Steve forgot to tell you one of the most interesting things about the teenage girl that was baptized yesterday. Not only is Sarah the church leader’s daughter but a couple weeks ago she and her friend were caught, held against their will by 3 men and several ladies. Those that were holding them threatened to kill them. This happened because there was a dispute between 2 tribes; Sarah’s tribe and another tribe. Sarah and her friend are students and they are attending high school in a neighboring village. When the conflict escalated the men came into the house where Sarah and her friend were renting a room and threatened to kill them. Sarah said that the men had long cutlasses and the women had big sticks. Sarah’s friend was struck but Sarah was not. She said that all the time she was just praying and praying. Finally her landlord came home and quickly took the girls to the police station where they filed a report. After that incident the girls’ family moved the girls from that school to a school nearer home. This is better for Sarah because now she can worship with her family every Sunday.
The carpenters finished the round house roofs today! We are so happy to have the rooms covered again! In the near future we will have ceilings put in the rooms but we are not doing anything until Ramadan is over! That was awful! When we paid Abochi today we told him that we were not going to pay the men full day’s wages because they did not work full days and the time that they were here they all took turns sleeping! Abochi agreed that they were not working well and not working full days. He had no problem with reducing their day labor.
Before the carpenters got to work this morning we went down to the back of the property and got more lumber out of one of the store rooms. We were not happy with the way they tied the rafters to each other. We wanted additional support to keep the roof from splaying! We figured we would have to fight with Baba, the foreman, but when we explained what we wanted he said that it would make the roof stronger. If you know that is the way it should be built then why in the world didn’t you do it in the first place? When we checked the first building they had not put them in the right place. Please! I even showed him where we wanted them put and he still put them at the very top of the roof! We enlisted Abochi’s help to get them where we wanted them to be. It was an “aha!” moment for Baba.
After we paid the men we thought they would leave but they just kept hanging around so Steve went out to see what they were doing and he found them cutting up the facial boards that I was going to have Steve make a shelving unit out of. They were cutting them up making small stools to take home; they were using our nails! What in the world! Steve told them to stop. He said that it is like stealing when you take something without asking permission. Donkey piped up and said that he told them they could have the boards and use the nails. Steve promptly told Donkey that he did not have authority to give away something that was not his. Please! Did I mention how much we dislike building projects? At least the roofs look good!
Have a good day!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
Mom cooked this awful looking mess for lunch today. She called it Kontomire. It is green and made from green leaves like spinach with mackerel, onions, tomatoes and gourd seeds. It looked like a cow paddy! The parents love it! Well, today Mom complained that the mackerel was weird because it had not been scaled before it was canned. She had to remove the scales as well as the bones. She fussed and complained! She said that there was no way that anyone could eat fish scales. Well a few minutes later she brought the bones over to me and asked me if I wanted to try them! What was she thinking? That woman has lost her mind! If she is not going to eat it, what makes her think that I would eat it? I took one smell of them and jumped off my chair! I thought I was going to be sick! Has she forgotten that I am a monkey? Monkeys don’t eat fish! Where in the world would a monkey ever come in contact with a fish? Does she think that I am a cat? This is worse than a grasshopper ever was!
On a brighter note; Mom boiled yams to go with the cow paddy! I love boiled yams. She cooked them in the middle of the morning so I have been enjoying them all day long! The yams are so good that I could almost forgive her for putting that fish under my nose and spoiling my appetite!
Always remember and don’t ever forget, “I AM NOT A CAT!”
Love, Skeeter
