Two of the brothers from Frigmado came to the mission house this morning. The Frigmado church building was damaged in the storm a couple weeks ago. Steve told them to take pictures of the damage and come to the compound with an estimate of what supplies needed to be bought and we would help them. They came with the pictures and by the looks of it they were going to need 10 pieces of metal roofing sheets and 6-2×4’s, some roofing nails and 3 and 4 inch nails. Of course they said that the carpenter said that the building needed a whole new roof; more work for him! We told them that we would not help with a new roof because they had already told us that the church wanted to build a new building next year during the dry season. We told them that we would help them with that project too but their immediate need was to close in the existing building so the people will have a place to worship. We gave them enough money to purchase the items and to transport it to their village. They seemed to be pleased.
The tractor came and plowed the back field of the mission property this morning. Nazo let them start plowing before we could talk to them. We like to know how many acres we are paying for and the price per acre before they start. Nazo said that they told him it would be 400 Cedis an acre and the going price is actually 200 Cedis. We told the tractor driver that he had to stop plowing so we could get another tractor to come and finish the job. After much taa-do about nothing we figured out that Nazo had gotten confused about the money because they were talking in old money and new money together. In the end the price really was 200 Cedis so the driver finished the job with a few setbacks. He hit a stone and broke something on the plow so he had to go back somewhere and get another one; then he turned it off and it would not start. Steve tried to jump start it but that failed; then he got one of our batteries and they put it in the tractor, it still would not turn over. Finally Steve got out the log chain; hooked the tractor to the truck and pulled it. Once the tractor was running he was able to finish the plowing. We are not sure what he would have done if he was out in the bush and there was no truck to pull him; I guess he would have used man power!
Steve had to go back to the tax office this afternoon to pay the VAT (value added tax) for the hotel that we will be staying in when we are in Accra on our way home. It has to be paid in the month the money was spent or there will be penalties. Please!
We went to town this morning and picked up the medicine from the pharmacy that we ordered last month. Everything came in except 2 boxes of the malaria medicine. Steve keeps malaria medicine here for the workers. He also picked up the bagged water that he ordered. Our neighbor and friend Mr. Oldman has started selling bagged water so we wanted to support his new business.
Red came by this morning with 4 of his children. His third wife has 4 children; two girls that are about 7 and 5 and a set of twin boys that are 1 year old. We gave the girls dolls and the little boys matchbox type cars; everyone also got lollipops and chewing gum. The twins had already made a mess of their clothes with the lollipops before they left!
Timothy Niligrini also came by this morning; he brought the fabric scraps from the evangelists’ and church leaders’ shirts that he has been making. I was excited to get the scrapes!
Needless to say, we are tired today! Have a good day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
