The mother of the little 2 year old little girl that had the hernia repaired called Zorash and said that the surgery had been a success and that they had been discharged from the hospital in Accra and transferred back to Tamale. They are presently in Tamale. The doctors at Tamale said that the child was anemic and they needed to give her blood. They were in the process of administering the blood when she called Zorash. The health insurance does not pay for blood; if the family’s blood does not match they will have to buy blood which will be an additional cost. The hospitals do not accept the mother’s blood or other female relatives because they think the mother’s blood is not good enough to use for a transfusion. They believe women are anemic.
One of Timothy’s dogs got run over. His house is next to the main road leading from Yendi to Tamale. It is a very busy road. The dog liked to sleep on the speed ramp in the middle of the road. Timothy said that during the night someone hit the dog.
Kyie, one of the church members from Kulkpeni brought us freshly dug peanuts that he grew on his farm this year. Kyie is one of the poorest of the poor members; he is very faithful. He seems a little backward but I think part of that is because he cannot hear. He does not speak English; we knew he was coming because he told Timothy and Timothy called to tell us he was on his way with a gift. He had the peanuts in a feed sack but he had the peanuts divided inside the sack; he had some for Steve and some for me. I must say mine were better than Steve’s! I had more in my portion and mine had been washed. Steve’s were still covered with dirt from where they had been dug. I am obviously his favorite! Ha! It was so sweet of him to think about us and to ride his bicycle to the mission house to give them to us! We in turn gave him a little money for his pocket, a T-shirt, a dress shirt and a ball cap. He was all smiles when he left. He wore the shirt to church on Sunday!
Zorash will not be here tomorrow so she stayed late today to make up the time. We had her make a fire and roast the peanuts that we sieved the bugs out of a couple days ago. The peanuts are cooling in the house and they smell delicious!
We had a couple of new “low weight” children come to the Center this morning. It is at the end of the “lean” season and there is very little food available. Many of the children don’t get enough to eat during this time of the year.
Thank you for your help with the children and the work.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
