First thing this morning we took the big sprayer to the back field and fully intended to finish the spraying but things did not work out as we planned. I was trying to drive further without over using the clutch, which seems to be working fine. I over estimated how fast Steve was walking and I pulled the exit hose off the electric car battery operated sprayer. Evidently the plastic had gotten brittle and it broke off inside the rubber tubing. We went up to the house and rigged up a connection. Then we went back to the field and the hose got caught under the tire of the truck and broke off the connector on the intake side of the sprayer. We came back to the mission house and tried to rig up something but it did not work; we did not have the exact size tubing that we needed and the thing was sucking air so it was not spraying worth anything. It would spray a while, suck air and then spray again. By this time it was 1:00, the hottest time of the day so we called it quits. We got the entire perimeter of the property sprayed and behind one of the buildings and a couple piles of gravel. I think we will let the workers spray the rest with the knapsack sprayer. Timothy Niligrini is going to come and help us for a few days while the other workers are taking their annual leave; that would be a good job for him.
We picked up 374 mangos today. Nazo helped me pick them up at 6:30 this morning even though it is not a work day for him. He said that he had come to work clearing the field for planting. We gave Nazo about 150 mangos to share with his family and neighbors. When Timothy came for a visit this afternoon we gave him about the same amount. We still have some left and maybe Steve will give them to the neighbors.
The lady at the small chop bar in Yendi told Steve last week that she was planning on make Banku to sell this week. Banku is a fermented dough ball with okra stew; my personal favorite. I was disappointed when we stopped by her shop this afternoon and did not find any Banku. She said that she would cook some tomorrow or tomorrow next (day after tomorrow). I am afraid if I get it the first day it will not be sour enough.
We are helping Timothy Niligrini get a sewing machine that does a zig-zag stitch and a few other fancy stitches. The machine has been working fine but when we got it out today instead of going forward to make the fancy stitches it went backwards. Rather annoying! We took it to the sewing machine repair man in Yendi; it was obvious that he did not know anything about the machine. He tried to tell me it was supposed to make the specialty stitches in reverse. What in the world! I told him it was not sewing in reverse yesterday! He did not even seem interested in opening the machine and taking a look inside. When we got back to the mission house we opened the machine ourselves and I was able to get it to stop sewing in reverse but there is still something wrong with the buttonhole setting. We will take it back to Tamale the next time we go and have their mechanic service it.
Have a great day.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
