We worked on the payroll almost the whole afternoon. We might have gotten it finished but we were called away several times. Zorash called me late this afternoon to let me know that a lady selling fabric stopped by her house. She thought that I might be interested in the fabric. It was pretty but not what I was looking for so I only bought one piece to use as a quilt back.
As soon as we finished lunch Zorash went with us to the market to buy rice and corn to give the workers as a gift. In the past we have given monetary gifts to help the men with their farming and the ladies with food. But the Ghana government makes them pay tax on money but not on food items so we have started giving food when we want to give them something extra. The ladies wanted rice because their husbands provide the corn for the family and rice is a nice addition to the corn. We also got rice for the night watchmen because they are both farmers and they grow their own corn. Donkey and Mr. Iddrisu got corn because since we have been back both of them told us that they did not have corn in their pantry. They were pleased with the gift.
Amama has not come back to work yet; she is still helping with the funeral for her father. Zorash talked to her yesterday but she did not tell her how long she would be out. When Mr. Iddrisu’s mother died, he was out for 30 days! Imagine that!
The fields look good after the tractor plowed them on Sunday. We got a medium sized rain last night. The newly plowed ground sucked up the rain like a sponge! We are not sure when Donkey and Mr. Iddrisu will start planting; it is still too early to plant corn because after these first rains we usually get about a 2 week drought and the corn cannot survive very long without rain. The land at the mission house is so old and tired that it will not grow corn without a ton of fertilizer but it will grow cassava, peanuts, yams, cow peas and soybeans but Donkey only likes to plant corn because corn is what he eats. We have tried in vain to get him to understand that he can plant a cash crop like soybeans and buy all the corn he needs.
Thank you for the love, prayers and support.
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
When my parents were in Tamale the day before yesterday they bought me a new toy! I think I love this toy more than any of my other toys! This is a ball that is about the size of a large water balloon. It has a light inside that flashes red and blue. But the best part is that it is soft and squishy! It is very rubbery and stretchy. It has small pompom type balls attached all over the ball that are dangling from stretchy rubber. The ball has eyes! I try not to look at the eyes; I even thought that I might get rid of the eyes by biting them off but they were too big for me to get my mouth around them! I have rolled around all over the floor with that ball! It is made of some sort of silicone. It got filthy while I was wallowing around on the floor. Mom washed it and hung it up to dry; even when it was hung up I still delighted in jumping from the floor and catching hold of the ball. I managed to bite off a couple of the pompoms which did not make Mom very happy! I got a real workout playing with that ball today!
Mom spent the morning cutting up more fruit to freeze. This morning she cut up pineapple and oranges. You know all this fruit is for me! I am not stupid; I know that she is preparing it because they are going to go away and leave me for a long, long time again! It makes me sad just thinking about it! After Mom cut up the fruits she started peeling garlic. I love garlic and onions! I like to peel them! Mom gave me a few pieces of garlic to peel; she said she would have let me help her peel all the garlic but she did not want to eat garlic that had my germs on! What? Does she think she does not have germs? She had her germy hands all over the fruit she is going to make me eat and you did not hear me complain about her germs!
Pass the hand sanitizer please!
Love, Skeeter
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