The Ghana government gave everyone a holiday today; they are calling it Easter Monday. The Child Center was not open today so we will be slammed tomorrow. Tuesdays are traditionally our busiest day because it is the day that the baby clinic near the mission house does the baby well checks and vaccinates the children. When the mothers get the babies vaccinated, they come to the Child Center to get Tylenol to have on hand in case the vaccines make the babies and children have a fever.
Steve finished the monthly report this morning and surprise, surprise I actually got it edited today too; now that is team work! Steve also got a head start on entering receipts. This afternoon Steve worked on some of his continuing education units for his next nursing license renewal. It will be due at the end of the year. He would like to get it finished and out of the way so he does not have to scramble like he did for this year’s renewal.
Timothy told us about a tradition that the Konkomba mothers, daughters, female cousins and other female relatives do when there is a burial. He said that they take the top off the casket; carry it upside down and go from person to person in the village asking for money. When they stop at a group of people to ask for donations they say, “The corpse is telling you Bye! Bye!” They stand there until they receive something then move to the next group of people. Mostly they just get coins. I asked Timothy what the ladies do with the money. He said that they share it and use it for whatever they want to use it for. The Dagombas have a similar tradition; the grandchildren of the deceased carry a calabash with either dirty water or hot pepper water. They go from person to person asking if they would like a drink of water or if they would like to wash their face. If you say no then you have to drop coins into the water. You do not want to attend a funeral without coins or you will end up spending far too much money because not only are the grandchildren begging; the drummers follow you all over the village drumming in your ears (it is rather annoying). They will not leave until you have given them something for playing. If you enter a room to greet the family members the drummers will be waiting when you leave the room. The drummers are not actually invited to the funerals; they just show up with their drums so they can make extra money. You have heard of wedding crashers, well these are funeral crashers! Ha!
I got quite a bit done on my quilt today; I was in the process of setting the squares together when I realized that I was 4 blocks short! Back to the cutting board for me!
Take care and enjoy your Easter Monday!
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
Today was a much better day than yesterday! Yesterday was Sunday, my least favorite day of the week because the parents go off and leave me. It is hard for me to tell the days of the week but I suspect it is Sunday when I see Dad load a church bench in the back of the green truck! Since Mom has figured out the trick of putting aluminum foil on the truck windows to keep it cooler, it has become her Sunday morning ritual! The first thing I saw yesterday morning was Mom rushing out of the house with a big sheet of aluminum foil in her hands. My heart sank because I knew that my suspicions were correct; it was Sunday again! At least Donkey was raking leaves so I was not totally alone!
I am getting so good at figuring out how to untangle my leash when I am playing in the big mango tree. I can go for several hours without letting it get tangled up. I make sure before I jump that I look down at the leash and see where it is. It will almost knock the breath out of me if I take a big jump and am stopped short because I am at the end of the leash and fall to the ground! The main reason that I get tangled is because something frightens me and I try to make my get away without checking to see where the leash is.
Anybody know how many days there are until the next Sunday?
Love, Skeeter
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