We have a floor in one of the toilets! Yeah! The masons did not work yesterday in respect for Kwabena and the death of his brother. Many of them helped with the burial. This morning when we went out to check on the work the first thing that we noticed was the decking material that is to hold up the metal sheets that will eventually hold the cement were not where we wanted them and whoever was working on it had started chiseling out the holes in the cement walls of the toilet pit. We told John that was not the way we told him to make the framework. They had wasted lots of time! John said that he was not the one that did the mistake! He said that he hired another mason from Yendi to help with the work. He told the mason how to do it but he decided to do it his own way! We wanted to know where the mason was because we wanted to confront him about the mess he had made. John said that he was so annoyed with him that he sacked (fired) him from the work and sent him back to Yendi! I asked if he paid him; he said no he did not pay him and he told him that this was an “international contract” and that we would not agree to do it the traditional way! John and a couple of his men worked on it all day; it looks really good! The neighbor women are trying to steal the gravel that the masons dug out of the pit so we are going to quickly start molding it into blocks! I tell you these people are something else!
Steve and I spent the rest of the day counting money and working on the payroll for the next 5 months. We got 2 months finished; I guess that is what we will be doing tomorrow too!
This afternoon we went to Kwabena’s house with a monetary sympathy gift for the family. The Ghanaians say that they give money to “support the funeral”. We gave some to Kwabena and we also gave a monetary gift to the widow and children of the deceased. The group of men, mostly elderly men from Kwabena’s family, were sitting under a shade tree greeting the guests as they came to show their respect. As is the custom we gave a monetary gift to the elders too. This is only the first funeral. The family of the deceased will provide food and lodging for all the visitors that attend the funeral. They will have the final funeral in one year. That funeral will be much bigger than this funeral. Most of the time the final funerals are combined with other people’s funerals from that same village that died during the year. It is sort of like an annual funeral event.
Enjoy your weekend!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
You know our night watchman Kwabena got bit by a snake! How awful was that? The worst part was the snake left his teeth in Kwabena’s hand! He said that it happens sometimes and that the traditional healer used chewing gum to remove the teeth from his hand! What a terrible waste of chewing gum! He said that someone chews it until it becomes very sticky then they squeeze the teeth and press the chewing gum onto the teeth and do it until the teeth come out in the chewing gum. He said that while the teeth were in his hand it was very painful and he could feel them throbbing but once they removed the teeth the pain was not so bad! That snake needed to go to the “time-out box”! Sometimes I bite but I don’t leave my teeth behind! Snakes can grow their teeth back and so can I! I have lost several baby teeth and I am waiting for my big ones to grow back in!
I wonder if there is a tooth fairy for monkeys!
Skeeter
