I have written 2024 so many times today that I am beginning to believe that it is really 2024! We have been working on end of the year raises for the employees and we had to figure out the new tax information because of the raises. There is no easy way to do this; the part of SSNIT (Social Security tax) that the employees pay is pretty easy to figure; it is a flat 5% no matter how much they earn. We have to also make a new spreadsheet for the employees to reflect the amount of their raises. Please, this is the job that never ends! It goes on and on my friends; once you have experienced it you want to scream; it’s not a dream…. I believe that is the theme song to Barney Is A Dinosaur only the words have been changed slightly!
Zorash and I went to the grinding mill as soon as the Child Center closed. We were fortunate because no one was in line in front of us. The man that was grinding and his two helpers were eating sorghum cane. They eat it like sugar cane. Zorash bought some to take home to share with her kids. The cane is only here for a short while; no one makes syrup from the cane; they just peel it with their teeth; chew on it to get the juice and then spit out the pulp. It is disgusting to watch.
Mr. Iddrisu is still under the weather so he did not come to work again today. Steve went to town to pay the taxes and I was surprised when I looked up and he was back. I asked if the bank was closed; he laughed and said he was about the only person in the bank so he did not have to wait to be helped! Life’s simple pleasures!
This morning while I was waiting for the clothes to wash I made pie crust and made meatless, meat pies. The ladies here use dried fish and onions in their meat pies; we don’t care for the fish so I make meatless pies with cooked black-eyed peas, cabbage and onions. They are delicious. Amama helped me roll out the pie crust so we shared the spoils of our labors with Zorash!
We were sad when we heard that the 3 pigs we had contracted to buy for the seminar got sick and Matthew sold them out quickly to the butchers before they died. We are now without any pigs. We feel like we dodged a bullet with the pigs; wouldn’t it be awful to serve sick pigs to someone? Steve called Divine, he raises pigs and he owes us a pig because we loaned him the money for his anti-rabies vaccines in exchange for a pig for the seminar. Divine stopped by this evening and told us that he has 2 pigs to sell; we are going to go take a look at them tomorrow. He is confident that we will be able to get 3 or 4 more from other people in his village.
Have a great day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
