First thing this morning we sent Mr. Iddrisu and Nazo to the back of the property to get a load of local dirt that the mason will use to plaster the cistern. They came back with a load of sand. They said that there was only a very small amount of the local dirt back there. Zorash overheard our conversation; she knew someone that had a motor king and would haul the dirt for us. We were more than happy to pay the man 50 Cedis to dig, haul and unload the dirt. 50 Cedis is less than 10 dollars; best money I have spent in a long time.
Then we sent Mr. Iddrisu to the bank to get payroll for March. Everyone gets paid on the 21st of the month. We had to pay them a little early this month because the 21st is Sunday. When he got back with the money Zorash, Mr. Iddrisu and I spent the next couple hours counting and recounting the money. The bank made a mistake and gave us 15 Cedis too much. Later this afternoon Steve and Iddrisu took the extra money back to the bank.
Did I tell you that one of Papa Zachariah’s wives died? He has at least 2 wives, maybe more. She died while we were in the states. We sent a monetary gift through mobile money. Mr. Iddrisu said that we still needed to go and visit him. I asked when he would be coming back to work; he is one of the watchmen. Iddrisu said that it was their traditional custom that when a wife, husband, father or mother dies that you do not go anywhere for 40 days. Forty days and you still expect to get paid? Are you kidding me? We decided that we would give him 1 week off with pay and then he could take his 3 weeks of vacation and owe us the other 10 days. Tichak the other watchman is working overtime to cover the days he is off. When Papa comes back he can pay Tichak back his days.
We needed a place to keep each of the workers’ pay packets; something that we could lock and give them the key to. I thought of the metal lockers that are at the high schools in the states. Steve and Zorash thought it was a grand idea. Zorash went with us to the welding shop and we explained what we wanted. It would have been helpful if Zorash had seen a set of lockers but with lots of explaining and several drawings we got the welders to understand what we wanted. After I told our daughter the idea she found a flaw with it. Someone would have to have a master key in order to put the filled pay packets inside the locker so we decided to have them cut a slot in the top of each of the lockers; problem solved.
Meri tried to come to work today but she did not feel fine so we quickly sent her back home. We don’t know what is wrong with her but we don’t want it!
Take care and have a great day! The storms in North Alabama were not as severe as they could have been. We thank God for that!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
