Red stopped by this morning. He just wanted to say Hi! And to see if I had any luck finding my purse. He worries about us! He also wanted to know if we were able to get the driver’s license and non-citizen card. He wants to start working on the new monkey cage but we told him that we would try and start it next week. Dawda, the mason, also stopped by; there are several masonry jobs that we need done but we dislike building projects so much that we put them off as long as we can. Ha!
This morning a mother and baby were referred to the Child Center. The mother had surgery on her breasts and the doctors do not want her to breastfeed. She said that she has been feeding the baby powder milk because it is cheaper than the formula. The baby was in good shape even though she was on the low side as far as weight is concerned; Steve switched her over to formula. She should gain weight faster on the formula. The baby is 4 weeks old.
Steve also referred a baby to Yendi hospital. The baby was very small when she was born; she only weighed 2.5 kilos when she was born but today, one month later she only weighed 1.6 kilos. The baby lost an alarming amount of weight! The mother has breastmilk but there might be some underlying problem with the baby so Steve wrote the letter of referral. Maybe they will be able to find out what is going on with the baby.
The electricity has been off for the past 3 days from 8:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the evening. They are changing out the big transformer at Yendi sub-station. The new one is supposed to be twice the size of the one they are replacing. We hope that this will solve part of our brown out and electrical shortages.
This morning we took advantage of running the generator and roasted the corn and soybeans for our next batch of weaning mix. When we run the generator, it uses the same amount of diesel if we are just running lights or if we are running lights, hot water heater and corn roaster. It is kind of like a bonus for us! The grains smell good!
This afternoon Steve, Donkey and Mr. Iddrisu went to visit a couple of the chiefs. Someone’s room caught on fire and everything was burned up because the roof was thatch. Thatch roofs go up very quickly. The guy was in his room sleeping; the heat from the fire woke him up. Donkey had gotten a message from Papa Zachariah, our old night watchman asking for support for the man. Well, you can’t just show up and give the money to the guy that had the fire; you have to go through all the protocol and pay far too many people. They had to pay an elder to lead them to the chief’s house, then they had to give the chief some money, then the father of the man had to have his share before they could give the destitute man his gift. Then on top of all that Papa Zachariah is now a chief so they had to give him a gift too. Such is life in Ghana.
Enjoy your day!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I was out of jail almost all day today, even though Mom was not feeling very well. She has some sort of a stomach bug and the amount of hand sanitizer and alcohol she used today was ridiculous! She was afraid that she is going to give her sickness to me or Dad! But really did there have to be hand sanitizer on my milk bottle? That was a bit over-kill if you ask me!
This afternoon Mom tried to take a nap; I enjoyed trying to keep her from closing her eyes! It was great fun! I climbed under the covers with her; I chewed on her toes; I filled the bed with toys and I ate my snack in her bed! She spent a good portion of her nap time trying to hide her head and feet under the covers so I could not get to them! Needless to say, Mom did not get much of a nap today!
No more naps for anyone! Naps are outlawed!
Love, Skeeter
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