It is amazing how hot and “thick” the air can be at 8am in the morning this time of the year. The high temperature for the day was 108oF. At 4pm this afternoon you could look directly at the sun through the Harmattan and see this nice yellow glowing ball in the sky. It isn’t smog, just dust!
Well, my success getting the battery charged for the green pickup fell flat this morning. I hooked it up to the charger again and waited 3-4 hours but that didn’t work either. Around 1:30 I decided to yank the uncharged battery out of the green pick up and put in another one that showed having a charge. That one didn’t have enough charge so I had to hook up the jumper cables and let the red pickup charge the battery before it started. After letting it idle for 20 minutes I tried to rev up the engine but the gas pedal didn’t work. Oh well, another job for Gomda the mechanic.
At 9:45 Gomda showed up to work on the old van. He finally got it started but he noticed something wasn’t right so he took it to his shade tree shop. Later, he called saying 2 of the 4 fuel injectors needed to be replaced. So I will get the van back hopefully tomorrow then Gomda can look at the pickup.
Around 11:30 this morning I noticed a man and woman arrived under the big mango tree. They were of the Falani Tribe. These people are the cow herders of the North. Many of them are nomads and come from the area in and around the country of Mali. The couple had a small baby. The man was the father while the lady was the mother’s senior sister (older sister or aunt). They were carrying a note from the hospital which I read. I knew we could help them but we require a prescription from a doctor (MD or Medical Assistant) so I asked the lady to stay under the mango and let the father get a written prescription from the hospital. It wasn’t to long later the father arrived with the order so I had Nazo lead the family down to the center where I could weigh the baby. I do not relish having Nazo as an interpreter. He will do anything for you but he just doesn’t like to say word for word what we ask the people. He did better today. The baby is a little one week old girl. After showing the man and woman how to mix the formula and giving some to the baby I turned the feeding over to the lady. As they were leaving they sat under the mango tree to wait for me to give them a poly bag to put the formula in. While getting the bag I also looked for a little onesies among the clothes I had brought over with me. The lady had a big ole smile on her face when I showed it to her. Thanks to all of you who helped us with baby clothes.
This afternoon I went to Kulkpeni to visit Timothy Niligrini and wife, Rita. Their little girl Sarah had been hospitalized some weeks back due to a bout of diarrhea. She looks fine now. We also walked over to the church property to look where we might be able to build a few more rooms. While we were there we greeted and gave sympathy money to the eldest son of the Kulkpeni Linguist. He died shortly after we left for the states last year. The deceased man’s property borders the church property. The man was a church member at Kulkpeni.
I hope you all have gone to the new web page my son and daughter-in-law, Aaron and Melissa, built and host for us. If you haven’t seen it yet go to www.ghanamissionfund.org and check it out. All of our children are an asset to this work. I would also be remiss not to mention all of Kandie’s work she is doing for us before she leaves on the 23rd of this month to join me. There is also a link to the West Hobbs Street web page. You can also subscribe to read the Yendi Notes just like the West Hobbs Street site.
Well, that just about wraps it up for today. Have a good day!
In His service,
Stephen Taylor
