Steve is outside barbecuing chicken; 100 degree weather seems a little hot to be barbecuing anything! Maybe the hot weather will help the chicken cook faster and he won’t have to stand out there for so long! Ha!
We roasted 2 batches of weaning mix this morning. The first batch turned out beautiful but we had a little problem with the second batch. We had to go to the hospital to take the severely malnourished little girl, Adamu, more milk, sugar and disposable diapers. We left the roaster cooking while we were gone because it still had 1 ½ hours left to cook. When we came back we could smell something burning. The electricity went off while we were in town so the cooker was not rolling but the gas was still on and it was cooking. The corn that was on the outside edge of the cooker burned. It did not burn just a little, it burned a big crust! Zorash said that it would not hurt the rest of the corn so we knocked the chard corn off and finished cooking it. Tomorrow before we take it to the grinding mill we will pick the burned kernels out of the mix.
We were surprised when the nutritional nurse from the hospital called and said that Adamu was out of sugar. We took them 2 ½ pounds of sugar 9 days ago. That is a lot of sugar for a 11 pound child to eat in such a small amount of time. I told Zorash that we had to investigate to see if someone else was using the sugar. Adamu’s mother said that she did not know she was not supposed to put sugar in everything that Adamu ate. She was putting it in both the porridge and the milk 6 or 7 times a day. Mystery solved. The nurse was a bit put out because the mother was not following her directions but when you are not used to following directions or having more than enough for one meal I can see where it would be confusing.
Dawda the mason brought his crew this morning to start putting the wall back up. They made a lot of headway today; they have almost ¾ of the wall back up. At least now the neighborhood cows, goats and sheep cannot get in!
I forgot to tell you that on Red’s way to Accra to pick up my brother the police arrested him. They arrested him because he did not have a first aid box in the truck! That is the one thing we forgot about when we were getting the truck ready to go to Accra. We bought a new fire extinguisher, checked to make sure the emergency triangles were looking good, made sure the insurance and road worthy stickers were in place and made sure Red had his driver’s license but the first aid box skipped our minds. He said that they threatened to jail him but after some begging and pleading they made him pay a fine instead. You know the fine went straight into the officer’s pocket. The police are so annoying!
Paul called this morning and said that they were on their way to WA. They are planning on spending the night in Techiman. We have not heard if they made it yet or not but with these long trips no news is good news! Paul is not coming to Yendi to visit us.
Our friend Mike M. is recovering at home. Thank you for the prayers.
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
P.S. A tornado went through Sanderson Texas last night and destroyed my Cousin Caleb Smith’s home. They were home at the time but they were not hurt. They are staying with Caleb’s sister. Someone from the neighborhood is missing so please pray for the families that were affected by the storm.
The Monkey Shines
I forgot to tell you that I love to jump (bounce) from place to place. I jump from the bathroom sink to the tub to the towel rack to the back of the toilet. The toilet seat lid was up; I miscued the distance from the tub to the back of the toilet and I landed in the toilet! Yuck! Another bath for me!! I am going to be more careful in the future! I hate bath time!
Twice today Mom took me to the back field to find grasshoppers. This afternoon I actually jumped at one! Mom saw me jump at it; then she asked me if I was jumping at the grasshopper or away from the grasshopper. How insulting!
This morning we found another cashew fruit that had fallen from the cashew tree near the Child Center. I love cashew fruit but it is really not in season right now; this was just a stray fruit left over from earlier in the season. This is only the second cashew fruit I have eaten. The seeds are not good to eat; Mom says that they are full of an acid that will take the skin off my hands so she pulled the seed out before she gave it to me to eat.
I had to spend a lot of time in jail this morning because Mom and Dad were running up and down trying to get things ready for putting the wall back up and going back and forth to town so when I finally got out after lunch I was WILD! I could not sit still; I jumped from one thing to another. I got in so much trouble! Mom said that I was just looking for something to get in trouble over. I pulled the erasers out of the pencils, I took the tops of the pen; I tore up paper and receipts. I tried to take the top off the Wite Out, I sat on the computer just to listen to the noise it made, I pulled several sheets off the post-it –notes, I climbed to the top of the bookcase and jumped down on Mom’s head (that was pretty funny because it scared her), I climbed up and down the curtains, I crawled under the covers, I dumped over my food dish, I dumped out my toy box, I chewed on the computer cords, I climbed up the water filter and I bit Dad on his ear (that was just a love bite). Mom finally got out her fly swatter and I calmed down a little bit. Really I only calmed down because I was exhausted and I needed a nap!
On the Rampage Again!
Love Skeeter
