We are tired! We have been going non-stop all day! Well, that is not quite true; we did stop for lunch. The men that are removing the thatch were here around 6:00 this morning. They felt certain that they would finish removing everything today but around noon they left. They are coming back tomorrow and hopefully finish the job. When they left they told Steve that they needed to be paid. Steve explained that we could give them half the money but the rest would be paid when they finished the job. They did not complain.
The lumber finally arrived today! Yea! Of course during the time that we waited for 2 new shipments to get here the price of each 2×8 had gone up. Each piece cost us 7 cents more; which increased the cost of our lumber by 33 dollars. Now I know that does not sound like a lot of money but I am so cheap that 7 cents a board hurts me! On top of that the place that got the new load of lumber was on the other side of Yendi so the truck driver added an additional 15 dollars to the delivery cost!
Donkey’s son Zimblim broke his arm while he was playing soccer with his school buddies. Donkey said he was going to go and pick him up and take him for local treatment. I begged him to take Zimblim to the Yendi hospital so they could x-ray his arm and set it properly but Donkey refused. He said that the hospital would take too long. Donkey brought Zimblim to the mission house; his arm was obviously broken; it was just flopping around and Zimblim was holding it. We tried to give Zimblim some Ibuprofen to take the edge off the pain but Donkey refused for him because he said that he was fasting and if he took medicine he would be breaking his fast. Donkey took some tablets for him to take after dark tonight. That poor boy! Zimblim is 16 years old. Later in the morning Donkey brought Zimblim back to the mission house so we could see how the bone setter had set the bones. He said that both of the bones were broken. He had woven small thin sticks into a type of mat. He wrapped the mat around the broken arm. The break was just above his wrist. The mat was tied snuggly with old string and strips of cloth. Zimblim is going to have a tough night!
This afternoon we went to town to buy green oil paint so that Donkey and Mr. Iddrisu can start painting the facial boards tomorrow. We hired a couple of the carpenter’s helpers to dip the boards in the poison (Dursban) to keep away the termites. They are supposed to come early tomorrow morning to start that work. It should not take them too long.
Late this evening Steve and I started hauling the water from the cistern to fill the trench that the boards will be dipped in. I sewed sheets of plastic together to line the trench. Ideally we would have liked to wait and do that job when we had more help but we are leaving at 6:30 in the morning to visit the churches in Nana Bekum’s area. We were happy when we saw Tichak, the night watchmen coming through the gate. I hollered and told him that we needed his help. He helped haul the last 10 buckets of water. Thank you Tichak!
It is 7:00 and we have not had supper yet. Steve is outside cleaning the windshield on the green truck and checking the fluids for our trip tomorrow. The roads are awful; we expect it will take at least 3 hours to get there.
Enjoy your weekend!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I had another scary day today! It was worse than yesterday! This morning a huge truck came into the compound and men jumped out and started making so much noise; they were unloading stacks and stacks of lumber! They were just throwing it off the truck and it was crashing to the ground. They took no compassion on my delicate nerves! Strangers were also in the yard working on the round houses. It was almost more than I could stand. I was so upset that I could not eat. I refused to eat my breakfast; I finally drank my breakfast bottle for Mom when we were safely in the house and all the strange men had gone home. I made up for my lost meals because I drank 2 bottles this afternoon and ate a bunch of fruit! I am worried about tomorrow because those men will be back in the compound and Mom and Dad will be gone!
Mom saves all her empty thread spools. Every once in a while she gives me one to play with. I delight in pulling the labels off the ends of the spools. She has more than 50 spools that she keeps in a plastic bag. While Mom and Dad were busy. I found the bag! Oh! What fun I had digging the spools out of the bag. At one point my whole body was in the bag; that was weird because I could see out of the plastic but had a hard time getting myself out! I pulled out and threw the spools that had no labels out of the bag. Mom said that she did not care that I was playing with the spools because it was keeping me busy.
Please, No More Strangers!
Love, Skeeter
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