Kwabena, one of the night watchmen, came to the compound this morning. He said he had a problem that he needed help solving. When we hear this, we suspect that it is a financial problem of some sort. His son’s wife delivered a baby girl yesterday. It was not time for the baby to come so she was a little early. Normally, they do not keep the mothers in the hospital more than a few hours unless there are complications. They are giving the mother IV drips, iron, folic and a couple types of antibiotics. We presume that she is anemic but no one is sure if she was anemic before the delivery or if she lost a lot of blood. We asked if they were talking about giving her blood and he said no one had mentioned her needing blood. We asked if her blood pressure was high and he said it was not and that the doctors have not told them what they are treating her for. Kwabena asked if he could get his pay a few days early. Steve gave him his pay and helped pay for the medicine she already had been given. Kwabena said that the baby seemed to be doing well, that she was able to breastfeed which is a wonderful thing, especially since she came a little early. Kwabena said he did not know when the baby was supposed to be born and that the baby was little, but not too little. We sent some small baby clothes with him. He was pleased that we were able to help them. Our thanks go out to those of you who help with the babies and whatever comes up.
Steve spent part of the afternoon cutting the bushes and trimming the trees that are here in the compound. He busied himself cutting the bushes while he waited for the lower polytank to fill with water. We are very excited because we have not detected any leaks yet! I say yet because 1,500 gallons of water puts a lot of pressure on connections and until the tank is completely full, we cannot be sure that there are no leaks but it looks very promising! Steve came in a few minutes ago and said that the lower tank was ¾ of the way full and that he was going to start the transfer pump and fill the upper tank! He is pulling the water out of the underground reservoir. He treats the water with chlorine.
Dauda, the mason, called this afternoon; he wanted us to pay for the transport to send his children to the boarding high schools that they are assigned to. He said that he had all their supplies and food already bought and all he lacked was the transportation. We kindly declined to help. We told him we do not have any money that is allocated for helping with school fees. He was disappointed and he could not ask for a loan against the wall repairs because he already has a loan. We had another job that we needed him to do which he could have done while it was raining but he was gouging us on the price so we told him we would find someone else to do the job. You see he should have taken the job at our price and he would have had the money for his children’s transportation! Red told me a proverb once; Mr. Iddrisu had borrowed money from him and had not made any effort to pay him back. I asked him why he did not demand that he pay back the money. He said, “We have a proverb; “if a man has borrowed your chicken and not paid it back, he cannot ask for your cow!” He went on to explain that he was happy that Mr. Iddrisu owed him a small amount of money because that meant he could not come and ask him for a larger amount of money!”
Take care and enjoy your day!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
This morning when Mom came to get me out of my condo I was being cheeky! She came in and sat down on the stone bench with my bottle and a few raisins in hand. I totally ignored her for at least 15 minutes! I climbed to the tip top of the condo and started playing with my lemur (my lemur is a stuffed animal with a long tail that has stripes on it)! Then I rolled around on my hammock, fighting with the stuffed opossum! Then I made several trips in and out of my cat tunnel. Did I tell you that the cat tunnel has some sort of crinkly plastic inside so that when you jump on the tunnel or dash through it makes the most wonderfully annoying sound! When I thought Mom was not paying attention to me, I would jump down on her shoulder and dart away! She sat there so very patiently but then I could not help myself anymore; I jumped on her shoulder and bit it! Oops! Not a good move! I did not bite her hard; I did not make a mark or a bruise but that woman was up in a flash! She shook her finger at me and said, “No Biting!” I ran away and tried to hide! She then opened the cage and walked out! Oh! No! She left me before I had a chance to eat my breakfast! As she marched away, she said I will come back later and see if you can behave yourself! I clicked and cried and tried to get her to come back but she walked straight into the house and shut the door! It took her forever to come back and I was getting hungrier by the minute. I thought my stomach was going to eat my backbone! I was a different monkey when she came back! I was so happy to see her coming out of the house! Before she came back into the condo, she asked if I was sorry and I made all the puffing, clicking, little noises that let her know I am sorry! I hopped up in her lap; ate the raisins first and then drank every drop of milk in my bottle!
Everything was right in my universe again!
Love, Skeeter
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