Witchcraft, Juju and Fetish beliefs abound in this area of Ghana. Tichak, one of the night watchmen is a church member; he lives at Kulkpeni; he usually rides into Yendi with us after evening Bible study. Tonight he told us that his uncle’s son was trying to kill his father. He said that he wanted to become rich so he went to the Juju man (witchdoctor) to see what he had to do to become rich. The Juju man told him that he had to kill his own father. The Juju man called his father to come to the shrine but he refused to come. He sent his wife instead. Tichak said that the Juju man looked into a mirror and said that she was not the one that was needed; she was supposed to go back and bring her husband. Tichak said that his uncle was so scared and worried that he had sold his house, motorcycle and all of his possessions. Tichak said that he was like a mad man. He is probably trying to get enough money together to hire someone with stronger Juju so he can protect himself. Doesn’t that sound like something out of a horror movie? Imagine believing all these things. I guess if we had been fed a steady diet of these beliefs since we were children we would be worried too.
Kyee, the guy we helped with the used roofing sheets got the roof put on his mud ball house. We are so proud for him. They were talking about Kyee tonight at Bible study and how the whole community thought the rain would come before he got the roof put on his house; everyone knows that he is a little slow. Timothy said that the carpenter over bought the boards and he has 4 boards left over which he is hoping to sell in order to get the money to pay the carpenter for his work. We decided to give him ½ the money for the carpenter’s labor just to keep the carpenter happy until Kyee can sell the boards.
Divine’s brother that had the ruptured appendix was supposed to get to go home today. Hopefully he is on the mend. This morning we had a visit from the 10 year old girl that we sent last year to Tamale because she had osteomyelitis in the long bone of her leg. She had the necessary surgery and the doctor says that her leg is healing. She is supposed to go back to Tamale next week for another checkup. Her father was with her and he said she was doing well but she was still in some pain and she favors the leg when she walks.
This afternoon we worked on the payroll; we got 2 months of pay packets made up. We still have one more month to do. Maybe we will finish tomorrow.
Take care and have a great day!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
