When we got up this morning we noticed a man at the front gate. He seemed agitated; he sat on his motorcycle a little while, then he sat on the ground, then he sat on the gate buttress, then he was back on his motorcycle. I told Steve that maybe he was sick and thought that we were a medical clinic. I went to the gate to see if he could speak English but he could not. He looked familiar but I could not place him. I went to the Child Center to get Nazo to interpret for us. If you remember one day last week a very sick orphan came to the Center. They had no health insurance for the baby nor did they have money to go to the hospital. Steve gave them the money for the baby’s insurance and he also gave them money to go to the hospital so a doctor could see the baby. The baby was struggling to breath. Well, this man was the baby’s father and he came to tell us that the baby had died in the early hours of the morning. How sad! If he did not have enough money last week to take the child to the hospital how was he going to have enough money to pay the hospital bill? We asked him what he was going to do. He said that the hospital was demanding their money before they would release the baby so they could take him home and bury him. He said that the baby had been so sick that he had not been home since the baby was admitted and he did not know if he could find the money to pay the hospital. Thanks to your generous donations we were able to give the man the money he needed to pay for the hospital bill. He was ever so grateful. He said he would repay the money when he could. Steve also gave him a gift of sympathy money. The whole hospital bill was 120 Cedis which is about $40. That does not seem like a lot of money to us but when the average wage in Ghana is $2 a day it is a lot of money.
This morning when Amama, the lady that helps us in the house saw Jack she told him that she too needed a chair! If Jack makes her a chair he will have to make Meri and Zorash chairs. If he starts making chairs for ladies Mr. Iddrisu will want a chair for his mother and both his wives and Nazo will want a chair for his wife and on and on it will go. This reminds me of the children’s stories “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” and “If You give a Mouse a Cookie”; there is no end in sight! Ha! Jack does not seem to mind.
Red and the welders finished 7 pulpits so when we went to town we picked them up and carried them to the man to spray paint. Red said that the assembling of them should go faster now that they have all the parts cut out and the frames welded.
Steve is outside making a cement platform for the new well pump to sit on. We will have to let it dry for a few days before we hook it up but we are hopeful that we will get some relief from the water problem at least during the rainy season.
This afternoon we went to town and picked up Red. He took us to a huge Baobab tree near the police station that is hollow. The local belief is that “dwarfs” live in the hollow trees. Dwarfs are bad creatures sort of like Leprechauns. They are blamed for lots of bad things that happen in the villages. We needed Red to go with us to ask permission to take pictures of the tree.
Take care and thank you for all you do for us. Please keep us in your prayers.
In His Service,
Jack, Steve and Kandie
