We went to the IRS office first thing this morning and we were sent back to the mission house with homework! We were under the impression that since the Child Center is a non-profit organization that it fell under the guidelines of churches and other charitable organizations. Well it does but what the IRS wants is sales tax; and because they are having a hard time getting the companies to collect the sales tax they have turned to the buyers to withhold the tax and turn it into the IRS office. Now we are not sure who thought that was a good idea but it is a terrible idea. No one believes we are going to turn the taxes we collect in to the IRS and it will be credited back to their account. Anyway, the long and short of it is that if we have not been successful in withholding taxes from the businesses, we have to pay the tax for them. Whatever! At this point we are just like “tell us what we owe so we can pay it!” The bad part is that because the Child Center has not withheld taxes before the IRS can go back a few years and make us pay for the past years. We will have to wait and see how this all plays out.
Another severely malnourished child came to the center this morning. He was 20 months old and only weighed 6 ½ pounds. The mother was very worried about the child and wants him to get stronger. We found out that she was using a lot of enemas on the child. They use enemas for a wide range of things from having a fever to coughing to having bad dreams to having diarrhea. The enemas cause the children to lose weight because the herbs, pepper and ginger they put in the enemas are not clean. Hopefully if she stops the enemas and feeds the child well he will begin to gain weight.
Zorash did not make it back from her holiday. She called to let us know that she would be coming back later today. Tomorrow is a holiday; Ghana celebrates May 1st as a national holiday so she can make up her day tomorrow.
We got a sprinkling of rain last night but some the neighboring villages got a good rain. The tiny grass has germinated and there is a blanket of green everywhere. The sheep and goats now have something to eat. When the rains come it is sort of like springtime in the states only hotter. The high temperature today was 108 degrees.
Thank you for all you do for us and for the work! We really appreciate the help.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
P.S. Today is our 42 wedding anniversary! SJT
