Adamu, the severely malnourished child, came to the center this morning; she had been discharged from the hospital and her mother said she was doing better. Steve encouraged her to give her all the medicine that the doctor prescribed. Adamu is now crawling; she does a sort of butt combination crab crawl but at least she is moving. She is much more verbal, even though you cannot understand what she is trying to say and she has started waving and saying “Bye-Bye!” All these accomplishments are wonderful! Today she weighed 7.4 kilos (16.89 pounds) this is monumental considering at her lowest she only weighed 3.8 kilos (8.36 pounds). Her weight is still very low for her age but at least she is still gaining. Her mother is all smiles and so anxious to show us everything that she is learning to do.
It started raining this afternoon about 3:30 and has been raining ever since; at times the rain has been heavy. The cistern is full and overflowing; we had to divert the water from the cistern and let it run out in the gutter. It hurt my heart to see the water running down the gutter! Steve was able to pull up a weather map and the storm is big so it might rain all night. Zorash is so funny! When we got the last big rain she was able to fill all of the water containers in their house. She said, “While I was catching the rain water I kept asking, “Who is paying for all of this water? The water company is losing today!”
When I was telling Zorash about the man who was accused of getting a girl pregnant she told me a worse story. She said that she had been actively defending a young man who had been accused of kidnapping and raping a teenage girl. She said that the girl was a liar; she said she knew the house where she was kept and who had kidnapped and raped her. When the police tried to get the girl to show them the house where she was held she took them to a house that did not belong to the man she was accusing. Still the police charged the man 25,000 Cedis; supposedly 15,000 Cedis was to go to the girl and 10,000 Cedis was to go to the police for the investigation, doctor, etc.. Zorash and the man’s friends helped him find 15,000 Cedis and the police gave them a few days to come up with the other 10,000 Cedis. They also seized the papers to his house so that he would not run away and not pay the additional money. They are to wait for 3 months and test the girl to see if she is pregnant. If she is pregnant they will wait till the baby is born and do DNA testing. I guess that if she is not pregnant there is nothing more that can be done.
Mr. Iddrisu got his new glasses. He is supposed to be wearing them all the time but he only wears them once in a while. What is the point in having glasses if you are not going to wear them?
Take care and have a wonderful day!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
Mom is so proud of me! I love to steal the straight pins while she is sewing! Anytime that she turns her back or walks away from her sewing station I dash over and steal a pin. I love the ones that have the flat plastic flower on the top. I put the pin in my mouth and wait for someone to notice that I have a pin. The parents start chasing me around and I am very good at dodging them! When I finally let them catch me I hold onto the pin as tight as I can and make them struggle to get it out of my mouth. Today I stole a pin and jumped up on the office chair to wait for the game to begin but the tables were turned! Mom gave me the “eye”; you know the eye only a Mom can give! She never even got out of her chair; she shook her finger at me and scolded me! She said that I was a naughty monkey and that I was to bring that pin to her right now and that she was not going to put up with any more of my nonsense. I was confused; she kept talking! Moms sure can talk when they are not happy with you and you are in trouble. I hopped down off the chair and walked over to the chair where she was sitting and dropped the pin and picked up a piece of popcorn. Mom was so happy! Oh! The accolades I got for putting the pin down. I heard her telling Dad what a good monkey I was. I bet it was not 15 minutes later when I found another pin. As soon as Mom saw it out came her finger and then “the Look”. I immediately dropped the pin; there is no way I wanted to go through that ordeal again. I can be taught! Now if I will remember the lesson, tomorrow is another thing altogether!
As soon as it started raining Dad came and rescued me from my jail cell! We had to dash back to the house in the rain. I did not know that Dad could actually run! He hates to get wet as much as I do! I was happy to get inside the house and dried off!
The Evil Eye Strikes Again!
Love, Skeeter
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