When we got in the green truck to go to town this afternoon to pick up the old van from the mechanic we figured out what the noise in the air conditioning motor in the green truck was caused from. The truck reeked of a dead animal smell. We have smelled that smell twice before; once when an animal got stuck in the air conditioner motor and once when a small cat died in the new van. Steve turned on the air conditioner to see if it was still making the noise and immediately the truck filled with the worst odor; we quickly rolled down the windows but it did not help much! Gomda was going to work on the truck fan tomorrow but we told him that we had already discovered the problem. He said that he wanted to go ahead and clean the fan out immediately! He got a mask out of the glove box of the green truck before he started dismantling the air conditioner housing. It took him about 45 minutes to take it apart and put it back together. He found a rat stuck in the fan. The truck did not smell any better after the fan was cleaned so Steve went to one of the small stores and bought an air freshener. When the cat died in the van my sister gave us some granules that are specifically designed to get rid of dead animal smells. We still have some of the granules left; they should freshen up the truck. Some time in the sun will help too.
Zorash and Amama cooked part of the freshwater oysters today; they cooked enough to share with the workers. The things were very fishy and smoky and gritty and rather off putting! The whole house smelled of fish! The soup they cooked in was good. We served it over rice. It was not the worst thing we have eaten but it is not something that we intend to eat again; now if we are at a village somewhere and we are given them to eat we will eat them but we are not going to deliberately seek them out to eat.
While we were at the mechanic shop; I always speak of it as a shop but it is really not a shop; there is not even a building; an old lady came up to the truck to beg for assistance with her upcoming surgery. Gomda was there to interpret for us. It seems the lady has a cystocele. She had a letter from the doctor that she was using to beg for money. The lady said that she lacked 250 Cedis to have enough money to pay for the surgery. Gomda suggested that Steve give her the money only after he got her phone number and the number of the doctor that was to do the surgery so we can check on her and make sure that she actually went to the hospital and had the surgery.
This afternoon Kiyee came to the mission house. He is one of the church members at Kulkpeni. He is hard of hearing and he is a bit mentally delayed. He just wanted to stop by to say hello. He said that he had not seen us since we arrived back to Ghana so he decided to stop by to check on us.
Have a great day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
Skeeter’s Monkey Business
I don’t like Sunday’s very much! Yesterday was the second Sunday I have had to suffer through since I was adopted. The problem with Sundays is that the parents are gone too long and I have to spend an unbearable amount of time in the upside down laundry basket with nothing to do; no one to hold me and nothing to get into! They left yesterday at about 8:30 and did not get back until after 2:00. That made for a long boring day for me and when they got back I was starving! They left me cornflakes and water but really cornflakes and water do not make a meal!
I met the other workers today, they think I look funny all dressed up. I have decided that I like the men more than the ladies. I climbed up on Mr. Iddrisu’s shoulder this morning, yesterday I climbed up on Red but he said I was disturbing him; he does not like monkeys very much. I really liked Dawda the mason when he came to the mission house a few days ago.
I decided that I could eat a larger quantity of solid food. Everyone was talking about how bad the freshwater oysters were but I found them delightful. I ate 2 whole oysters today; not at the same time; I packed my pouches full so I could enjoy them at a later time. Mom says that my breath is awful. I will take care of that later this evening when she brushes her teeth. I love to get up on the sink so I can get little bites of toothpaste and drink water from the faucet.
When we went to town this afternoon Dad stopped and bought fried bread from one of the vendors. I tried to gouge myself on the soft inside parts of the bread; once again I overfilled my pouches.
When we go to town I always draw a lot of attention. No one in town has seen a baby monkey wearing pampers (diapers) and a romper. Sometimes the kids frighten me because they jump at the vehicle and they make ugly faces at me!
Talk to you later!
Love Skeeter
