A new baby with a hair lip came to the Center today. The baby was a little girl. The parents did not have health insurance for her so they could not proceed to Tamale without getting the insurance. The mother was serious about getting the surgery so she went straight to the insurance office and signed the child up. The little girl is about a year old. The insurance is supposed to take effect immediately. Steve gave her mother the money for the transport to Tamale. She said that she had taken the child to Tamale when she was younger but never went for a follow up visit. Many times the families think that the surgery will be very expensive and they have no means of paying for it.
Zorash talked several times today to the father of the 16 year old boy that was shot during the Damba festival. The child is in the hospital in Tamale. The father was in Yendi today; he has been actively searching for money for the operation. We told him that we could give 2,000 Cedis (about 350 dollars) toward the surgery; he has raised 750 Cedis (about 130 dollars). We told him to talk to the doctor that is going to do the surgery and see if he accepts the money and let the family pay the rest when they have time to raise it. Hopefully the doctor will agree. It has been 10 days since the accident and every day the chance for infection increases.
This afternoon we went to town to get the passport photos taken that we need for the Social Welfare renewal. Just before the guy took my picture he said, “Open your eyes!” Well I did and when the photo came out I looked like a “crazy” woman! That photo should go well with the Polices’ Criminal report!
This morning the ladies that work here started the long drawn out process of getting the rice ready to take to the grinding mill to be hulled. Last year I got a wild hair and bought 400 pounds of un-hulled rice because I felt sorry for the woman that was trying to sell it. We sold one bag to Zorash’s ladies group. The first thing we had to do was wash the rice. It was filthy! It took 3 rinses to get it mostly clean. Then they set 2 huge pots of water on the fire to boil. After the rice was rinsed it was put in the boiling water and the fire put out. Now mind you we are doing all this outside in this heat in the middle of the day and we are cooking on 2 wood fires! The rice will sit in the water to soften overnight. Tomorrow there will be more cooking involved. It will have to be cooled and dried on tarps before we can take it to the mill to be husked. I told the ladies that if I ever decided to buy unhulled rice again tell me NO!
Good news! Zorash just left the compound. The doctor agreed to do the surgery without all of the money. This will help the boy and allow the family time to gather more money. Zorash took the money and sent it to the father through the cell phone.
Thank you for all you do for the people of Ghana!
In His Service,Steve and Kandie
