We were fairly busy in the child center this morning and Amama took the day off today. One of her relatives had twins last week via c-section. The mother and babies came to the house so it is her job to make the porridge and tootle after the twins. I’m still a little foggy as to how this woman is related to Amama. I will let you know more later.
Most of the ailments in the Child Center this morning were hot bodies (fever) and catarrh (runny noses). The air is just thick with dust and these little babies really struggle to deal with the weather conditions. Most weather forecasters back home would be issuing an air alert encouraging everyone to stay inside but life must go on here if one is to survive.
The little cleft pallet/hair lip baby boy came to the center today. He was looking fat and fine. His mother said they are to go have the surgery around the 24th of April this year. We will help them with transportation and food expenses while they are there at the hospital.
We had one little girl that had just been discharged from the hospital come to see us that didn’t look well at all. She still had little pieces of cotton stuck on her arms where the IV’s had been run. She had lost 1kg (2.2 lbs) since her last visit to the Child Center. Her little knees look knobby. We will have to watch her closely to make sure she starts gaining weight.
I had a visitor this afternoon after I ate lunch. There is a blind man that occasionally comes around to greet us. I have forgotten his name at present but he came today to greet me and ask for school fees for some of his children. As he was getting out of the little three wheeled taxi Nazo whispered to me this man had been to the Regent asking for money so I expected him to ask for something. We don’t help with school fees because there isn’t enough money in Fort Knox to pay for all the school fees around here. (If you do for one you must do for all!) He’s an interesting man to talk with. He knows more names of NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organization= meaning the government doesn’t run it) in Ghana than I could ever know in a life time. After giving the man and the taxi driver some cold water we chit-chatted for 30 minutes. When it was time for him to go I helped the young taxi driver send the man to the taxi but not before I gave the driver some money to help pay for the taxi fare.
After our friend left Iddrisu and I made a run up town to Mr. Hayes pharmacy to purchase some vitamin C tablets for the Center. It was nice to see Mr. Hayes again. One of the younger guys that work for Hayes told me he was very glad to see me and joked about me taking him back to the States next time.
From Hayes’ we drove across an area bordering the market to Mr. Gatto’s hardware store. I have to replace a door knob/latch on the Child Center’s door so I bought that and I purchased another padlock for the iron gate. This morning I was talking with Iddrisu and Nazo about a padlock and key that was missing from the iron gate leading into the child center from the house. It was a mystery as to how it disappeared. Well, tonight Tichak solved the mystery! He showed me the padlock that he uses on his door to his room located behind the Center. It was broken and he had used the gate padlock to lock up his room. I don’t relish the thought of changing the door knob/latch because I have to rework the door to make it work and I didn’t have time to do if before it got dark tonight.
Well, that will just about do it for today. The moon was dim with a reddish cast as it tried to pierce through the thick Harmattan dust tonight. No wonder everyone is sneezing and runny nosed around here.
Have a great day!
In His service,
Stephen Taylor
