This morning Steve attended the continuing education class at the hospital; it was about pain in children. It is definitely something that the nurses need to know about, especially here in Ghana; it is almost like they don’t believe the children are hurting and when they cry, they are usually shouted on instead of being consoled.
Zorash and her women’s group were invited to a demonstration about Coco Plus, a nutritional supplement. The ladies were under the impression that they were going to be taught how to actually make the Coco Plus. We told her that it was probably a vitamin supplement that you add to porridge (Ghanaians call porridge Coco). She did not believe us so we googled the company and found out that it is a supplement that is in a small sachet that is added to already cooked food. She was still skeptical so she talked to the organizer and found out that at the demonstration they were going to cook porridge and show the ladies how to add the supplement. Zorash was so annoyed! The supplement cost 50 pesewas per serving; that would be very expensive to feed to your whole family.
This afternoon Steve started working on a contraption to support the night watchman’s mosquito net. Presently Tichak is turning the chairs that sit on the veranda upside down and using them. He never puts the chairs back where they belong when he leaves in the morning. Steve made a “T” shaped wooden frame and he is going to cement it into an old paint bucket. He is going to make two, one for each end of Tichak’s bed. The mosquito net has strings on the 4 corners. He should be able to tie the strings to the “T”. We will see how well it works. Kwabena does not need frames because he has rope dangling from the ceiling on the Child Center veranda to hold his net.
Later in the afternoon we went out to Kulkpeni to show the mason where we want him to put the wall. He is supposed to start the work tomorrow. We have enjoyed our little holiday from building projects! We are a little concerned about the amount of rain we are getting right now. Speaking from experience we know that walls can fall down if the cement is freshly laid and the rain is heavy. We told John, the mason, that we only wanted him to put up 2 rows of blocks a day so it would have a chance to dry between layers.
Please keep praying for us!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I decided that I like spaghetti! Yes, spaghetti with the red tomato sauce and the mushrooms. I have always liked the dry spaghetti noodles but today I tried the cooked spaghetti and it was mighty fine! Mom was eating it and I think that everything Mom eats is delicious! I even try to get the food out of her mouth. She frowns on me putting my hands on her mouth and I just can’t figure out why! She is always holding me down and taking things out of my mouth so why can’t I take things out of her mouth? She says she only takes things out of my mouth that are dangerous to me or that she does not want me to have like straight pins and thumb tacks! When she offers me something new, like the spaghetti, I smell of it before I take a bite; then I lean over and smell her face to see if she has really been eating it or not. Sometimes she tries to trick me and sometimes it is medicine. I am catching on to her tricks! Something she just pretends to eat so I will try it!
A few mangos have been falling out of the big mango tree. I claim all mangos! They are delicious! We have to wait for some of them to get ripe but pretty soon we will have tons of mangos and then I will share with the workers.
Have a mango-luscious day!
Love, Skeeter
