This morning we asked Osman the secretary for the Balogu chief to come back to the mission house. We needed to look over the documents we signed a couple days ago. We had a couple questions. The document spoke of a “stool tax”. We wanted to know what the “stool tax” was and where we pay it. In Ghana the chiefs (kings) do not sit on thrones, they sit on either stools or skins. In the southern part of Ghana they sit on small stools but here in the north they sit on skins. The skins are literally animal skins. In the olden days they sat on lion and leopard skins but now due to poaching restrictions most of them sit on cow and sheep skins. When you go into one of the rooms in the palace the skins will be lining the floors just like we have area rugs. The chiefs sit up on a little platform and they are sitting on their skins. In some rooms you can see stacks of skins. These skins are raw hide skins. They are saved from sacrifices that are preformed at various festivals. We found out that the “stool tax” is actually a small tax that goes to the chief of the area that you purchased the land from.
When we first called we found out that Osman was at the hospital because his wife was in labor. She had a baby boy. She will not even stay at the hospital overnight. We said we could put off the meeting until tomorrow or the next day but we were told that when the baby is born the man is free to go about his own business. We gave Osman a monetary gift plus we sent baby clothes, soap, baby oil, and a little money to his wife.
Red stopped by this afternoon to show us the metal strong box he had made as a sample; it is for the churches to keep their documents in. It was the ugliest box I have ever seen! He had made it out of a heavier metal and instead of crimping and using brads he welded them. I told him that it would not do. He took one of the other boxes I had made for a sample. He is going to try again. He really needs the work and we really want him to have the work but I don’t want ugly boxes!
The monthly classes went well today. Steve said that 37 men were present for the class. Today was the day that Steve gave the men tires and tubes for their bicycles. While we were in town this morning buying the tires and tubes we met Jacob from Nakpa. He was on his way to class but he got a phone call saying his wife was seriously ill with stomach pains. We told him that he needed to miss class and go home to check on her and see if she needed to go to the hospital.
We found out that Nana Bekum was not really sick with an illness; it appears he pinched a nerve in his back because he said he sat down and a few minutes later pains started shooting up and down his leg to his foot. He said that it was like it was on fire. He is better now and can walk without too much pain; his foot is still on fire and he has lost a considerable amount of weight.
Take care and have a great day!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
