The masons finished pouring the footer; did I mention that they are mixing all the cement by hand on the ground? It is amazing how hard they work! They also got the first 2 courses of blocks laid for each room and the veranda. It is looking good. Mr. Iddrisu and Nazo helped them today. They were the cement haulers. Of course they got extra pay for helping so they were happy.
The masons cannot do any more work until Red brings the fill gravel for filling and leveling the foundation. Red does not work on Friday; he said he will bring the gravel on Saturday. We get the day off tomorrow! Hey!
They broke one of the handles on one of the wheel barrels that we rented. Dawda, the mason told us just to take it back to the man we rented it from and don’t worry about fixing it. He said that it is not our responsibility. Now we all know that there would be a stink if we took a one handled wheelbarrow back; a Ghanaian might get away with that but we couldn’t. We took it to Red’s shop; the handle is hollow so we had them put a pipe inside the handle and weld it. It is now stronger than the unbroken handle.
Steve turned the keys to the motor king over to Mr. Iddrisu; he went to town and bought the cement and ran back and forth to the job site with the things the men needed. That was a big help.
This morning a lady came from Divine’s village. She was worried about her baby and she thought that she did not have enough breast milk. We encouraged her to exclusively breast feed; we gave her multivitamins and baby clothes, hat and socks. She was very happy with the baby clothes.
This afternoon we went to town a couple times trying to find a new shaft for the wheel barrel that belongs to the mission house. The bearings had come out of the wheel. Yesterday we found new bearings and had them put in. The problem is that the hole in the new bearings was smaller than the original bearings and the shaft would not fit. We even went to the scrap metal yard to see if we could find something that would work. Finally we stopped and talked to Gomda, the vehicle mechanic. He said, “Just wait small!” A few minutes later he reappeared with a 14 in long bolt that will work. It is nice to know people who know people!
Someone asked who our niece Tera belongs to. Tera is my (Kandie) brother Buz’s youngest child. Buz is my brother that we lost last year with ALS. She is in her early to mid 30’s; I am not a very good Aunt; I don’t even know how old she is. Let’s get real I don’t know how old I am most of the time because it keeps changing. She has 2 daughters, a one year old and a 6 year old. Tera is struggling with cancer. Please, please, keep her and her family in your prayers.
Thank you for all your help.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
