We are beyond excited! Adamu, the severely malnourished starving abandoned 1 ½ year old, came back to the Center this morning. We were afraid that we would have to go to the house again to check on her. The first time she came to us she only weighed 5 kilos which is 11 pounds. Today she weighed 5.8 kilos which is 12.76 pounds. We were so pleased with her weight gain especially since the caregiver told us that she had been without the cereal/formula mix for 5 days. There was no explanation for why they did not come back when the food ran out or why they did not walk around the corner to Zorash’s house and let her know. It is difficult for us to understand why when someone is giving you something freely that you do not take advantage of it. Enough of the complaining! Adamu was much more active today and she actually said “more” several times when Zorash was not fast enough feeding her. When her grandmother tried to put her on her back when they were ready to leave Adamu refused to get on! We love seeing the personality!
We also got a new orphan today; I can’t remember if it is a boy or a girl but the mother died a week ago. The caregiver said that the mother was never well after the baby was born and that she had even been transferred to Tamale but she did not get any better. She passed away at home. The baby was in good shape; they had been feeding the baby formula.
Donkey did not come to work today; he said that his waist was paining him. His waist usually hurts when he has been doing hard work but since he has been off work for the past 3 weeks we have no idea why it is hurting. He refuses to go to the doctor; he just wants to take pain killers and snort moringa powder. Moringa is an herb that is reputed to do all sorts of wonderful things. I am not sure that anywhere else in the world they are snorting it. It is usually taken by mouth to increase the appetite and for medicinal reasons. The powder is green and Donkey usually has a green ring around his nose while he is working. Mr. Iddrisu uses it too!
We did not have to pick up the van this morning. Gomda brought it to the mission house on his way to work. That was very kind of him. One of the boys from his shop drove his motorcycle to the mission house to pick Gomda up.
Steve had class this morning at the hospital for continuing education. He said that the topic today was diabetes. The class was a long one. I wonder if he gets more credit for a long class than a short one. Ha!
Divine, the evangelist / farmer, stopped by last night; he wanted to see if we had any luck selling his TV for him. He still wants us to buy it. We actually forgot to ask the workers if they wanted to buy the TV. We asked Timothy he said he wanted the TV but that he did not have the money to buy it because he needed all his money to farm. Farming is a better use of money!
Thank you for all you do for us and for the work. Please keep us in your prayers.
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
Skeeter’s Monkey Business
I slept for about 3 hours this afternoon. I was exhausted! I spent the morning in the Child Center and it was hard work making ugly faces at all the strangers that paraded in and out of the Center. Meri’s little boy did not cry today when he saw me which is a good thing because that bawling and screaming he was doing every time he saw me was getting on everyone’s nerves! Like I could hurt him; he is at least 10 times bigger than me; if anyone should have been crying it should have been me! Once I woke up I was WILD! I decided that I like to crawl under the covers and wad myself up in them and act like I was caught and could not get out! It was great fun!
Mom made me a fort under the covers today. She turned a cardboard box on its side and then covered it with a sheet. She hid all my favorite things inside the box; it took me a while to drag everything out.
Dad took me outside; you know the outside is sort of creepy! He sits in a chair and plays on his phone while I explore. If he sits his chair right under the lowest mango branches I can climb on his back and then up into the tree. I never venture very far away from him because I am afraid that something like “a big snake” will get me!
Mom is trying to trick me into eating mashed potatoes. She put them in my bottle with milk and sugar like she does my corn porridge. Really, she is so silly that she thinks I can’t tell the difference. One drink and I quickly refused that mess. She thinks that I am going to get hungry enough to drink it. I will have to be very hungry to eat that concoction!
Thanks for listening to my ramblings!
Love Skeeter
