We went to the auditors this afternoon. We successfully turned in the documents and signed the paperwork. Almost every year they require something new. This year they changed the forms and instead of requiring 2 signatures they had places for 3 of the GNCDC directors to sign. There are 4 directors but in the past everything could be done with just 2 of the 4 signatures. We thought that we were going to have to take the forms back to Yendi to get them signed and make another trip to Tamale. We were happy when the auditor said that we could just initial Divine’s portion. The auditor assured us that there would be no problem with the initials; we sure hope he knows what he is talking about! Of course every year we have to do much dickering over the cost of the audit. If we did not argue about the cost it would come to the place that we would have to look for a new auditor. This year the auditor was particularly stubborn so we settled on giving him his price this year and holding the same price for next year’s audit. We will see how that works out for us!
We did not leave for Tamale until after we closed the Child Center; fortunately we did not have much to do in Tamale other than take care of the audit. After we finished with the auditor we went to the new shop that the Chinese have brought to Tamale. I think the store has almost every cheap plastic thing that China has ever made! You have never seen so much plastic under one roof! We needed plastic cable ties to latch down our luggage; I bought some mounting tap to attach a small light to my sewing machine but somewhere along the way I must have dropped it because I did not get back to Yendi with it!
Donkey did not come to work today and he is not coming tomorrow. He is helping harvest the Ya-Na’s corn. Ya-Na is the king of this area. Everyone that helps with the planting, weeding and harvesting will get some of the corn. Donkey has helped every step of the way so he should get enough to feed his family during the dry season. He will make up his days on his next days off. We wish Mr. Iddrisu could get on the corn working because he is always in need of food but his back would probably keep him from working hard like the other men do. Mr. Iddrisu is one of the Ya-Na’s nephews; he has hundreds of nieces and nephews because of the polygamy that surrounds the palace. Mr. Iddrisu told us that his father had 5 or 6 wives and he does not know exactly how many brothers and sisters he has but he knows he has over 30. Your family would grow in a hurry like that. Mr. Iddrisu is also the last born in his family. His father died when he was just a small boy and he went to live with other relatives.
On our way back to Yendi we stopped to see how the foundation for the new 4 room building was coming. We were disappointed that they did not put the building on the property line. Steve had done a good job of explaining to Timothy and even showing him where the line was. When Steve asked why the building was not put on the line Timothy said that someone had planted hot peppers on the line and they did not want to disturb the peppers with the building! Excuse me! They just gave part of the church land away by shifting the building! It is difficult for people to connect the dots and see what is going to happen.
Take care,
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
While Mom was working on the books this morning I figured out that I could reach the computer bag that she had put the stuff for the audit in along with the rubber stamps. The bag was unzipped! When Mom was not looking I pulled the bag down and started dragging stuff out. I tore the boxes off the rubber signature stamps; I pulled the papers out of the folders; I chewed up one of the folders. As soon as I saw the look in Mom’s eyes I knew that I was in serious trouble! You know the look I am talking about! The stink eye look only your mother knows how to give! I got a double stink eye look this morning! While she was scolding me I hung my head and tried to act like I was innocent but that did not work! After my scolding I was good for the rest of the morning!
Mom and Dad left me again today but at least it was not for so long this time! Mom also left me lots of snacks and fresh fruit which I loved! I was still starving when they got home! The first thing I did was drink a bottle of cereal /milk and I immediately followed that with ½ a bottle of pineapple juice. This is the first time that I have had pineapple juice. I guess Mom thought that because I like pineapple I would like pineapple juice. It took me several sips before I decided that I liked it. In the past I have only had grape juice and passion fruit juice. The passion fruit is blended with apple juice.
You people have to start zipping your bags!
Love, Skeeter
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