We have sad news today. The severely malnourished abandoned little girl came back this morning and she did not gain any weight; in fact she lost weight. She now weighs less than she did when she first came to see us. Last Wednesday she weighed 5.8 kilos but today she only weighed 4.9 kilos. Steve told the grandmother to take her to the hospital to see if they could find anything wrong with her. Sometimes these severely malnourished children do not show the same signs of illness as regular kids because their little systems shut down anything that is not vital for survival; many times infections do not register with a fever. Sometimes a round of antibiotics is given to them just a precaution in case they have an infection. We have hesitated to send her to the hospital because if they put in a feeding tube many times it makes them afraid of eating. We feel like the problem is that no one in the house has the time and energy to feed her at regular intervals. The teenage girls try but they also have to do their share of the house work, searching for water, going to the bush for firewood and washing clothes. We found out that one of the teen girls goes to town most days to hunt for work; she will haul things for the market vendors to make a little money. It is just a sad, sad situation.
Today we hauled used lumber and scaffolding from the mission house out to Kulkpeni. Dawda, the mason will use the lumber to make forms for the lintels above the doors and windows. Red is making the rebar structures to go inside the forms. We have not yet found someone to mold additional blocks for us. The boys Timothy hired have flaked out on him; the man Dawda knows is now working on another job and the man one of the other masons knows wanted to charge us almost double what the going rate is. We don’t need blocks that desperately! Dawda thinks he will have enough to finish this building. We were going to make extra for the bath houses and for the building we will build later in the year. That might get put on hold.
Two of the brothers from Kakpande came to the mission house this evening to finish the church’s paperwork. Three men headed to Yendi but one of the motorcycles broke down and one of the men had to stay in the village while the motorcycle was being repaired. Steve gave them their transport money plus some to help fix the motorcycle.
Zorash is in the process of building a building on her families’ property in Yendi. We asked her if she had to have a building permit like we had to have to build the training center. She said that she did not because no one in Yendi is getting a permit. She said the only reason we had to have one was because we went to the planning office and asked about it. Well, yesterday the District Assembly called her to come to their office. They told her that she could not continue until she had a building permit and a blueprint of the structure she was going to build. Surprise! Surprise!
Have a great day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
Skeeter’s Monkey Business
Did you know that there are huge birds in this house? I am terribly afraid of birds! When a bird flies over I lay on the ground as flat as I can get; I don’t want to be scooped up! Today I found out there were huge birds in the house; Mom says that they are ceiling fans but I don’t believe her; I am sure they are going to swoop down and snatch me up. The first one I saw was in the kitchen but they are in the living room too! I have a special noise I make when I detect danger. It is like I am shouting “Danger ,Will Robinson, Danger!” cry! I must alert everyone that danger is near!
I am an escape artist! I figured out how to get out from under my laundry basket. They make me sleep under an upside down laundry basket and when they eat their meals they put me under the basket. Don’t you think that it is “Child Abuse” not to be allowed to eat with the family? It is actually pretty comfy under the basket because I also have a plastic shoe basket I can crawl in and there is a towel on the floor. I can escape from under the basket if I try real hard. I cry when I am under the basket but when I got out I cried even harder. Mom and Dad were in their bedroom. I was not sure how to get their attention because crying did not help so I went to the bedroom door and started jumping on it. They were surprised when they opened the door and there I stood! Dad scooped me up and put me right back under the basket because they had not finished eating. To make sure that I did not get out again he weighed down the basket. Bummer!
Just call me Houdini
Love Skeeter
