October
One Saturday we went to the dam fishing. I was sitting beside the dam and without thinking about what I was doing, laid my phone down beside me. Normally that would be fine but I was sitting on the sloping concrete next to the spill way. It is a pretty steep slope and my phone took a very speedy trip to the river below. The water is not quite waist deep and rushing. Kenny searched for awhile but couldn't find it. Thankfully I had a spare phone, but I lost my SIM card and that means I lost my number. So if you can't seem to reach me, that might be why! Because my US number was saved with Google Voice I decided to use that for my messaging apps. If you need it, feel free to email me!
Life is getting more and more difficult in Ghana. This week when I went on a shopping/stocking up trip in Cape Coast, I once again took more money along than I thought I could possibly need. An amount that a year ago would have been plenty. But in spite of paying with a credit card at the one store, I came home with 5 cedi in my wallet. Rice is now over 100 cedi for a 4.5 kilo bag. That is two days wages for a lot of the average Ghanaians. We feel a little like life is unfair. The high prices really don't affect us at all because our support comes in USD and the cedi has been depreciating rapidly. When we moved here 1 dollar would get you 5 cedi. Now, 1 dollar will get you 14 cedi and some change. I don't understand what causes depreciation and inflation, how the global market works, and all those things. But I do understand that many Ghanaians have not had their wages raised. Many of them are suffering. And I keep wondering, when will this end? Dry season is coming when they can't grow crops. In a culture that lives day to day, what will they do? And what will we do if there comes a time when people are starving?
There is a young buy that goes with us to church faithfully (at least he did, hopefully it doesn't change). He came to the gate the other week with his mother. Her English was poor but thankfully my wash lady was here and could translate. She wanted help for her son. Could we please clothe and feed this one since he comes to church with us? We explained right away that that wasn't a good option. It could be a temporary solution, but what about when we leave? And what about the rest of the family. I know we have a reputation for being nosy people and we certainly were nosy. We asked many questions. We found out when she was expecting her youngest child her husband left her. She has four children total. She used to make food to sell but now she sells soap. She would like to make food again but needs help to get started. She attends the Methodist church in our village. So these nosy missionaries happened to know a man involved in that church so we called him. He gave us the pastors number so we called her. She gave us another woman's number that actually lives in our village (I believe she is one of those wealthier pastors that is only in the neighborhood for special services.) And when talking to that woman, she wondered if we have talked to this woman's husband. We were puzzled. We thought the husband left! So we went to the person we should have went to at the beginning. Our faithful young friend, Alex. He met Kenny the next morning and took him to the woman's house. And then just over a bit to her "husbands" house. She lives with her dad, who is quite elderly and has eye problems, and her brother who appears to possibly be Down Syndrome. The boy that comes to church with us has a different dad then the rest of the children. The 'husband" (I would be surprised if they are actually married but maybe!) doesn't want to care for the child that isn't his own. So they thought maybe, since he comes to church with us, we could support him. We told her we are sorry but, since there is a man to help support them, she is living in a decent house, they have a farm patch to grow their food, we can't help support them. We invited her to church as well, she has high blood pressure so she can't go to church, she informed us. But somehow she can sell soap. Hmm! Very interesting! From now on I will keep a closer eye on that boy. He is right between my boys and I was trying to decide if I could give him some clothing, but then what about the rest of the boys that come along from that corner of our village? If only helping people was easier! And if only we could hand out salvation like vitamins! His family needs Jesus!
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