The Yendi notes today are coming courtesy of Perry Martin (1st trip to Ghana).
This morning started with a hearty breakfast of oatmeal prepared by Kandie and Steve. On my way to breakfast I noticed the front tires off the good van. Steve was replacing them since they were wearing out unevenly and it is the vehicle used for long trips so you want to have confidence in it. On our way through Tamale to the Mole Game Preserve tomorrow we will stop and have them balanced. Right after breakfast Steve was back at it, finishing putting the tires back on before the mother and children start showing up at the Child Development Center (CDC). I am so impressed with the amount of work that it takes to keep the CDC and the house operational. I don’t know how Steve and Kandie do it all!
After breakfast we got ready to receive the mothers and infants at the CDC. Rusty and I were assigned the duty of packaging beans into bags for distribution to the mothers. I like doing this better than packaging the multi-vitamins. The multi-vitamins are small and red so they are hard to handle and the red gets all over your hands. After finishing the beans we went back to packaging the Vitamin C. There were not very many mothers today which we attributed to most of them being in the fields harvesting. It is the start of the dry season so the farmers are now able to get into their fields to harvest.
Once we finished in the CDC we went to the Yendi “McDonalds” to get lunch. We got Banku with soup and some rice. Banku is some kind of cornmeal type ball and the soup is poured over it. I liked the soup and I poured it over my rice, the Banku was ok but it set pretty heavy on my stomach.
After lunch Steve, Rusty, Jack, Iddrisu, Nazo and I went to visit the district chief and take him a gift. There were some tribe elders also present. It was very interesting to observe the protocol and interaction between the chief and his elders in communicating with us. At the end we took pictures of the whole group.
Next we went to the Queen of another district of Yendi. She is one of only a few women in the Ghana that hold such a position. The same type of protocol was followed. Before leaving, the Queen said we could take pictures but first she wanted to change into her royal attire. She stepped out and returned and then we took some group pictures.
We returned to the house and Kandie fed us dinner made from leftovers of previous meals. She did her magic and delivered a delicious meal once again. We got a call from Timothy during the meal and found out the Church at Jegrido was meeting earlier than we expected so we had to hustle. We made it on time and Rusty presented a great lesson on Gideon. That name just seems to be in the front of his mind. I think Grand-daddy is missing his grandchildren. Jegrido is where Timothy was raised and his brother Daniel still lives there.
We have a 6am start in the morning to get to Mole and it is getting late so I will close for now. I am looking forward to seeing a wild elephant tomorrow. Hopefully not too close.
Thanks to every one of you that support this work and keep the Ghana churches in your prayers.
In Christian Love
Steve, Kandie, Jack, Rusty & Perry
