The seminar is in full swing! Some of the people arrived last night; the ones that lived far away and the evangelists and their wives. Nana Bekum, the evangelist who was not sure if he would make it or not because of the fighting that is in his area came this morning with a group from his area. He said that things had calmed down.
The last count we had before we left for the evening was 533; that includes children. Rita, Timothy’s wife and the head cook said she was worried about the food. She decided to cook all the peas because more people were in attendance than last year. She cooked 325 pounds of dried black-eyed peas for supper; that is 75 pounds more than last year. She actually cooked the peas that were for lunch tomorrow so we had to buy more beans. Fortunately one of the ladies that is helping cook had peas that she wanted to sell. Tomorrow’s lunch is a combination of beans and rice.
We had more ladies attend this year than we expected and they were complaining that they would be crowded in the church building so on one of the many trips back to the mission house today we gathered up all the tarps and curtains and I stopped by the market and bought king sized comforter so that we could add sides to the canopies and make an additional sleeping area. Timothy thought it was a great idea and he thought that the men would be willing to give the big round pavilion to the women and sleep in the makeshift tent; I personally did not think that they would agree to the new arrangement and I was right. The men refused to move so we offered the area to the ladies. After all the ladies were the ones that complained about the cramped sleeping quarters. Ha! I doubt that anyone will use the area we set up but at least they have an option. We will have to build another set of rooms to use for sleeping before next year’s seminar.
I lost track of the number of trips I made to Yendi. I caught a little bit of Timothy’s lesson this morning but I missed all of Steve’s. The mason’s are plastering the training center and they had to be checked on several times today. They needed food money and at the end of the day they needed to be paid. The building is looking good. We went ahead and bought additional cement so they would not run out tomorrow.
This afternoon Steve had to stop in town and buy 2 more padlocks. We were surprised because the guy that is in charge of the rooms had opened the locks but he said that the locks spoiled from the time he opened them until the time he handed out the keys. Steve bought the padlocks but we did not use them because when we checked the locks he had gotten the keys mixed up. The padlock key has the room number on it but the locks are not marked.
Amama did not come to work today because her uncle that raised her died. They have a strange custom here that involves who announces that a woman is pregnant. Amama’s aunt was the one that announced to the family that Amama’s mother was pregnant. The women try to keep their pregnancy a secret as long as possible. If your aunt reveals the secret you (as a baby) become the property of your aunt; you go live with your aunt and you call her mom. I said all that to say that the man who died was the husband of Amama’s surrogate mother.
Please keep us and the seminar in your prayers! We are pooped!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
