Dawda did not bring as many people to the jobsite today as he has the past 2 days. Today he made the forms for the cement headers that encircle the building. It is quite the operation considering they only have a limited number of tools. It is amazing that you would contract to do a job and not have the tools you need to do the work. This morning Dawda borrowed a couple hand saws from us to cut the boards to make the forms. The other day he borrowed a level, hammer, crow bar and electric drill. We have to provide them with buckets, shovels and head pans to haul the cement in. Dawda has been a mason for years; you would think that he would have accumulated a few tools by now.
Saturday is payday for the workers so Mr. Iddrisu and spent a couple hours this morning and a couple hours this afternoon making payroll for November and December. It takes him forever to count the money; make the receipts and fill out the pay slips. Of course everything is done by hand. Speaking of money, we still have not gotten the passbook for the savings account we set up 6 weeks ago to put money into so Mr. Iddrisu will not have so much money in the safe in his office. Steve stopped by last week to see if the passbook was ready and the manager told him that there had been a problem with getting them printed and that just now they have started printing again. He would send a text when the book was ready! That is more than a little annoying.
Amama, the lady that cleans, brought Agushie seeds to work this morning. She had about 10 pounds of the seeds. Someone in her area must have been selling them. Agushie is a gourd that is grown for its seeds. The seeds are about the size of pumpkin seeds. The ladies sit and shell the seeds by hand, they are very labor intensive. If the shell does not want to come off the seed they use their teeth to crack them. Job # 101 that I do not want! The seeds are ground and used to thicken soup. The people use them when they do not have meat to put in the soup. We like them but it will take us a long time to use 10 pounds. I bought all of them and gave half of them back to her. She was thrilled! We also roast them in a little oil sprinkled with salt as a snack; sort of like eating roasted peanuts.
A few years ago when these masons and helpers worked for us Steve gave them ball caps. Someone remembered and asked Steve for a hat. We try to keep hats on hand to give as gifts. We had enough that Steve could give each of the men a ball cap. Then Steve felt sorry for the 2 ladies that were working who did not get a cap so he came back to the house and got a couple scarves to give them. Everyone was happy and they were cooler.
Thank you for the love, prayers and support.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
