Steve is not here; he went to Nalongni to help bury one of the church sisters. The woman died yesterday. Since there are no funeral homes or means of embalming the body the family in this area try to bury as soon as possible. The family thought that they would be doing the burial first thing this morning but something must not have gone as planned. Steve was ready just waiting on Timothy’s phone call. Timothy called at about 10:00 and said they were not ready; he called again at around noon and they still were not ready for the burial. Zorash and I left the mission house and went to the market and when we got back Steve was gone so hopefully Steve and Timothy will be back before dark. The Konkombas bury in a casket; sometimes it is difficult to find a casket and sometimes it is difficult for the family to find the money to buy the casket. Then they have to decide where they are going to bury the body; most of the time they bury them in their backyard but sometimes they will dig up the floor in their compound and bury them inside the courtyard of their house. The graves are dug by hand which can take quite a bit of time especially if the ground is rocky.
Timothy was supposed to go with Zorash and me to the market this afternoon to pick up the fabric he will need to make shirts for all the evangelists and church leaders. Since he was tied up with the funeral Zorash and I went by ourselves. Timothy is a tailor by trade. The shirts were the brain child of our friends Ray and Kristen. Having Timothy make the shirts is a win- win situation; not only do the evangelists and church leaders get a very nice new shirt but Timothy is going to get a lot of work. When we told him of the plan he was so excited; he said he was going to use the money he gets for making the shirts to work on his farm. He said that the money will pay for almost all of his plowing and planting. We bought enough fabric to make 40 shirts. We did not want to duplicate any of the fabric. Since today is market day we found 3 vendors that were selling end of the bolt remnants. The ladies that were selling the fabric were so excited that we were buying so much fabric all at one time! We made their day; let’s get real we probably made their month!
We hired Amina, Nazo’s wife, to help Amama in the house this morning. They chased dust; washed windows, aired the furniture and made things look much better. They only got the kitchen and living/dining rooms cleaned.
We worked on Timothy’s sewing machine; it had a broken belt that we could not find in Yendi, Tamale or Accra. We took the belt home and ordered one that we hoped would fit. The belt we got was wider than the original; we were able to cut it down. The machine is running well; we hope that the belt will last.
Meri has started working again after her maternity leave. Her little boy is big and looks healthy. His name is Hakim.
Enjoy your day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
