Happy Valentines’ Day! Most Ghanaians don’t do anything special for Valentines’ Day but with more and more of the western influence we are seeing more and more Valentine related stuff. This morning both the Accra airport and the Tamale airport had hired a singer to entertain us while we waited for our flight! Please, it was so awful! I am not much for music anyway and this was so loud that you could not hear the announcements on the loud speaker. The stewardess on our flight gave each passenger a small bar of chocolate as a Valentine surprise.
Our fight this morning was delayed because of rain. It rained heavily in Accra for about 1 ½ hours. They could not really board the plane in the rain because there are no jet bridges that attach to the plane. They load the passengers on buses and drive to the plane. We walk across the tarmac and climb the stairs to the plane. After the rain stopped, we flew to Tamale. Accra gets a lot more rain each year than we do up here in the north; they actually get enough rain that they have 2 planting seasons.
We were happy to see Red’s smiling face when we exited the airport in Tamale. Red and Steve visited most of the way to Yendi; they had lots of stuff to catch up on!
We were greeted at the mission house with no water. Zorash told us last month that there was a leak in the water line; we told them to get it fixed. Well, last time we checked Donkey had made the repairs; need I say any more? First, they said that the leak had slowed down to a trickle; we told them to get our neighbor Mr. Oldman to get an actual plumber to come and check it. The next time we talked to them they said that the leak had stopped. Well, of course it had stopped; the leak had drained the entire 1500-gallon poly tank! We are sick about the lost water because we harvest rain water to fill the cistern and the poly tanks; we are in the middle of the dry season so we will have to be super careful with what water is left because we won’t get any substantial rain until middle to end of May. We looked in the cistern / reservoir to see how much water was left in it. It still has water but it also has a dead rat in it! Steve is outside right now trying to fish the dead rat out of the cistern. Lucky man! He gets to have all the fun! We will treat the water and it will eventually clear up but it will be several weeks before we can use the water. If worse comes to worse we can have water hauled from the river to refill the reservoir but I am not fond of bathing in river water even if it has been treated. We have 2 large poly tanks that are still full from the water we harvested last year so Steve hooked up the pump and got water flowing in the house again. He only pumped up a little because we will have to repair the leak on Monday but at least, we have enough to take a shower. Life is good!
We wanted to set up the water filter system and use bagged water to wash the vegetables but guess what? The workers used all the bagged water and did not tell us that they had run out. We keep a supply for the workers and visitors outside in the round house. We keep our own supply in the main house. Not only had they used up all their water they came in the house and got our supply so that water source is gone too!
Take care and thank you for the prayers.
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
The Monkeyshines
I am the happiest monkey that has ever lived! My parents came back today! Seriously, I thought they were gone forever! I was suspicious when I saw the blue van pull in the drive way; I saw it leave this morning but I had already retired to my little house for the night when I saw the headlight at the gate. Then I heard that voice, “Skeeter! Skeeter! I am back!” It was definitely Mom’s voice! You know she has a big voice; the kids at camp did a skit about her one time and she was dubbed “the voice that was heard around the world”! I don’t care, that was the sweetest sound I ever heard; I started jumping all over my jail cell begging them to come and get me!
Dad was afraid that I would get away from them because when they left, they took my belt off so I did not accidently hang myself with it. Mom said, “He is not going to go anywhere; he just wants to be held!” I climbed right up into their arms and started making the little cooing noises that I make when I am very happy!
I helped Mom wash the vegetables and I had to have a bite of everything. Dad had to go to town and buy bagged water and he bought me bananas. The fresh fruits and vegetables were delicious! I have been eating frozen fruits and vegetables for 2 months and the crispy crunch was nice! I also had my night time bottle. This is the first time in 2 months that I will be going to sleep with a full tummy!
Thank you for sending my people back home to me!
Love, Skeeter
