Adamu’s story took a turn for the worse this morning. Adamu is still at the hospital but the nutritional nurse that is in charge of Adamu’s feeding called this morning and said that they were fed up with Adamu’s case and that they were going to discharge her and basically remove their hands from her case. The mother has not yet come to Yendi even though her husband sent her the transport money. She was supposed to be here yesterday but she has not yet shown up. Adamu’s aunt that we are paying to sit at the hospital and take care of her left the hospital again yesterday and took Adamu with her. She did not take any of the food with her. Adamu was without her milk, oil, sugar, vitamins and blood tonic. This means that she did not get any of the extra food she is supposed to get. The nursing staff said that without compliance they could not help Adamu so they were going to discharge her and let the family do with her as they wished. They said that if Adamu is presented to the hospital again they will not admit her; they will tell the family to take her to Tamale. They know that the family will not take her to Tamale. They never took her to Yendi to the hospital when she was sick; Steve had to pay them to take her. We have paid the aunt to stay for 1 month which will be up on Friday. We begged them to allow her to stay in the hospital until Friday; we are in hopes that this will give the mother enough time to get to Yendi if she is coming. This afternoon Steve called the Social Welfare officer and he is going to call the father, mother, grandmother and aunt to see how to solve the problem. He said that he is not opposed to threatening them with the police. But he said that it is a lot of paperwork and takes lots of time to remove a child from a home if the parents are not willing to sign the paperwork.
The Shea butter came today. The ladies that make Shea butter mound the butter up in large gourd bowls. The bowls look like huge ice cream cones when they finish it. They even make swirly designs in the butter as it comes up to a soft point. We had to take the Shea Butter out of the gourd bowls because if it gets too hot it will melt. We learned the hard way not to store the Shea butter in the gourds. We put the butter in 2 ½ gallon plastic buckets. Today we filled 8 ½ buckets. This will last us the rest of the year and part of next year.
The last time I looked at the Child Center books we had given away 82 sets of clothes. That is a lot of people to see in a 3 hour time span. At times it sounded like a chicken house; the ladies were all talking and looking to see what type of clothes the others got. It was a grand time had by all. The boys’ clothes are running low; we will have to bring out more boy clothes for tomorrow.
Thank you for the love, prayers and support.
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
The Monkey Shines
Let me tell you about the improvements we made to my jail cell. We put in a tire swing; I have not had the courage to get on it yet but it looks like it might be fun if it does not hurt me. Dad made a ladder in one of the corners out of sticks cut from a tree branch. Mom cut down the top of a tree that was dead; there is a long branch on either side of the new 8 foot tall addition. Dad tied knots in a fat piece of rope, the rope runs the full length of the cage. Mom put a huge stone in one of the corners so that I can sit and rest. Mom dangled a few of my favorite things from one of the cross bars at the top of the cage. Dad put in a long piece of wood at the tip top of the cage and from that vantage point I can look over the cement wall into the neighbor’s yard. It is very entertaining to be able to watch the people, goats, sheep and chickens. One of my neighbors has a big turkey! Imagine that!
I told you that I knew how to break out of jail and then get back in. Well, the parents thought that they had secured my jail cell so that I could not get into the new addition and climb out the larger holes. They put cardboard over the opening and taped it with Duct tape. Mom told Dad that she was worried that I would figure out how to get out during the night and I might get lost or run away. She was right. I was in the cage when Mom woke up and checked on me at 5:00 this morning but when she came out to let me out of my cell at 6:15 I was free; wandering around the compound. I pulled down a piece of the cardboard just enough to squeeze my little body into the addition. From there it was easy to get out. I went down to the Child Center to see if I could find my people. It was pretty scary being out in that big yard all by myself. When I heard Mom I came tearing across the yard. I jumped into her arms and snuggled down under her chin and started making the little cooing “I love you sounds”! I was so happy to see her; I really thought that I was going to be alone forever! Mom took me in the house and I jumped on Dad’s head and started attacking his CPAP masks and woke him up! When he heard of my escapades he said he had to finish putting the chicken wire on the house today. He did and I have not figured out how to escape yet but I will keep trying!
Houdini round 3,
Love Skeeter
