Me and the masons had a better day today than we did yesterday. The problem was compounded by the language barrier! Of course the fact that the mason has never built an octagon shaped room before does not help either. I don’t think he believed that we built / engineered the octagon shaped building at Kulkpeni. We built that at least 15 years ago and it is still standing!
I knew we were in trouble this morning when 3 women showed up to work. The women only come on the job to haul block, cement, and the cement after it has been mixed. We were not ready for the women because we had not finished digging the foundation. It rained this morning which slowed everything down. It also makes the field muddy again so the water tanker could not deliver water today; he was supposed to come yesterday but never showed up. We have to have water so we went to plan “B”. We are going to move one of the 4 foot square metal water containers and set it beside the cement wall. The tanker can drive up beside the wall; throw his water hose over the wall and fill the container. The ladies will have to haul the water a little bit further but if the ground is not too soft they can fill 5 gallon jerry cans and Mr. Iddrisu can haul them with the motor king.
When Dawda arrived this morning I asked him when he was going to finish digging the foundation; he said the men finished it yesterday. I pulled out the plans and showed him that there was going to be a foundation inside the foundation with cross foundation blocks forming sort of a spider web looking foundation. He had no idea what the foundation was to look like. I told him that I tried and tried to tell him yesterday and he would not listen; that was why I was trying to get them to move the strings to demarcate the rest of the foundation. Dawuda had a light bulb moment and started laughing and said, “Now I get you!” After that he grabbed the plans and headed to the back field. When we went down to check on them he was doing a fine job of laying out the foundation. The men finished digging the foundation before they went home and yes we had to pay them again to dig! Tomorrow they will start mixing cement and the ladies will come back. We felt sorry for the ladies that got sent home today so we gave them half a day’s wages; they were happy to get paid for doing nothing.
We started working on our stateside receipts. We like to get them done and get them out of the way so we don’t have to worry about that when we get home. Then we will be ready to file our taxes when the time comes.
Zorash did not come to work today; she is not feeling well. I don’t think that she went to the doctor. She sent us a picture of a hydrocephalic baby. So many times the family waits until the case is so serious that the child has already suffered brain damage. The mother said that she did not know that the baby needed to go to the hospital because the traditional healer told her that it could be treated at home. So sad. We told her to take the baby to Tamale to the hospital. It will need surgery but its chance for survival is slim.
Take care and have a great day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
