The masons started chinking the round houses this morning about 8:30. They have almost finished with both houses. They plan to finish everything before they go home. Everything is looking good. It has started to sprinkle so it looks like the men will get wet when they leave; they are riding motorcycles. There are a lot of broken blocks around the houses. Building is messy work!
Donkey and Mr. Iddrisu helped with the project. Mr. Iddrisu has a bad back but he can still drive the motor king and haul stuff. They made a trip to the lumber yard to get sand and several trips to the back of the property to get broken blocks for the masons to use, chinking the area between the wall and the roof.
We make our own diaper rash medicine for the babies that come to the Center. It is just Shea butter that we put in small containers. The mothers do not believe that it is only Shea butter; they feel certain that we put something special in it because it does such a wonderful job. Zorash and Meri filled about 100 containers this morning. Zorash told us that they had opened the last bag of the small plastic containers. She has a friend in Tamale that sells the small containers. Sometimes she has to order them up from Accra but we were lucky today; she had some in her warehouse. We paid her to take the containers to the bus station and put them on a bus headed to Yendi. They arrived this afternoon. These people are amazing; they have a network that rivals our postal system and is quicker!
Amama was back at work this morning and we were so happy to see her. When she is not here a good portion of my time is spent chasing dust and washing dishes. I did not even get down to the Child Center Monday or Tuesday.
When we asked Mr. Iddrisu how his foot / leg was healing (this is the same open sore that we have been treating for 9 months) he said that it was getting better and the doctor said that they should do a skin graft. What in the world! Can you imagine having 2 open wounds in this filthy, bacteria ridden country? If the doctor is having a hard time getting one sore to heal, how does he think he could get 2 to heal. Mr. Iddrisu had no idea what a skin graft was; after he found out he did not want to have any part of it! At the end of the discussion, we told him the decision was his but we were not going to put our hands in that surgery. Steve told me that sometimes the doctors use pig skin to cover wounds and burns. Well, imagine that! Mr. Iddrisu is a Muslim and pigs are taboo for them. I wonder what he would think if he knew that people were using pig skin for medical procedures.
Thank you for all you do! We appreciate you!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I was distraught today because there were so many strangers in the yard working! They made too much noise and they kept banging around on things and then there was the motor king! I don’t like the sound of the motor king! Mom got me out of my condo before the workers came this morning and I played in the back yard which is far away from the masons. She put me back in my condo while they ate their lunch. After lunch, I was too afraid to come out of my condo because those people were too close to me.
Finally, the men took a break and went to say their prayers; they are Muslims so while the yard was free of people I finally ventured out. Mom took me in the house to play.
Mom decided that I needed new clothes! She put on one of my shirts that I wore before they went to the states on leave and it looked like I was wearing a bikini top! Not a good look for a guy! This is what prompted her to make me new clothes. Seriously, I have no problem running around naked! What an ordeal the whole clothes thing was! I had to try on several different styles of clothes before she was happy! I am not all that fond of putting on clothes and taking them off! I like them once they are on but that stuffing my head through the neck hole is torture. Today, she decided that I needed a shirt with a button up front. She thought that would look better on me. She was right, I did look quite handsome after she got my shirt fixed. It does not have buttons; it has snaps. That woman can do wonders with a pair of scissors! I looked so good that I did not want to take it off when it was time for me to go back in my condo.
I’m a fashion model and Mom is a fashion designer!
Love, Skeeter
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