We have been having problems with the electricity at the Child Center again. This seems to be an ongoing problem. This morning Steve called Sayibu, the electrician; he said that he believed the problem was with the meter box. His idea was buying a new pole and connect it to the meter at the mission house. How silly is that? Steve went to VRA, the electric company this afternoon and one of their electricians came out to check on the problem. The problem was that someone, probably Sayibu had opened the meter box and removed the security lock. When the security lock is tampered with the meter box is rendered in inactive. This is done in an effort to keep people from stealing electricity. The VRA electrician resealed the system; then we had to take our prepaid electricity card back to their office to have it reactivated. After all was done and said the lights are back on and we will have security lights tonight!
This morning Zorash and I went to town and bought 220 pounds of dried shelled field corn to take to the funeral ground to help support Mr. Iddrisu’s mother’s funeral. Papa Zachariah, our old watchman is related to Mr. Iddrisu so the funeral is at his new chief’s house. He got a new house when he became a sub chief last month. We had not been to the new house and we had not yet taken him a gift for becoming a sub chief so we killed 2 birds with one stone this afternoon. After we got back to the mission house with the corn we loaded Meri, Amama, and Zorash up in the pickup and headed to Papa’s house. We gave the corn and a small monetary gift to grind the corn to Papa for the funeral and then we presented Papa with his own gift to recognize his new position. Papa was happy to see us but Mr. Iddrisu was not there. He had gone home. Papa said that he would come back this evening. As a thank you for the gift Papa gave us a hand full of kola nuts and 20 Cedis. We took the 20 Cedis and added another 10 Cedis to it so we would have enough to divide evenly between the 3 ladies that went with us.
This morning while I was washing clothes, Amama told me that the large green hybrid mangos sitting on the kitchen counter were spoiled and that I should throw them away. I tried to tell her that they would be good for chutney but she had no idea what I was talking about so between loads of laundry I peeled and chopped a couple of the green mangos. I then turned them into chutney; I used turmeric to make it a beautiful yellow-orange color. I seasoned it with salt, hot red pepper, sugar and fresh grated ginger. It was delicious! I toasted some bread and spread some on top for the ladies to try. They loved it and could not believe that something they would have thrown away would have tasted so good! They called it “jam”. Zorash said that she wanted to know exactly how to make it and that we needed to make PLENTY because it was so good. We used the rest of the green mangos and ended up with almost 3 quarts of chutney jam. Of course we divided it so everyone could have some to take to their own houses. They are going to eat it for breakfast with bread and tea.
Thank you for the love, prayers and support!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
P.S. Steve only made 2 trips to the tax office today!
