Well, another annoyance! John, the mason, started laying blocks on the back wall this morning. He decided not to put in the type pillars that he used on the rest of the wall. When we saw them, we were not happy! We asked him why he changed the plan and decided to pour pillars which are much more costly because we have to buy wood; extra cement and rebar to put inside the cast pillars. It takes at least a week for the pillars to dry before they can remove the pillar boxes and we don’t have that much time before the seminar. The blocks we have been using are made by interlocking the wall blocks with the pillar blocks which make for a very strong pillar. He said that a friend of his who also does block work or engineering or something stopped by to take a look at the project and he told him that he needed to set the cast pillars instead of block pillars. What in the world! We made it very clear that we were not happy with this new turn of events! John apologized profusely and asked if he was forgiven! I told him he would not be forgiven until the mess he made was fixed! We figured out another way to make the pillars by using the blocks; it will take a little more digging but it will not be nearly as expensive and we will not have to wait for the cement to cure.
We also noticed that the second toilet was not made like the first one. When we pointed this out to John, he tried to tell us both toilets were identical. Excuse me! The decorative blocks on one of the toilets were on the top row and on the other house they were on the second row from the top. On the first house there were no decorative blocks on the sides of the toilet but on the other house were 2 blocks on each side. He said he did not know why we ran out of decorative blocks. Well, duh! You used 4 more decorative blocks on the second house than you did the first house; naturally you would run out of blocks. We also lost a block today because one of the neighbor children came on to the property; picked up a hammer and started beating on one of the decorative blocks and broke it. John said that he caught the child and “caned” (took a small branch and whipped him). I told him he should have taken him to his father and demanded payment for the block!
Steve spent part of the morning rewiring an outlet on the veranda and changing out security lights. These lights and fixtures are so cheap that they don’t last! Then we went through the GRA (IRS) and SSNIT (Social Security) folders and brought everything up to date. We were missing a few receipts and certificates (they send a certificate for each month when it is paid). Their system only holds them for 6 months so we had to print what we needed before they disappeared! They tell us that they are still on their website but we don’t trust them so we make hard copies of everything! You can actually see the dining room table again!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
Dad is in trouble! I am the one that is usually in trouble; I am so happy that it is not me this time! He has been in trouble for a few days.
The other day Mom and Dad were driving 2 vehicles to Tamale; Mom was leading and Dad was following. They came to a police barrier and the policeman stopped Mom. He asked Mom why she was driving by herself; she promptly told him that she was not alone; that her husband was following her. He talked to her for a long time. He wanted to know where she was from and what they were doing in Tamale. He asked her to marry him; he said he did not care that she already had a husband because she could just leave him and marry her. When Mom related this story to Dad he asked, “Was the man DRUNK?” Dad immediately realized how that sounded so he tried to redeem himself but only made matters worse. He said, “That is not what I meant to say; I mean, the man had to be crazy or something.” DAD YOU ARE NOT HELPING YOUR CAUSE! Isn’t that the funniest thing you ever heard?
I am still laughing about it!
Love, Skeeter
