Yesterday evening just before dark, a couple men came to the gate and were knocking on it and calling out trying to get someone’s attention. The night watchmen had not come to work yet so Steve went to the gate. The men said that they were from the Gundo-Na’s palace and that she wanted us to come to her palace tomorrow and to bring our land papers. We had no idea what was going on or why she had asked us to come. We called Red and Red talked with Abochi, the carpenter/friend, and Red called one of the elders to find out what was going on. Later in the evening Red came to the mission house because he knew that we were worried. He said that the man he talked to said that there was no problem except that the Overlord of Dagbon, the Ya-Na wanted to see the papers and that the Gundo- Na wanted to see them before the Ya-Na did. Part of the mission property was purchased from the Gundo- Na and part of it was purchased from the Balogu-Na. We are always worried about the land because it is 12 acres and there are many who covet the land. Red also found out that the people who own the clinic near the mission house were trying to get a lease for their property and they want to make sure where the borders of the property are. The Gundo-Na is actually a female chief. There are only a handful of female chiefs in this area. We went to visit her this morning. She is very old, hard of hearing and did not seem to know who we were. Her elders greeted us kindly and after we removed our shoes we were ushered into her meeting hall. She was sitting in her fine clothes on top of rawhide cow skins. We presented the elders and Gundo-Na the monetary gifts that we brought. We gave the elders copies of the 50 year lease but they were very vague as to why they needed the papers. We had only been back at the mission house for a few minutes when one of the elders called and he said they wanted copies of the original documents, the ones we had before we got the lease. There are pages and pages of those documents but we photo copied them all. Red called the elder to come to his house and pick up the papers. They said they were going to look through the documents and they would get back to us. It is all very nerve racking!
Steve met the Nestles truck in town around noon and picked up 25 cases of formula for the Child Center. Steve had ordered 30 cases (360 cans) but he could only get 25 cases. He is trying to get everything packed down so the workers will have plenty of supplies when we leave at the end of next month. We know that we will be swamped with preparations for the seminar so everything that we can do ahead of time is icing on the cake.
Kwabena, the night watchman is sick. He coughs all night! Steve gave him Tylenol and an antihistamine last night; Kwabena thinks he has Malaria but that constant cough is not a typical symptom of Malaria.
Please keep us and the work in your prayers especially concerning the land papers.
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I have learned to chew chewing gum! At first I just chewed it a little while and then swallowed it but I noticed Mom just keeps chewing and chewing it; I try to pry her mouth open so she will give me hers after I swallow mine but she says, “Get your hands out of my mouth; that is nasty! There is no telling where your hands have been!” Isn’t that a silly thing to say? My hands have been attached to my arms all the time so they have gone everywhere my body has gone! I chewed my gum for more than an hour! Of course I chew with my mouth open so there is no doubt that I still have the gum. We have 3 types of gum, spearmint, peppermint and bubble gum. The bubble gum is my favorite, spearmint is my second favorite and I can hardly make myself chew the peppermint because it is too hot! I have not figured out how to unwrap the gum yet and if I am left to my own devices I will just chew it paper and all. Mom only breaks me off a small piece of gum; she is stingy! Yesterday before she could get it unwrapped I grabbed the whole piece and ran off with it. I had the whole thing stuffed in my cheek pouches before she could catch me. She still held me down and made me give up most of the gum! Now what fun is that?
I will learn to blow bubbles next!
Love, Skeeter
