Zorash did not come to work today because she was called to a meeting between the Konkombas and the Dagombas. A few months ago someone put something out on social media that said the Konkombas (the tribe that Timothy, the evangelists, the night watchmen and most of the other Christians we work with are from) and the Dagombas (the tribe that most of the mothers that come to the Child Center are from; Donkey, Mr. Iddrisu, Zorash, Meri, Amama are also from this tribe) were going to go to fight each other. The government quickly stepped in and sent a peace keeping force to Yendi. They also organized talks with the Konkombas and the Dagombas. At the first meeting they spoke to each tribe separately to gather information; they met today to bring both groups together to discuss peace. We are anxious to find out what was said at the meeting. Zorash will give us a full report tomorrow.
Since Zorash was not here this morning we were short handed at the Child Center. The sun was shining today and the mothers came out in their numbers. By the end of the morning we had seen 52 babies. Most of the babies were fine and just suffering from runny noses and coughs but one of the babies was not doing well at all. He is 2 years 2 months and he only weighs 7.5 kilo which is about 3 ½ pounds. The little guy is fighting an uphill battle because his mother is mentally delayed and has no idea what to do with a baby. He was doing not so bad while he was getting enough breast milk but now he needs additional food in his diet. We loaded the mother up with everything in our arsenal but it is doubtful that the food will make it into his tiny stomach. We may have to see if there is someone else in the house that will oversee his feeding.
The old van has a flat so this afternoon we took the tire to the repair shop to have it patched; while we were out we went to the market and bought dried field peas to give to the malnourished children. We were also almost out of the peanut protein paste so we bought some ground peanut paste in the market. We are going to try and fortify it with the powdered milk, sugar and salt that we put in our own before we grind it; the problem is that the sugar is not going to want to dissolve. When the peanuts are ground they become very hot and the heat melts the sugar during the grinding process. We might have to heat the peanut butter to see if that will work.
Thank you for your help.
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
