We are spending the night in Tamale because the air conditioner repair man was not able to get the part he needed to fix the van’s AC here in Tamale. It is coming from Accra on the overnight bus. If all goes well it will be here first thing in the morning. He said that he should be finished by tomorrow afternoon.
We also met up with the auditor and were able to pick up the annual audit for the Child Center. We were assured that it had been filed and everything was in order. We then presented the paperwork for the land and the property. It will also have to have an annual audit even though there is really no business other than the Child Center that is being carried out on the property; just another hoop to jump through. We will check on it in a couple weeks to see how they are coming along with that audit.
Mr. Iddrisu’s mother broke her hip or leg or something. His mother is blind because of her cataracts. She refuses to go to the hospital to have them removed because she said that if she went she would die.About a year ago we bought her a wheel chair so it would be easier for her to be moved from point A to point B. Mr. Iddrisu does not have a flush toilet in his house; he has an outhouse so his mother uses a chamber pot. He said that she fell off the chamber pot and broke her hip. We told him to take her to the hospital. He said that his family believed if she went to the hospital with a broken leg they would cut off the leg. Well, that is not true but there is no use arguing with ignorance. We asked him what he was going to do and he said that they were going to treat it locally with traditional medicine. He said that the accident happened 3 days ago and that the traditionalist had already started treating it. I asked what exactly was involved in the local treatment. He said that the healer found went to the bush and dug up roots and burned them to make charcoal which he then mixed with Shea butter to make a paste to put on the broken bone. I asked him how they knew that the leg was broken. He said that it just flopped when they picked her up. She is not to eat anything that has Shea butter in it because the concoction is made with Shea butter and that would work against each other. He also brought a clay pot that had uncooked leaves he had gathered. The leaves were soaking and decaying in the clay pot of water. The healer comes every day and washes her leg and reapplies the concoction. He said that the most amazing thing was that he (Mr. Iddrisu) had to buy a fowl (chicken) and after some rituals the healer broke the same leg on the chicken that Mr. Iddrisu’s mother broke. Where is PETA when we need them? The healer put the chicken in a basket to watch. He said that when the chicken’s leg is healed his mother’s leg would be healed. I asked what he was giving his mother for pain. He said that the healer said that they should not give her anything for the pain because pain was an indicator that it was healing. Mr. Iddrisu said that she did not seem to be in as much pain as when she first broke it. Of course she still cries and screams when they help her move. Poor thing!
Thank you for all you do.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
