I forgot to tell you that the high temperature yesterday was 109 degrees with a heat index of 118 degrees. The weather station that we have does not hold the high and low temperatures; if we want to know the high temperature we have to be checking the station all the time to catch the high temperature. It is rather annoying. Our old weather station held the highs and lows for 24 hours in its history. We liked that much better.
Donkey has been taking his son to the traditional healer every morning so the healer can pour an herbal concoction on his broken arm. Please, they make me tired! We could tell Zimblim was feeling better today; he actually gave us a little smile. His hand is still very swollen but the sling Steve gave him seems to be helping.
Zorash stopped by to get the money we promised her cousin’s family for surgery on their 12 or 13 year old child. Our understanding is the doctors are going to repair a fistula that is causing urine leakage. The doctor asked if he had sustained any injuries or accidents even while playing sports but he had not. Some children are born with them. I said all that to say that the child is in Tamale and the doctors are going to make the repair as soon as the family gathers the money for the surgery. Zorash was happy that we were helping. The surgery will cost 11,000 Cedis (about 735 dollars), the family found 7,800 Cedis and thanks to our generous donors we were able to make up the difference. He should have the surgery in the next couple days.
Zorash talked to the mother of the child that has the cleft eye problem. She told Zorash that she is so very concerned about going to Kumasi because she has never been there before, she did not know if her husband could go with her, she did not know where they would find the money for the transport, much less the surgery. They speak a different language in Kumasi and she does not speak English. Zorash tried to calm her fears and told her to take a young male adult that is a family member that can speak English with her and she would be fine. She said that they told her that she would have to have disposable diapers for the baby and she did not know where she would get the money to buy the diapers. Zorash assured her that the Child Center would help with those things and also the medicine, transport and cost of surgery. This case is probably going to be very costly but when you consider that the surgery is going to save the child’s life; how much is a child’s life worth? Hopefully they will go quickly!
The carpenters are still working on the round house roofs; it is taking them forever to get the roofs put back on! They have all the rafters finished for both houses. They are not going to work tomorrow because it is Friday. Friday for Muslims is like Sunday is for Christians.
Take care and enjoy your day!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I rode in the green truck this afternoon; it was both thrilling and frightening! We did not go to town so I did not have to worry about the children! We rode to the back of the property to check to see if we had any facial boards left from the last building project. They are about to run out of facial boards and Mom thought there were some left. She was right; there are several boards in one of the store rooms.
While we were in the back field we checked to see if there were any mangoes on the ground. We took our morning walk back there today and we found a bunch that had fallen. We did not have a bucket or basket with us so Mom hiked up her skirt and filled it with mangoes. Really! That was pretty embarrassing! It is a good thing that there is a cement wall around the property or she could have been arrested for indecent exposure! She had on a split slip that covered her legs but it was the thought of the thing that gets me! This evening we carried buckets with us.
Mom said they were going to take the mangoes to the old lady that sits on the side of the road selling bread. Excuse me! I like mangoes too! Mom saved some for me but they were not the pretty ones; they were the ones that split when they hit the ground! I protest! Mom said that I can’t eat a whole mango by myself so she would cut off the bad part and give me the good part. I can tell you right here and now that if I was a free monkey I would not be eating spoiled fruit! I would climb to the top of the tree and take a bite out of every mango I could get my hands on!
No More Damaged Fruit!
Love, Skeeter
