Timothy Niligrini called this morning around 8:30 telling me that he was on his way to the compound. He said it took him a while to get his motorcycle to “spark” (start). When he arrived Kandie and I were ready so we piled into the pickup and headed to town. Our destination was the village of Kpanjamba located east of Yendi about 15 miles. I knew we were going to be running late but when we arrived, we saw a large gathering of people across the road where the chief lives. There were just a few kids at the church building but they informed us the people were setting up a “Su-Su” account for the village. This Su-Su account is nothing more than a way of paying a few people to collect and watch your money for a certain period of time. An individual will give a predetermined amount of money into this fund each month for the designated keepers of the money box to watch and maintain. Most of the time this is a ripoff because some Su-Su requires you to pay the keepers 2-3 Cedis a month for their service. In other words, this is a paid saving account. You can borrow from it but the interest is high which is a deterrent! It also serves another purpose. If you have no cash on hand your family can’t ask for the money from you. If your money is tied up with the Su-su it is protected from your family asking to borrow it. In this culture, you will be called “wicked” if the family comes to you asking for the money and you don’t give it to them.
It was 10:15 when most of the church members arrived at the building to start worship service. Everyone was happy to see us. We were informed before starting the service that two church member’s families had babies they wanted us to lead in a naming ceremony after closing. Timothy taught about the things Christians should not participate in at the funeral celebrations.
After we finished with the question and answers Timothy and I led the naming ceremony for the babies. One little girl was named Jessica by her family. The second man and wife’s family had twins; a boy and girl. The parents gave the girl’s name as Clementina and the boy’s name as Clement. Of course, they had their Konkomba names but I couldn’t pronounce them then or write it for you now. I usually hold the babies but the first little girl wasn’t having that and the twins were both sleeping. I told Timothy and the audience we have a proverb in the States that says “only a foolish person wakes up a sleeping baby”. Everyone laughed!
By the ending of the naming ceremony, the crowd across the street had disbursed so we walked over to the chief’s house and greeted him. Kandie was teasing the chief about selling an old German made vise that sits outside on a short wooden post. She has done this in the past so the chief was playing along with her but he wouldn’t give up the vise.
This afternoon, Kandie worked on her class material for the girl’s class at Bethel. I went over to the other side of the house to make sure the electrical stuff is switched off and the water faucets are off as well in preparation for our departure for home next week. I also gather up the bibles and items for the monthly class that Timothy will use at the end of June.
There were just a handful of us at the class at Kulkpeni tonight. I encouraged us all to continue to do the Lord’s work.
That rounds out our day. Hope you had a good one. May God bless!
In His service,
Stephen and Kandie Taylor
& Skeeter
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