We hired the son of Tichak, the night watchman, to pick up the property at Kulkpeni and use the rubble to fill the places that the erosion has caused ruts in the yard. One of the big places is right where we are going to have to put the canopies and chairs for the Seminar. When we got to the jobsite this afternoon John told us that he was not able to work this morning because his father sent him to pay their families respects to someone who died. He had to go to Sang which is on the way to Tamale. He said that when he arrived back at Kulkpeni at 2:00Tichak’s son, Emmanuel, was working and Emmanuel had hired one of his friends to help with the work so that it would go faster. Please did we ask you to hire someone else? We were pretty put out but it was 4:30 and the boys had already worked so we had to pay both of them. Emmanuel said that he and his friend had missed school to do the work! What? He said that his father was questioning him about why he was not going to school which is exactly what any good parent would do! We told Emmanuel that he could come and work after school but he would only get part of the money he would have gotten for working a full day. John started setting the decorative blocks this afternoon; they look nice.
Meri washed the corn and soybeans this morning; we are about to run out of weaning mix. We bought the corn last month from Divine but we had to go to town and buy the soybeans. While we were out, we took the green truck back to Gomda. A couple weeks ago he worked on the brakes; you remember he ran into the main gate on the mission house. Well, the brakes are still not working correctly. Yesterday Zorash and I went to buy some more fabric for the sewing project Timothy Niligrini is working on and the brakes failed me and I felt like I was going to run into the side of her house. The brakes can be pumped and they will hold but that is something that has to be fixed! He had to order a master cylinder or something from Tamale. When we checked on it this evening the part still had not arrived.
Only half of the medicine that we ordered for the Child Center came in. Steve placed a big order so hopefully he will not have to order again before we go home for Christmas. He was supposed to place the order for the formula and cereal this morning but he forgot.
Thank you for the love, prayers and support!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I saw the funniest thing that I have ever seen! Donkey got stung by a honey bee this morning! He was sweeping in the back yard near the Child Center and where I was playing! When Donkey got stung, he started hollering and shouting and running around like he was a mad man! Shouting, BEES! BEES! Donkey is terribly afraid of bees; well, for that matter he is also afraid of snakes. He was flaying his arms; he had his hat off trying to chase the bees away! Mom says it is not nice to laugh at people but some things are so funny that you cannot help but laugh! Dad did not realize that he had actually gotten stung and he said, “Don’t worry if the bees are swarming, they won’t hurt you, just get away from them.” Then Donkey said, “It got me! It got me on my hand! Then Donkey runs down behind the Child Center in the back field to get away from them. Mom got him a Benadryl and a bag of ice. She had to call him to come back to the house. He said that he was in the back standing in the sun trying to let his shirt dry because the bees were after the water (sweat) that was on his shirt. Mom said that the bees were probably protecting their honey. Dad found the bees; they were in the top of one of the very tall skinny ornamental trees; the tree is probably 50 feet high; it is a very flimsy tree that no one can climb without it breaking down. Donkey talked to Mom and demanded that they do something about the bees; he said that we had to kill them! Mom asked Donkey how he thought that we should kill them because they were too dangerous. He said that we should spray them with poison. Mom asked him how we were going to get the spray to the top of the tree. He said that she should hire someone to climb the tree and spray them. She asked him if he thought that the tree would support anyone; he said no. She then asked him what would happen to the person that was dumb enough to climb a tree with a backpack sprayer on his back when he sprayed the bees and they started to attack him. He said he did not know but something had to be done about the bees. Mom said she knew what would happen; the man would fall out of the tree when the bees attacked him and he would die! The parents talked about it and decided they would see if they could get the bees to start eating sugar water. They said that maybe if they would eat the sugar water, they could put some poison in the water and the bees would carry it back to their hive but they are not even sure the bees will eat the sugar water much less sugar water with poison. Dad made a plastic tray for the sugar water and Mom made a simple syrup. They checked on it several times today but no bees had come to the water yet.
I wish I had a video of Donkey running from the bees!
Love, Skeeter
