The monkey man came back this morning to trim up another of the mango trees that has been affected by the fire blight. He got here around 8:00 but Steve and I had been working on the wood since 6:15 this morning. I will have to find out what the guy cutting the trees name is because I can’t keep calling him “monkey man” even though Mr. Oldman refers to him as a monkey man. His work was not as hard today because he was just cutting off the outer branches with the diseased leaves. He could cut through most of the branches with one or two swings of his machete (cutlass). He did not have to use the ax much today. By the time he was finished the branches and leaves were piled chest high all around the tree. These trees are huge! Steve used his electric chain saw to cut up the branches and I piled and burned the brush. The man that was cutting wanted to know why I was burning up the small sticks. He said that he needed them for fire wood. Then I started only burning the leaves. He is going to come tomorrow and cut the leaves off all the branches and haul them away; that made our lives a whole lot easier. We still have lots of large branches to cut up. Steve is out there now cutting.
Zorash came to the mission house twice today even though she is on holiday. The caregivers of a couple of the orphans needed formula so they called her to come and get the formula for them. Both of the babies were doing well and had gained weight. Today was Zorash’s lucky day because when she came we had a load of large firewood on the motor king; she said that she needed firewood at her house. We loaded the small sticks on top of the big wood and Steve delivered it to her house.
Yesterday and today Papa Zachariah, the night watchman, picked out the fresh green mango leaves and carried them home on the back of his bicycle. He feeds them to his sheep. He will be pleasantly surprised tonight when he comes to work at the amount of new leaves that are on the ground.
I have been on the phone most of the afternoon trying to get signed up for Medicare and an Advantage plan with Blue Cross. What an ordeal! After I had been on hold for far too long my cell phone came on with a message that said I only had one minute left to talk because my credits were expiring. The cell phones we have use the pre-paid chips so when you run out of units it cuts you off. I had to call back and wait on hold again. They want us to go on line but really the internet connections are very sporadic!
I am going to go and pull the brush behind Steve; have a great day! Our son Aaron is still in surgery. They were an hour late getting him into surgery. Please pray for him and the surgeons. This is one of the things we hate about being so far away!
In His service,
Steve and Kandie
P.S. As I am sending these Yendi Notes Aaron is out of surgery and in recovery. We thank everyone for their prayers!
