Ghana mail, goats again, rabbits, more travels

66 days from the date mailed until I got it.

My daughter sent a “save the date” magnet for the wedding back on the 28th of April. I was able to get it today, so 66 days for a letter. But it is a great magnet and I have saved the date. I've got a countdown going for my flight out. I'll have mid-service medical evaluation before my flight. I'm so looking forward to seeing my family and friends. Holding my first grandchild at the start of my vacation and attending the wedding at the end of my vacation. I'm so excited.


Goats


In the rainy season the grazing animals are suppose to be tied up. Almost all the cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats are tied up around my place. I say almost all because there are at least two mother goats, one with two kids and another with one kid roaming free. Saturday morning the first goat came through with her two kids and grazed down most of what I had planted in the zai pits and an okra plant that I transplanted on Friday.

I'm going to talk with Roger to see if he knows who owns the goats and ask them to tie them up. As with so many times in Ghana, in life, things go wrong or there are problems, but complaining or getting angry doesn't help. If a goat is grazing on your plants during the rainy season (our current season) you are allowed to kill the goat. You can also kill sheep, but not cattle. I don't know about donkeys. I'm not to the point of killing livestock yet, but would really like people to follow the rules and be considerate.


This was on okra plant that I had grown from seed and transplanted on Friday.
Goats stripped most leaves Saturday morning.


Beans and other plants that were growing well.  Maybe 3/4 eaten.  Don't know how the will recover.


Rabbits cages


I was able to put the front and the back of the cages together on Friday and frame some of the cages. I'm almost done with the first framing. Then I will be able to lay down the wire floor. I'll then need to put more boards so I can put the wire on the sides of the cages. I'll wire the sides and the back of the cages. I'll then put wire on the top.

After that I have to put on the roof and make the doors. So I still have a lot yet to do.


Finally, the rabbit cages are sort of beginning to look like rabbit cages.



More traveling


I'll be traveling again next week so I'm not sure about the post for the next two weeks. I'll be in Accra for media training.


Health


I'm getting back to being healthy. One of the problems was that one of my water filters had a broken filter (a tight fitting and 100+ heat was not good for the plastic. I switch between the two filters each week and did not notice how long the filter was broken, but it was within the last month based on my cleaning schedule (my cleaning schedule this month is when I noticed the broken filter).

So for part of the time I was drinking borehole water with some chlorine, but not enough. Some of my stomach issues may have been water related.

The fungus skin infections on the back of my hand and the few on my legs are still hanging around. I'm using a variety of cleaners and creams – slowly getting better or at least not getting worse.




Love always,
John

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