The masons and their helpers just left for the day. It is trying to rain so everyone was scurrying to get home before they get wet.
Oh! My, what a day we had today. It did not rain yesterday and only a little bit the day before; we need gravel and Red has not been able to haul any for us because of all the rain. We also needed another load of water. The only real problem is the entrance to the gate leading to the back field where we are putting up the building. The neighbors decided to dig a ditch to help drain their property and they cut the ditch right in front of the mission house gate. It has rutted out and catches so much water that it is impossible for the big trucks to pass through without getting stuck. A few days ago we had Donkey and Mr. Iddrisu try to fill it in but they did a terrible job. This morning we decided to work on it again. We walked around the property and picked up all the stones and cement scraps. We used the rubble to fill the gutter and then we had Nazo and Mr. Iddrisu bring 3 loads of gravel and cover the stones. Steve brought the truck down and gave it a trial run; it worked well and the ground was hard. When Red came with the gravel he was pleased that we had fixed the problem. His big dump truck passed through without any problem but halfway to the job site Red got off of the packed road and got stuck in the field. He buried the truck almost to the axles on both the front and back tires of the fully loaded dump truck. The guys spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon emptying and digging out the dump truck. Red went to the neighbors and got some of the outside slabs from the wood they had cut last week. They dug a trench from the front wheel to the back wheel and beyond; put the wood slabs in the trenches along with gravel and stones we picked up out of the field. The men were throwing the gravel off the truck into the field. We told them that they were making more work for themselves because they were going to have to reload the sand into the motor king and haul it to the job site. It took a little bit of convincing for them to pull the motor king alongside the dump truck and load it. I am sure that Steve will sleep well tonight after all the digging he did today! They did get the truck unstuck but there was a crack in the fuel line. One of Red’s mechanic friends came and helped him with the truck.
Later this afternoon the water tanker came and delivered 2 -4 foot x 4 foot square containers of water. He was fully loaded but did not get stuck. We are happy to get the water and the gravel because it is raining heavily right now and it will be several days before the trucks can get to the job site.
Zorash and Meri were both late for work this morning because they had gone to visit someone in the hospital and when they got ready to leave the hospital Zorash’s motorcycle would not start. She finally got some help starting it.
The mother of the baby that has the tumor on her face called this afternoon. She said the baby was sick with a fever and that the tumor had become very hard so she went back to Tamale hospital. The doctor that has been treating the child was off today so another doctor looked at the child and sent the child for a scan and prescribed medicine for the child. The mother did not have money to pay for the scan or the medicine. Thank you to those of you who give us money for “whatever comes up”! We sent the money to her by mobile money.
Thank you for all you do!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
