Red just left. He was happy when he left; not only did he get paid for the gravel but he got fried chicken. He loves fried chicken. I cooked some for supper and the house smelled heavenly! He hauled 5 loads of rough gravel today. I still am not sure exactly what Dawda is going to do with all the gravel. He used 4 loads to fill the foundation but this is not the type gravel they use for pouring floors and casting pillars. I guess if they have too much I will hire someone to haul it back up to the mission house. If we leave it at the back of the property it will slowly get washed away and disturbed every time they plow the fields. Red is going to bring a load to the mission house for us to use around the building and to cover exposed pipes.
I was so disappointed this morning when I opened the small chest freezer to get the ice for the mason’s water cooler I noticed everything was melting. I still had enough ice for the masons. Fortunately the rest of the stuff in the freezer is rice, beans, and other grains. I keep that stuff in the freezer to keep the bugs out. We just bought the freezer new in March. Really, it should have lasted longer than that. We unloaded the freezer and took it to “Boat” the refrigerator / air condition repair man. He said that the compressor was not working. He bought a new for 250 Cedis (about 50 dollars). Maybe it will last longer. The problem is that the electricity surges up and down so much that it burns stuff up. Boat told us we should try running it on a voltage regulator.
Mr. Iddrisu is sick; he is coughing and wheezing! Steve said that he did not recognize him when he called to say he was not coming to work today. Meri still has not come back; I guess her baby is still coughing. Of course we are worried that it is the Corona virus and we do not want to get it.
Abukari Alhassan, the outdoor toilet contractor, came by later this afternoon and we went out to Kulkpeni so he could measure the sites for Timothy and Tichak’s toilets. Timothy is feeling much better. They are excited about getting out houses. On the way back to town we had a flat tire. We were on the dirt road; Steve pulled the rubber mats out of the floorboards of the van so he would have something to lie on. The tire was so flat that we had to jack it up; support the axle; let down the jack and jack it up again. Steve almost had it high enough to get the spare on when the jack bottomed out again. A man that lived nearby came to our rescue; he brought out his cutlass (machete) and dug out a place that was deep enough for us to get the tire on. It is nice to know there are “good Samaritans in the world”.
Please continue to pray for us and for our niece Tera.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
