Our neighbor, Mr. Oldman, came over for a visit this morning. He brought us a couple hibiscus /ginger drinks that his daughter made. His daughter is around 20 years old and she is trying to figure out something that she can sell to make a living. She already sells dishwashing liquid and shower soap; those are just once in a while item that people need. She started selling the hibiscus drink and meat pies. We will have to stop by and sample the meat pies. The meat pies look like our fried fruit pies only they are savory instead of sweet. They usually are filled with either beef or canned mackerel which has been cooked with cabbage, onions and a bit of hot pepper. If they are fresh, they are delicious.
When Mr. Oldman came Steve was working on the leaking water line. Mr. Oldman stayed and helped him dig up the line. After a trip to the hardware store, they were able to get the old pipe removed and the new pipe put in. It was a little tricky because they could never get the water cut off completely. The hardware store did not have pipe couplers either; fortunately, we had some in our stash that we brought from the states. We also used another connection that we brought from the states that actually allows you to make a screw on connection so if we need to do additional repairs it will be easy to disconnect the pipe.
When we turned on the washing machine the intake hose was leaking; evidently it the rubber /gasket had dried out and caused a leak. This afternoon Steve got that leak fixed too. No need in wasting one drop of water.
The baby that had the double hair lip repair was brought back to the Child Center this morning. His parents were all grins about the transformation that the child has gone through. They are now going to go to Tamale to the hospital for review every 2 weeks instead of every week so the doctors must think that he is doing well. His hair lips extended up into his eye lids. He still has a difficult time fully closing his eyes and he is doing a lot of searching with his eyes when he is talked to so we are not sure that they will not find that he is blind or partially blind. We did not mention that to the parents; they have enough on their plate just keeping the baby alive without worry about his eyes. He is on formula so we will see him every week.
The ladies were happy to see us when they came to work this morning. We have not seen Donkey because Sunday and Monday are his days off.
Hope you enjoy you day!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
Mom has a cold or the flu or something. She was running a low-grade fever today so she did not want to be around me! So sad for me! At least she did not banish me to solitary confinement. She said that monkeys can get colds from people and that sometimes they can be deadly to monkeys. Today I played outside instead of me playing in the bedroom with all my toys and watching TV. I dearly love watching TV, I told you that I love it all except those horses and the dogs! They frighten me! Too scary! Mom put me on the run that is outside the back door; I could see all the goings and comings as they were repairing the water line. I could keep an eye on the Child Center and I could fuss at Amama every time she came out on the veranda! It was great fun! Mom kept me supplied with snacks but everything tasted like hand sanitizer and alcohol. Yuck!
This afternoon I played in the living / dining room while the parents unloaded the suitcases! Oh! Really! Do you think they need all those children’s clothes? They brought me lots of things; my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephew sent me fun stuff to play with. I have already destroyed a squishy ball! They just don’t make things like they use to! Everything is disposable but it should last more than an hour! Please!
Mom fixed me a delicious treat! She tried to get me to eat an overripe banana! What’s going on with that? I ain’t having it! Well, she mashed it up with a fork which did not take much effort on her part because the banana was too far gone! Then she mixed the banana with my cereal and milk; it was delicious! I ate the whole thing! I saw a couple other overripe bananas; I hope she does that again tomorrow!
Never give up on the overripe fruit!
Love, Skeeter
