It is raining; it has been raining off and on for several hours. We are nearing the end of the rainy season so the rains are not coming as strong or as often as they have been. Divine is trying to get his field corn harvested this week; he will not be excited about the rain that we got this afternoon.
Dawuda, the mason came this morning to repair the last storage building that he built. When we were in the back field we noticed that the plaster had a serious problem. It looked like someone had shot the building; the plaster was missing in many places. We asked Dawuda about the problem; he said that the local sand they used to plaster had lumps of clay in it; when the rain hits the clay it melts and separates from the plaster. Needless to say we are not happy about this turn of events! We asked him how to fix the problem; we wanted to re-plaster the building but Dawuda said that if he did that he would have to chip off all the plaster because new plaster will not stick to old plaster. He suggested that we just patch the holes without using the local sand. He started the patching today but it started raining before he could finish. Hopefully the patches he put in had time to harden before it rained heavily. He is supposed to come back tomorrow to finish the job.
Donkey said that the Dunbar festival ended yesterday but that today is the day that they say “Good-bye” to the festival. He said that a group of dancers came over from Togo yesterday with their horses; he said that there were more than 50 horses all dressed out in bright colors. He said that when the horses heard the drums they would start dancing; I am sure that they were jumping around because they were frightened. They brought the horses in big cargo trucks. Togo is the country that borders Ghana on the eastern side. They danced all night; at 3:30 this morning we could hear the gun fire from the palace. Whenever they have a festival the men shoot the guns. The guns are not supposed to have live ammunition in them but sometimes they do.
Meri, Amama and Zorash were able to get the peanuts roasted this morning. The Child Center was dead because everyone was busy celebrating. The peanuts are cooling in the living room and the house smells wonderful!
Donkey said that his wife Aminu is some better but that her hands are still very weak; he said the weakness comes and goes and that it is painful. Hopefully she will get to feeling better in a few days.
Thank you for all you do!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
