Red called Steve this morning; he was in a panic! He said that he was at the mission house and that he was in the yard. When Steve went out, he was laying on the veranda obviously in pain. His hand was all bloody. He was working and whatever he was working on fell and mashed and peel the skin off of 2 of his fingers. There was a lot of blood so it was difficult to see how badly he was hurt but he was in a lot of pain. He said that he laid down because he got too dizzy and was afraid he would pass out. We quickly gave him Ibuprofen and a coke. Then Steve gathered the things he needed to clean and dress his hand. Steve made him soak his hand for a long time in Betadine. When Red was drying off the Betadine we told him not to pull off the excess skin but he did anyway which brought on a new wave of pain! Silly goose, I guess he did not know that skin is a natural band-aid. His wounds were superficial but he will feel them every time he moves his hand. He had a friend drive him out to the mission house. No one has any first aid supplies in their homes. They don’t even have the basic band-aid or antiseptic. We expect he will make a full recovery! Ha!
The electricity has been off all day! Steve went to the cell phone office this morning and the owner told him that the lights were slated to be off all day because the electric company is trying to connect the solar power plant to the regular electric grid. He said that they made the people near the power plant to evacuate their houses for safety. No one is sure how many days it will take them to get everything connected and up and running. They turned the electricity back on at 6:15 p.m. We are not sure if we are running off the old system or the new system or a combination of both. We are just happy that it is back on; we love the generator but it costs more to run than the electricity does.
Today was Mr. Iddrisu’s normal day off but he came to the compound so that he could work in his field. A couple weeks ago some of his relatives raised mounds for him. Today, he cut cassava sticks and put them in the mounds. Cassava is a tuber that tapioca is made from. If you like those Boba drinks with the tapioca balls in them you are eating/drinking cassava. Mr. Iddrisu will use his cassava to eat; it can be boiled fresh or it can be dried and ground and added to ground field corn to make TZ and Banku.
Divine stopped by on his way back to his village today. He had come to town to buy more rebar for his building project. We told him that while he was building, he might as well build a gutter to catch the rain water; we showed him how my dad, Royce, designed the mission house to catch water. Divine was amazed that we had water through the dry season.
Take care and please keep the work in your prayers.
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I had the best day ever! I got to play in the new condo most of the morning. I was still on a leash and the door was open; I figured out that I had enough leash to go out the door and scale the outside of the condo. I had a whole new world to explore! I could reach branches that were very high up. The way the condo is made is that a whole tree is growing inside the condo; they cut holes in the wire that is covering the condo so that the tree branches go through the wire. From the outside of the condo, I can climb on the branches. Today, I even found one of the fruits from the tree. The tree is part of the almond family. The fruit looks like a huge almond and if you can get through the outer layer there is a seed hiding inside. The fruit is ripe but I didn’t care! I was just happy to find and pick a fruit. I thought Mom was going to take the fruit away from me so as quick as a flash I darted as high as my leash would let me go. You know how moms can be! They get pretty grabby when you have something that they do not want you to have!
This afternoon I played in the big mango tree and then when the wind started to blow Mom took me in the house to weather the storm; it was wonderful not to have to be worried and scared of the storm in my jail cell all by myself! Mom pulled out some new stuffed animals for me to get acquainted with, she is going to decorate the new condo with them but she knows that if they just suddenly appear in the condo, I will be scared of them so she is letting me play with them before she hangs them up.
Life is GOOD!
Love, Skeeter
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