We were so grateful to hear the rain last night. It rained hard for about an hour and then it just gently rained the rest of the night. It was still raining this morning so we did not go for our morning walk; but we were not complaining; the farmers needed the rain! The rain cleared out about 9:30 am so we were able to open the Child Center almost on time.

Divine stopped by this afternoon and he wanted to borrow a little money so that he can pay the people who are helping plant his corn. He has rice that he wants to sell but he is waiting for the price to go up before he sells it. The price of corn and rice this year disappointed the farmers. Divine is still in hopes that the price will go up soon. He has spent all of his money on his hospital project. He really thought that by now he would have found a cash cow to sponsor the whole thing. We told him he would have had better luck finding big money if this was an election year; when the candidates need votes they go out to the villages, drill wells, build schools, clinics, roads and provide electricity. They do whatever they need to do to get the votes.

Very few mothers came to the Child Center this morning because of the cold inclement weather. Most of the children we saw were those that are on formula, only one set of twins were in bad shape. One of the babies’ weight was borderline but the other one was very low. The baby with the low weight is the baby that is developmentally delayed; the mother said that the small one only wanted to drink powdered milk. That is not unusual for developmentally delayed babies; most of the time it is a texture thing with them. It is difficult when one of the babies is developing normally and the other is lagging behind.

The workers appreciated their gift of rice, beans, spaghetti, and cooking oil. They have a holiday coming up soon and some of them said they were going to save the food stuff for the holiday. We don’t care how or when they use the gift. Steve still has to give the night watchmen their gift. I think Tichak is the only watchman we have tonight because Kwabena is supposed to be traveling down south to visit someone. He will be gone for 4 days.

Something is wrong with the front end of the green truck. Steve took it to Gomda the mechanic this morning. He did not get a chance to look at it until this afternoon; he said that it needed ball joints. He was not able to get it fixed today so it is going to have to spend the night at his shop and he will finish the work tomorrow.

Thank you for all you do for us and for the work in Ghana.

In HIS Service,

Steve, Kandie and Skeeter

P.S. Please keep the family of Johnny Hannah in your prayers and thoughts. Johnny passed away; he will be greatly missed. He attended Mt. Carmel Church of Christ.

The Monkeyshines

My new condo is almost finished; well, it is almost finished enough for me to be set free in it! Mom keeps telling me about all the amenities she intends to add to it. She said she was going to have to rethink how she is going to hang my stuffed animals and toys in the condo after my latest brush with death! It was a terrible ordeal! My favorite teddy bear hangs in the corner of my jail cell; it is dangling from a string that is about 10-12 inches long. It has been there for years and nothing has ever happened. Well, yesterday, me and the bear had a terrible fight! Somehow or the other I got the string wrapped around my chest and twisted around my upper arm! I could not get loose! I tried and I fought but that bear just would not let go of me! The only good thing about this mess is that I was not actually hanging from the bear; I was sitting on a branch in the corner so when I stopped fighting, I was still able to sit! I lost track of how long I was stuck to the bear! Mr. Iddrisu was supposed to feed me my bottle in the morning but he did not try to feed me until 2:30 in the afternoon. That is unacceptable but that is not the story I am telling today! When Mr. Iddrisu finally came around to give me my bottle, he noticed that I was not moving and began to wonder if I was stuck! Really! He swept around my jail cell and saw me but since I was fighting with the bear, he thought that I was fine! I sure am glad that Mr. Iddrisu is not my owner or I would surely have been dead by now!

Anyway, when the parents got back from visiting the church in the bush, Mr. Iddrisu noticed I was not moving and he went to the mission house and told Mom. She quickly dashed to my jail cell; Dad was in hot pursuit behind her! Mom told Dad to get a pair of scissors and she quickly crawled into my jail cell and cut the string; I was so exhausted; I was lethargic; I could hardly wiggle; I had fought so hard! I was in pain too! Mom passed me to Dad; I just lay in his arms! I was so happy to have been saved! I thought I was going to perish! 

Mom hooked me to the big mango tree to see if I could walk or if I had broken or dislocated my arm. Dad brought me water; I was so thirsty! There is no telling how long I was up there fighting that bear! Mr. Iddrisu felt bad that he had not noticed sooner that I was in distress; he brought me my bottle! I was starving! Mom checked out my arm and found out that I had a rope burn from my shoulder blade all the way down past my elbow. I also had open grazes across my chest. When she rubbed my back, I flinched because the rope had hurt my back! Mom put Neosporin with pain reliever on my rope burns; that made them feel better. In the middle of my examination a motor king came driving down the lane and I got frightened so I tried to do as I always do when I am scared, I tried to jump up in the big mango tree but my hurt arm did not have the strength to pull me up; I fell to the ground! I tried 2 more times and fell 2 more times before Mom grabbed me and put me up in the tree. I just laid there on the branch. Mom then took me in the house in the air-conditioned bedroom. I was so tired that I just laid there while she put on my diaper. I leaned on Dad while Mom made me a bottle of juice and got the bed ready for us. Juice is a real treat for me; Mom thinks it has too much sugar so I only get it on rare occasions. She was worried that I was dehydrated so she mixed ½ water with ½ juice. It was delicious! Dad tried to feed me some raisins which I love but I refused them; I was too exhausted to eat! I climbed in bed with Mom and I slept the rest of the afternoon! Half way through our nap I woke up and Mom already had a bottle of milk ready for me! I drank half the bottle and promptly went back to sleep! When it was bedtime Mom put me back in my jail cell. By then I was feeling some better. 

I woke up this morning feeling much better; some of my rope burns are not as red as they were yesterday and I had more energy today! 

I think I will live to get married!

Love, Skeeter

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