child sits in it) She has been in the hospital again, this time they said she had typhoid. We attribute part of her illnesses to the fact that she spends too much time on the ground in the market. This morning we took the baby walker to the market and gave it to Adamu’s mother. She was happy with the gift. They have a hard time connecting filth with sickness. We told her the baby sitter had to stay in the market to keep her and her food up off the ground.
Thank you for the love, prayers and support.
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I spent the morning helping in the Child Center! I was a tremendous help! I squealed to alert the workers that a stranger had entered the Center. I helped chase 2 goats out of the waiting area of the Center! I did that by standing on my feet and sounding an alarm! I think they were afraid of me and my alarm system; it had nothing to do with Meri jumping up and running after them! I also helped Mom cut her fabric scraps. When the Center is not too busy Mom marks the fabric scraps and Zorash cuts them. I wallered (not sure that is a word) all over the fabric scraps; once in a while when Mom was not looking I would grab some scraps and run off with them. I could not go far because I was on the leash! I spilled a bag of water and played in it! I grabbed Mom’s chalk, pen, and sharpie marker every chance I got! Did you know that monkey slobber causes a sharpie marker to stop writing? Well, it is a little known fact but it does! Mom ended up using 4 sharpie markers today. Once the cap has been put back on for a few hours they come back to life.
I decided I wanted to climb in the cashew tree that is just outside the Child Center so Mom knocked off several of the branches that my leash would get tangled in and she tied me to the tree. I had grand fun until I got entangled in the branches! It was terrible! I almost hung myself but my collar is around my waist instead of my neck so I guess I could not have technically hung myself but I had a near death experience anyway! I was dangling upside down with nowhere to go when my collar popped open and I was free. I ran straight into the Child Center and climbed up in Mom’s lap! I was traumatized and I sat quietly for about 10 minutes trying to recover!
My little life flashed before my eyes!
Love, Skeeter
