Azara, Nazo’s daughter is officially married. The young man’s family paid all that was required of them to pay so now the family can go ahead with the naming ceremony. Nazo’s and his wife have to send gifts to the new baby even though they cannot see the baby yet. They are required to send 2 ½ gallons of peanut butter which is used to make soup, a full bowl of hot pepper, and some other soup ingredients plus a 6 yard piece of cloth so Azara can make herself a new outfit. We sent the baby a gift of clothes, soap, baby powder, light weight blankets and a little bit of money. I asked Zorash what would have happened if Nazo had not sent Azara out of the house and she had had the baby in his house. I wanted to know if they could have seen the baby under those circumstances. Zorash said that when a girl is living at home and it is close to time for her to deliver they will send her to the boy’s family house. If the boy does not acknowledge that the baby is his they will still send her away to a family member’s house or a friend of the family’s house. If while the girl is still at her father’s house and goes into labor early they will send her away from the house as soon as they know she is in labor. In the event she delivers early or unexpectedly in her father’s house then immediately after she has delivered they will move her and the baby away from the house. Please! Doesn’t that make you feel loved?
Meri did not come to work today, if you remember last week her sister had a new baby, well today was the naming ceremony for the baby. Meri had to help cook for all the visitors that came to the house to honor the baby. She should be back tomorrow.
Nazo took his May Day holiday today so he could attend a funeral for one of his elderly friends. He came back to the house after the funeral was over to let us know that they had successfully finished the funeral. He picked up the baby gift while he was here. He will take care of making sure it gets to Azara in Tamale.
Steve spent the afternoon doing paper work and Mr. Iddrisu and I worked on the payroll for May. Boring!
Today was the day for us to take all the tin cans and stuff that cannot be burned to the dump. Yendi does not have regular garbage pickup so we burn what we can and the rest we take to the city dump. The dump is a few miles outside of Yendi.
Please keep us in your prayers.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
