The monthly class was today. Yesterday evening Nana Bekum, the evangelist from the Chereponi district, called to say that he was on his way but he got sick and was having serious stomach distress. Steve told him to turn around and go back home. Steve sent him his pay by mobile money. Hopefully, he will be feeling better soon. When he called, he was in Chereponi town; it is a fairly large town so he should have been able to go to a pharmacy and get something to calm his stomach.
Steve said that 25 men attended the class. Timothy taught the first class and Steve taught the second class. I am not sure what Timothy’s topic was but Steve talked about numbers, not Numbers the book in the Old Testament, but numbers like 1, 2, 3 … Steve said that the men seemed to enjoy the classes.
While Steve was at the classes I was organizing and entering receipts. The end of the month is very near. I also helped the masons that were clearing the rubble. The motor king had a flat tire but none of the men knew how to change the tire so they pushed it from the back of the property to the mission house. In so doing they ruined the innertube because it was so flat that the rim sat on the tube and cut a hole in it and pulled out the valve stem. Mr. Iddrisu wanted us to pump up the tire so he could drive it to the tire repair shop! I told him that it could not be pumped up because the tube was spoiled. Really, take a look at the tire! It is so flat that it is sitting on the rim and you cannot even see the valve stem to pump it up. I told him just to ride his motorcycle to the roadside and bring back the fitter (tire mechanic). He said he thought that was a good idea; I told him to tell the fitter to bring his jack and to bring the spanner (wrench) to loosen the nuts. They are not the standard size nuts that are on a vehicle. He came with the man but the man had no wrenches but he did have a jack. When he finished Mr. Iddrisu said he was going to use his motorcycle to take the man back to the roadside. I told him to take the motor king because he had to put in the new tube, air it up and put it back in place under the motor king. The whole thing makes my eye twitch!
Red stopped by to get the money for the cement blocks we are going to buy. He said that he would hire a guy to load the blocks in our motor king. He said that he would pay the man himself because he really needed to sell the blocks. That is a good deal for us!
The masons said they finished moving the rubble. I asked Dauda if they had taken it down to the foundation. Dauda said no but they would do that when they started building the wall. I made it very clear to him that taking the block down to the foundation was part of the contract and that we were not going to pay them to finish the removal. He said he understood. I went on to tell him that I did not want to hear any complaining; about the extra work and the men were tired and that the blocks were too heavy, etc. He just laughed and said he knows how to handle the workers. We will see how this works out!
Have a good weekend!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
Mom and I had a horrible start to our day! She came inside the condo to give me my morning bottle. She had just finished chasing sheep out of the compound! She was all excited about getting the sheep out! She was hollering, throwing stones and mangos at them! When she started shouting, I started giving my warning calls! I could see the sheep and I knew they were dangerous! After the sheep were out, she locked the gate and then she came into the condo with my bottle. She had her back to me while she locked the door. I don’t know what came over me; maybe it was the excitement about the sheep but for whatever reason, I jumped on her and bit her on her forearm. I bit her worse and harder than I have ever bitten her before! I made her bleed! When I bite, I grab a mouth full of flesh; bite down on it and then with my teeth clenched I pull away. My eye teeth pulled a gash in her skin and my small teeth pulled the skin on her arm back. She has delicate skin that will peel back if bumped or scraped. After I bit her, I ran to the top of the condo out of her reach; my mouth was bloody and I had to pick some of her skin out of my teeth and wipe my mouth! I was not happy about that because I knew that I had really hurt her! When she saw that her arm was bleeding, she cried, “No! Skeeter! No! Biting! Look what you did to me!” She could not get to me because I was out of her reach or I would have been in the timeout box for the rest of my natural life! She quickly exited the condo to solicit medical help from Dad. Dad was not happy to say the least!
After Dad cleaned the bite and put a 4×4 bandage on it, Mom came back to the condo. She brought my bottle with her; it is a wonder that I was not on a bread and water diet after what I did! Mom sat down on the stone seat and I came down and climbed up in her lap. I leaned back on her and drank my bottle. Mom started talking to me, she told me that she was afraid that as I got more mature, I was going to become mean and uncontrollable and that she was going to have to find another place for me to live. As Mom was talking to me, she started to cry! That woman is really crazy about me! I have never seen Mom cry! She cried and she talked! Her voice was very strange and hiccupy! I was so sorry I hurt her; I turned around and put my hands on both sides of her face; I buried my face in her neck and started giving her little monkey kisses all over her neck; I held her tight! If I had been able to talk, I would have told her that I was so sorry for hurting her! But since I don’t have words, all I could do was hold her and make little puffing noises! She petted and patted me and finally stopped crying! She said, “Oh! Skeeter, we could have made a million bucks if I had my camera and I had been able to catch this special moment of empathy that you have shared with me!”
I am not a beast; I can be kind when the moment calls for it!
Love, Skeeter
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