Mr. Iddrisu came back to work this morning. He said that he was sick yesterday with a cold and did not feel well enough to come to work. We figure that he was just overly worried about his son. If you remember his son had a couple episodes where they could not understand exactly what he was saying. Suyhini kept saying over and over, “I am dying!” This scared his family and made them think that his problem was from the spirits. Their fear added to the child’s fear and no one knew what to do. The doctor at the Yendi hospital said it was not a case they could handle and referred him to the hospital in Tamale. Mr. Iddrisu told us it was a real hospital which we doubted. This morning he told us it was not a real hospital but it was an herbal / traditional clinic. Mr. Iddrisu did not go with his wife and child to Tamale instead he sent his nephew with them. His wife said that when they got to the hospital the “doctor” gave him honey and some “special” water and then he took him away from his mother into a private room. No one knows what he did or said to the child in the room. Mr. Iddrisu has not asked Suyhini what the “doctor” said or gave him. We asked him to try to find out because we want to know. After an hour or so the doctor invited the mother to come into the room. At that time Suyhini was able to greet his mother and she could understand what he was saying. The doctor said that they should buy the agric honey, not the local honey and give it to Suyhini. Mr. Iddrisu could not find the agric honey but he did get some of the local honey. The “doctor” did not give a diagnosis of the problem; he told Suyhini to be careful what he said and how much talking he did with his friends. We figure he had some sort of a “panic attack” but we may never really know what was wrong. He is home, he went to school today to start taking his exams and he is talking clearly. He wants to play ball when he comes home from school but Mr. Iddrisu is not sure that is the best thing for him to do. We encouraged Mr. Iddrisu to let him do what he could do or he might start being afraid of doing anything.
Zorash and I went to the grinding mill this afternoon and they were half way through grinding the grain for the weaning mix when the electricity went off. We waited around for an hour to see if it would come back on but it did not so we left our grain and headed back to the mission house. We did not get to eat lunch until 2:30; we were half way through our lunch when the electricity came back on so we headed back to the grinding mill. We have enough weaning mix to last for a couple months. On our way to the grinding mill we saw a lady making Kulikulee, the crunchy peanut butter sticks we give the children for a treat when they come to the Center. We bought almost all that she had.
Have a great day!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
