Divine just left; he came to pick up transport money so that he could go to Tamale and pick up the church’s paperwork. He said that he had to go tonight because the auditor was flying out tomorrow to go somewhere. We need the documents so that the church leaders can come in and sign the documents. We were pleased that the auditor told Divine that he had the forms for both 2022 and 2023. Every year this is a headache and we will be pleased when this is behind us.
Dawda, the mason, started working on the sleeping quarters at Kulkpeni this morning. Steve and I were at the jobsite most of the morning. We were demarcating the land, hauling cement, renting wheelbarrows and everything else that was needed to make the masons’ work easier for them. It is always difficult building out in the village because building materials are not readily available and we don’t have access to the mission house’s storeroom. We needed to buy some chippings (strong gravel) for the foundation; someone was selling the chippings right beside the church property. We walked around the pile of chippings to mark the foundation. Buying chippings should be an easy thing. The mason could just turn around and dip their shovels into the chippings but NO! The guy selling had no means of selling them unless we bought a motor king full. There were no motor kings for rent in Kulkpeni this morning. We asked if he would sell us a pickup truck load; he said no because he did not know if he was getting cheated. Really! Timothy Niligrini called everyone he could think of and we stopped a motor king on the way and asked if he could help us. He could not. Finally we went back to the mission house, fueled our motor king and had Mr. Iddrisu drive it to Kulkpeni so we could use it to measure the chippings! The pile of chippings was so close to the place they were mixing the mortar that Mr. Iddrisu did not even start the motor king to move the chippings; the men just pushed it.
Timothy’s little boy that has spent the weekend in the hospital was discharged this morning but his motorcycle would not start so on one of our trips to town we picked Rita and the little boy and took them out to Kulkpeni.
The masons got the foundation dug today and they got the footer poured. They will start setting blocks tomorrow.
A new orphan baby came to the Center this morning. The baby weighs 2.2 Kilos which is about 4 and ½ pounds. This baby is a Konkomba baby and the family was considering taking the little girl to the orphanage and leaving her there until she was big enough to go to school and then they would go get her and bring her back to the family house. Timothy advised them against the orphanage and he told them about the Child Center. We are happy for the baby’s sake that they took Timothy’s advice.
Have a great day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
Skeeter’s Monkey Business
What’s with these people and taking baths? I have lived my whole life without taking a single bath and then when I move in here they keep shoving me under the water faucet in the kitchen sink! Can you tell that I hate being given a bath? Mom says in such a sweet voice, “Come here Skeeter, it is time for your bath. You are a stinky monkey and we must do something about that.” Really, who can enjoy water in your face and soap all over your body? It might not be so bad if they had hot water in the sink but no, it is just cold water! At least the bath does not take too long and the Johnson and Johnson’s baby shampoo smells nice! You know that baby shampoo is the “No Tears” formula. Oh! the things I have learned since I was adopted!
Yesterday was Sunday and it was another long day without anything to eat except that bowl of fruit Mom put in my cage. I was too upset by being left alone to eat any of it. At least they were not gone as long yesterday as they were on Friday when they went to Tamale. On Friday I thought they had abandoned me!
I had to go on another hunger strike! Someone sold some homemade weaning mix to Dad in the Child Center and Mom wanted to see if I would eat it. Well it was awful; it tasted burned! I was having none of it. Mom offered it to me off and on all morning. Finally around noon she figured out that I was not going to starve before I ate it so she fixed me a bottle of my favorite porridge. Some people just don’t learn!
Enjoy your bath time!
Love Skeeter
