We spent a good portion of the morning looking for Lesson 12 of the booklet that Steve wrote and Timothy translated into the Konkomba language. It was written after the first 11 lessons were written. Steve taught the lessons but we cannot find it on the computer and we do not have a hard copy of it either. Finally Steve called Timothy and asked him if he still had his English copy. He said that he did but the last page was missing. We can work with that! We needed to make an English copy for Nana Bekum because his people do not speak the same language as the Konkombas do. Timothy is going to bring what he has tomorrow. We will just have to reverse the process for the last page and have Timothy translate it back into English. We plan on taking the Konkomba copy with us tomorrow and on the way to the bush I will have Timothy translate it; I will be his secretary. When “Plan A” fails, move to “Plan B”!
I forgot to tell you that yesterday after we gave the book satchels to the men, one of them thought it would be a good idea to put the communion juice he bought in the new bag. Really the juice comes in quart size juice boxes like the little kids drink out of. We are not sure what happened but the juice box got smashed and a quart of juice poured out into his bag and ruined the teaching material and the lesson booklet! The satchel actually held the liquid; he was able to pour it out. We had given each man that bought juice a plastic bag to carry it in. I immediately jumped up and interrupted the class and warned the brothers not to put the juice in their bags! We replaced the spoiled items.
This afternoon Steve fought with the copier again; this time he was making the cards and information sheets that we use in the Child Center. He got most of the stuff printed but he felt like he had run a marathon by the time he got finished!
Today is supposed to be our day off; I started a new quilt top today. I got quite a few blocks sewn together.
Zorash called and said that the little girl we sent to Tamale a few weeks ago was ready to be discharged from physical therapy and they needed money to pay for the therapy. When the doctor said that they wanted to keep the child in Tamale for the therapy I asked Zorash how much it would cost; she felt certain that there would be no charge because it was part of her treatment. The day before yesterday the mother sent us photos and a short video of the child in therapy; again I asked Zorash how much this was going to cost. The family does not have much money. Zorash assured me that it was the doctors who owned the physical therapy place and that there would be no charge. When Zorash called she said that they would not discharge the child until the family paid 1,500 Cedis. The family only had 300 Cedis to contribute. Steve sent the rest of the money by mobile money. I could not help but ask Zorash, “Who said they would charge for the therapy?” She laughed and said, “Sister Kandie, you did!”
Take care,
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I had a very good day today! I did not get in trouble! I did not attack Dad’s C-PAP mask! I did not tear up anything so today was a wonderful day even though it was a little boring. Oops! I forgot that I helped myself to a whole apple! I thought for sure that I was going to be able to eat the whole thing! It was great fun chasing that thing around the floor. It rolls just like a ball! Mom said that she was going to cut it up into small pieces and put it in my fruit salad. Everyday Mom fixes fruit for me to eat. It changes from day to day depending upon what she can find in the market. I love guavas but she has only found them one time. Today I had yellow melon (sort of like honeydew but not as sweet), bananas, mango, popcorn, uncooked ramen noodles, unshelled peanuts and papaya. I ate sumptuously today! Of course I had 3 bottles of milk and hopefully I will have a bottle of juice before bedtime tonight!
When Zorash came this afternoon she brought a strange guy with her; her foot still hurts so he drove her to the mission house on his motorcycle. Mom was getting me out of my cage when he came through the gate! I sounded the “Stranger Danger” alarm! The alarm worked very well because he only stayed a few minutes and then he left!
Fruit Salad anyone?
Love, Skeeter
