The doors and windows at Kulkpeni have all been replaced; they look very nice but we will still have to paint the buildings because the mason had to re-plaster around all the doors, windows and thresholds. That is a job for another day. We do not like to paint during the rainy season because everything molds and the paint does not look good for very long.
This morning a mother of a very small 4 month old baby came to the Child Center. The baby obviously had some brain trauma at birth. The mother said that the labor was too long and finally they did a C-section. After the baby was delivered he could not breathe and had to be on oxygen for several days. He stayed in the incubator for a while and had seizures. He still suffers from seizures. We advised her to go back to the hospital and let them know he is still having seizures. She said that because of his condition she could not breast feed him and was only feeding him corn porridge (ground corn meal made with hot water) with nothing added to it. It is amazing the baby was doing as well as he was. We explained that corn porridge was not the proper food for the baby and sent her to the hospital to get a prescription for formula.
Warihana came back to see us this morning. Her father brought her. She is the girl that had the second surgery on her leg to try to get rid of her Osteomyelitis (infection of the long bone in her leg). There is only a tiny pin hole left that has not healed. We are praying that it will completely heal. Her father said that they wanted them to do an additional month of antibiotics but he did not have the money to buy them and did not want to trouble us to buy them for her. She has been almost 3 weeks without the antibiotics. Thanks to your generous donations we were able to pay for the antibiotics.
An abandoned baby was brought to the Child Center yesterday. Hers is a rather strange case. Usually when we have an abandoned baby the baby is left at birth. The mother kept this baby for more than a month before she left it. The lady that found the baby took it to the Ya-Naa (the king of Dagbon). He named the baby and gave the lady permission to keep the baby. No one knows who the mother is; I doubt very seriously that anyone is looking for the mother.
We are not going to have bible study this evening because it is the “Fire Festival”, one of the big Dagomba celebrations. The people roam all over town carrying torches made of thatch and branches. It can be a time of mischief; this is the night many years ago that the Ya-Naa’s palace was attacked and he was killed. We feel safer staying inside tonight.
Thank you for helping us with the work; especially with the children.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
