Both Mr. Iddrisu and Amama were late for work this morning. They both went to a funeral but it was not for the same person; and they were not in the same area of town.
Yesterday Zorash brought us something new to try. It was chipped up dehydrated ginger, coconut, garlic and honey; quite the combination. We did not really care for it because the ginger was too strong for our liking. This morning she brought 2 more small containers of it and said that she bought it for us. When I paid for it I wondered how in the world I was going to get rid of it. Then I decided that we should try to make Shito out of it. Shito is the hot pepper condiment that is popular all over Ghana. It contains everything that the dehydrated concoction has in it except the honey. I told Zorash about my idea and at first she thought it was a bad idea but then she reconsidered and we got busy making the Shito. The Shito was good but it still had far too much ginger and oil so out of the goodness of my heart I shared it with Meri, Amama and Zorash! I reserved about ½ a cup for myself which I will use next time I make fried rice. I still have one container of the stuff to get rid of but that should not be too difficult. I see dehydrated ginger, coconut, garlic and honey in Timothy Niligrini’s future. HA!
The mother with the child that has the clubbed feet called this morning and said that the doctor was going to put both of the child’s legs in hard casts that would have to be changed out every 3 months. The idea is that the bones are soft enough that they can be reshaped without surgery. It is going to cost 300 Cedis for each set of cast (less than 100 US dollars). After the third set of cast they will fit the baby with shoes and braces. We sent the money to the mother through the mobile money network so that they would not have to waste transportation money to come back to Yendi to get the money for the cast. We love this mobile money deal!
We are nearing the end of the rainy season and all the rivers are flooded. The flooded rivers cover many of the roads. The only way to cross many of the rivers is in a man powered canoe. They will even put motorcycles in the canoes and carry them across the flooded areas. Yesterday one of the canoes capsized and 3 people drowned; so sad. Many of the people that get in the canoes do not know how to swim and of course there are no life jackets. Many mothers that cross have a baby tied on their backs.
We were without power again all night last night because of the trees in the power lines. First thing this morning our neighbor climbed his tree and started cutting the branches. It was not long before the electric company came out with an end loader and pushed down the offending trees. The end loader was able to uproot the whole tree. One of the trees they wanted uprooted wouldn’t fall because the ground was too soft from last night’s rain and they were in danger of getting stuck. They said they would come back later and push down that one. Mr. Iddrisu and Nazo said that my dad planted the trees and they were trying to figure out a way they could claim the trees and harvest the firewood. Steve told them that we were not going after firewood that was on someone else’s property no matter who planted the trees. In Ghana trees belong to the person who planted them even if they do not own the property they planted on. Isn’t that silly? My dad had to buy the big mango tree in the front yard from 2 different people and we had to buy the trees in the back field before we put up the wall or else those that said they owned the trees would always have to be allowed to come on the property to harvest the fruit and to cut firewood.
Thank you for your love, prayers and support.
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
