The carpenters got the roof framed in today and the facial boards put on, well they were one facial board short. Abochi the carpenter is going to have one cut and planed. They will put it up tomorrow without it being painted. Mr. Iddrisu can paint it after it has been put up. All the rafters and boards look very straight.
Mr. Iddrisu came back to work today after his week off to harvest his soybeans and corn. He said that he is almost finished; he is waiting on the corn shelling machine to come to the village and shell the corn. We set Mr. Iddrisu and Nazo to cut the tall grass around the electric poles on the mission property today. After they cut the grass they burned it. Later in the year people will crawl over the cement wall and set the mission property on fire so they can catch the rats, rabbits and squirrels. We hate it but they do it when no one is around. Last year Nazo allowed a herdsman to put his cattle on the property to keep the hunters off. We may have him do the same thing this year. Yet another reason we need to put up a taller wall around the property!
Zorash had a meeting in Tamale today. It probably has to do with “peace keeping”. There are always rumblings of tribal disputes and some of the organizations occasionally have peace keeping meetings to let the people have a platform to voice their concerns.
Red stopped by this afternoon with a load of gravel for the project. Dawda, the mason said that he would need more when he got ready to pour the floors in the new building. Red is going to bring a load of local sand to add to the cement to make a smooth plaster. The local sand is really more like clay. It turns the mortar into more of a stucco type material. They also use termite mounds. We have one that is as tall as I am in the back field. We told him that we could poison the mound and he could use that clay. He said that it has to sit for a while after the termites leave it to soften.
The electricity was off all night and more than half of the day. We are so thankful that we have a generator! Before we had the generator we spent many a hot miserable sleepless nights when the electricity was off.
Steve and I spent the afternoon working on the taxes that we pay in advance for next year. We have found that it is easier to pay them for a full year in advance because they have to be paid in Tamale by the 15th of each month. These are the taxes for the employees. We also figured out next year’s raise.
Thank you for your love, prayers and support.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
