Today was payday so all the workers were here today; we were not sure that some of them would show up because it rained last night and it was still drizzling when it was time for them to come to work but surprise, surprise; they all showed up and they were on time this morning. People are the same the world around; when money is being passed out, they will be there.
Steve spent the bulk of his day entering receipts for May. I am so happy that he has decided to take that job over; it sure takes a load off my plate! I hope that he never gets tired of that job! Ha! It took him hours to get all the receipts entered. He only finished the general receipts; he has not started on the Child Center receipts yet. The only deadline for entering the receipts is the end of the year audit but it sure is nice to have them done month by month. Besides by the end of the year, we would not even be able to remember what the receipts were for.
Kyee, one of the church members from Kulkpeni, stopped by for a visit. He is a very poor farmer and as far as we know he has never married. He is a little slow mentally and he is almost deaf but from time to time when he passes the mission house he stops to say hello. Communicating with him is very difficult because he does not speak much Dagboni (the language the Child Center workers speak) and the Child Center workers do not speak or hear his language and he does not speak English. We just muddle through the best we can. If he seems to be asking for something we will call Timothy and Timothy will translate over the phone for us. This time he did not need anything; he was just passing by and decided to stop to greet us.
Gomda, finished the green truck this afternoon and drove it out to the mission house to us; isn’t that sweet? It needed front ball joints and rocker arms or some such something. He had to order the parts from Tamale. Gomda is a good egg and takes good care of us. When we asked him if he would like some water, he said no he did not want any water because he was fasting. We were surprised and asked him why he was fasting because this is not the normal time that the Muslims fast. He said that he was fasting because he was trying to lose some weight. We told him that fasting to lose weight was fine but that he did not need to fast from water in this heat; we explained that there is no fat or calories in water and that he really needed the water especially in this heat; he just laughed and bid us good-bye.
Take care and thank you for the love, prayers and support!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
Well, I thought that I was going to get to be set free in my new condo today but things did not work out the way I planned. The condo has a very nice door. I told you that the parents are going to attach the jail cell to the condo; in order to attach them together the jail cell had to have some modifications. We had to take the door off the jail cell and move it to the other side of the jail cell. This took more time than anyone could imagine because everything has been welded together. Red had to make several trips to town to buy bolts, nuts and washers. We also needed more metal to reinforce the new door which Red had to get from his scrap pile.
Mom was so upset when Red came to work today because he did not bring his normal young men helpers; this time he brought a little kid with him as his helper. Mom asked him whose child was with him; she thought it might have been one of Red’s kids. He said that it was a child whose parents gave to the welders as a helper/apprentice. Mom asked Red how old the child was; he said that he did not know but that he was probably 7 or 8 years old. Excuse me, a 7- or 8-year-old is too young to be working all day in a welding shop. Red agreed that he was too young but he said that when he went to the shop to get a helper for the day this child was the only one available. Red could have rested his elbow on the child’s head. The little guy tried so hard; he was continually squatting beside Red to see what he was doing. Mom asked the child how old he was; he said he did not know. Red said, “that is the way the parents do; they just give their children out to be apprentices.” They want someone else to feed and take care of their kids. Slavery is alive and well! Red said that this boy actually goes to school sometimes. At least the welders are letting him go to school. Mom just knew the little boy was hungry; you know she is going to feed someone! First, she gave him a juice box and a package of cookies. He did not eat them; I wish Mom had given them to me; I would have eaten them. Mom told Red to tell him that he could eat the food while he was working. Red said he did not want to eat the food; he was saving it because tomorrow is the big Muslim celebration where everyone eats lots. He said that he was going to save the food so that he would have food to celebrate the festival. That about broke Mom’s heart! She told Red that she would get him some chewing gum; he could at least have something to chew on while he worked. She gave him a small Ziploc bag full of bubble gum and lollipops. He squirreled all of it away. Red brought him porridge and bread from town in the middle of the afternoon. He ate that. Mom gave him a banana; he put that in his bag of special food too! When they got ready to leave; Steve gave Red and his helper a coke. He also saved the coke. Red said, “when he goes home tonight, he will have so many stories to tell about the day he spent with the “white people” and he will have a bag of food as proof!
It is a good thing that there are no apprentice jobs for monkeys!
Love, Skeeter
Leave a Reply