We heard from 2 of the hair lipped babies parents today. They wanted to let us know that they were on the bus headed to Ho for the surgery. We are not sure how many babies and parents are on the bus but we are excited for them. They said they would call when they arrived in Ho but Ho is a long way away from Yendi; it will be an all day trip.
When Mr. Iddrisu came back from paying the workers SSNIT (social security) this afternoon he told us that they had changed the policy of how the workers contributions would be paid. He was a bit confused about the whole thing so Steve went back to the SSNIT office with him and it was not as difficult as we thought it would be. Instead of the GNCDC paying through the SSNIT office we will now have to pay directly into the SSNIT account at the bank. We were happy when we found out that we could make the payment in Yendi.
Steve went back to the Yendi hospital this afternoon. He has a few nurses’ watches he wants to give to the matron. The watches hang from the lapel of a coat or uniform; they hang upside down so that the nurse can read them at a glance and still have her hands free. The last couple times he stopped by the matron was not around. He wanted to give them to her personally.
This morning Ibrahim the leper stopped by for a visit. Ibrahim left lower leg had to be amputated because of the leperosy. A few years ago we helped him get an artificial leg. He was able to leave the leper colony in Yendi and go back home to Bimbila. Ibrahim and his wife were so happy that we helped him get a leg that his wife came to the mission house with 4 of their youngest children and told us that they were going to give us one of the children as an appreciation gift for helping Ibrahim get a new leg and a new life. She said they did not have any money but they had children and wanted us to pick the one we liked best. They children were clean and dressed in their best clothes. The children ranged in age from about 9 years old to 3 years old. She introduced the children and said, the oldest boy already knew how to work hard; the oldest girl could fetch water and help me and the littlest one would love us. Can you imagine? Those poor children thought one of them would not be going home. What a wonderful gift. Amidst tears we thanked them kindly and declined the gift. Last year Ibrahim sent us a letter of greeting and said, “Your child is still waiting on you.” When they came today I was afraid they were going to offer us a child again. Today they said that they had a different problem. They fled from their home town because there has been a lot of fighting; they even killed a woman. Ibrahim said that they burned his brother’s house and they were all living together in one small house. He said they burned their farms and he was afraid to stay there any longer so they came to Yendi. He said they had rented a room but had nothing much to eat or sell by which to make a living. Ibrahim’s wife said that she used to sell Kola nuts but did not have any money to start selling again. Thanks to your generous donation we were able to give them enough money for her to buy the first batch of Kola nuts and start selling again. We also gave her 10 pound of dried black-eyed peas, a bottle of oil, tinned tomatoes, and dried peanut powder to put on the peas. We wanted to make sure they at least had something to eat for the next few days. We just do not know how good we have it!
Take care and thank you for the support so we can help those that can’t help themselves.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
