We spent 5 hours in the market today! We decided that instead of money for a holiday gift for the workers we would rather give them some sort of food item. We thought that corn would be the best gift because it is so versatile and they can eat it morning, noon and night which some of them do. We heard that there might be a shortage of corn this year because the government did not subsidize the cost of fertilizer so the farmers did not have fertilizer to put on their corn. We also heard that the price of corn had started going up so we thought it would be a good idea for us to buy the corn earlier than later. When we got to the market we only found a couple vendors that were selling corn and they did not have near enough for us to buy for all the employees. We moved to “Plan B” which was to give rice instead of corn. The rice cannot be stretched as far as the corn can but everyone loves it and they eat it for holidays and festivals. We had a difficult time finding the native rice too; we were able to get enough for 2 of the workers. We wandered all over the market chasing every lead we could find and then Zorash had the idea to go to the grinding mill where they are hulling the rice and see if anyone had some they wanted to sell. Sure enough a lady had 3 bags each weighing about 220 pounds. We started measuring the rice but when we got to the third bag I refused to buy it because it had too many bugs. The lady had a couple bags of rice that were still in the hull so they started running the rice through the machine. We had to wait for them to thrash the rice and then for them to winnow the rice to get off the hulls. Zorash, Meri and Amama decided that they did not want the native rice; they decided that they would like to pay the difference and get the polished rice. It made no difference to us which they got. After the rice was purchased we went from house to house delivering the rice. We could not wait to give it out in December because the rice was still damp from the parboiling and thrashing; it will mold and get buggy if it is not properly dried. We decided that we would let everyone dry their own rice. Everyone was happy with the gift. Timothy Niligrini said, “We have never been able to enjoy this much rice!”
The lumber arrived this morning; Steve dug the trough in the back yard and lined it with heavy plastic sheeting; then it was filled with water and poison. Mr. Iddrisu and Nazo dipped the boards and put them in piles according to their size. Tomorrow Steve will mix a little more of the chemical in a bucket and they will roll the plywood to keep the termites out of it as well. They will also paint the facial boards tomorrow.
Take care and enjoy your weekend!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
