Steve’s first job this morning was to go to town and buy electricity units. The meters at the mission house and the Child Center are pre-paid meters. We have to buy enough electricity to last for all the time we are gone home for our leave. We have to wait until a few days before we leave to buy the units because if units are not bought at least every 100 days the electric company turns off the power. They said they do this because they figure if someone can go for more than 100 days without buying electricity they must be stealing it! How silly is that? They also charge a monthly fee for the meter box rental, city lights and infrastructure charges. If they let a customer go very long without buying more credit they are afraid they will not get their fair share. In actuality if you don’t buy units every month these charges are taken off the next time you buy.
While Steve was in town he tried to fill the small propane tank but the filling station was out of gas. There is another filling station on the way out to Kulkpeni; we will pass by the station in the morning when we go to Nalongni for worship so we will stop and see if they have any. The gas bottle we want to fill is the one that we have been using to roast the corn and soybeans for the weaning mix. We thought it would be good to have gas on hand in case the Child Center runs out of weaning mix while we are gone.
We got our bedroom, sitting room and bathroom cleaned today and got the floors mopped. I am not sure why we even bother to clean before we leave because we know when we come back there will be a layer of dust covering every inch of the house.
Donkey got the outside of the wall sprayed for weeds; he had done the inside a couple weeks ago. The property is big so we stretch the spraying out over a couple weeks so that he does not get too tired.
Steve had planned on spraying for mosquitoes this afternoon but it has been threatening to rain and he did not want the spray to be washed away.
We are still waiting on the meds that Steve ordered for the Child Center. We hope that they come in before we leave; if not Mr. Hayes ,the pharmacist, will send them out to the mission house. Steve ordered a few weeks ago; he thought he had enough to last until we come back but when we start passing out baby / children’s clothes we use lots more liquid vitamins and vitamin C because every child that is older than 6 months gets multi-vitamins.
Hope you are having a good week-end!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
The Monkey Shines
Mom and Dad took all my inside toys and put them in the jailhouse! They actually did a pretty good job of hanging them around. Dad had to climb in the jail cell to hang them. I have a soft bodied doll and a hard bodied doll that I dearly love. Dad hung one from the top corner of the cage right beside the platform I sit on. They dangled them from a blue ribbon. When I feel the urge to fight with them I can pull them over onto the platform and they cannot fall to the ground. Mom said she did not want them on the ground because they might accidentally get in poop! Wouldn’t that be nasty? YUCKY, YUCK! I also have my ball and a plastic train in my jail cell. At least I will be able to entertain myself!
Donkey is in charge of feeding me because Mr. Iddrisu is off work today and tomorrow. I told you there was a problem with the food that got wet when it rained; Donkey did not want to waste the food so he poured fresh food on top of the old wet food. Mom told him that if the food was wet it had to be changed. He did not change it yesterday so she had Dad tell him today. I am beginning to wonder if he is hard of hearing because today he did not throw out the old food and he did not give me fresh food! The fruit was fermenting and the fruit flies were swarming the fruit. Excuse me I might be an animal (the jury is still deliberating that one) but I refuse to eat rotten soggy food. When Dad saw the condition of my food he called Donkey and had him come back to the mission house and showed him exactly how he wanted things done. Donkey did not realize that spoiled food could make me sick. As soon as I got the fresh food I started filling my cheek pouches with peanuts; they are my favorite! Donkey did not realize that I had cheek pouches; he thought that was so funny! Dad told him that I had to have fresh food everyday even if I did not eat all the food from the day before because I am a picky eater and maybe I don’t like every type of food that is given to me.
Almost starved to death!
Love Skeeter
