(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . My Friends in Ghana- Hunger [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-25 I am trying to write a general update story on my friends in Ghana every Tuesday and if an emergency comes up I will write a special story about that when it happens. This is as close as I can come to a schedule, so here it is for this week. Right now thankfully no one is sick so there are no medical emergencies. My friend John hasn’t told me about anyone coming to him asking for help and he would certainly let me know, so at least for now all is well on that front. Likewise no one has come to him asking for emergency help to prevent them from being evicted. Again, for now no emergencies. And that is good. Our homeless are still homeless. John’s brother Joshua, the artist, is still on the street and not doing well at all. The old man Frederic who lives under an overpass and the 9 year old orphan Ibrahim we have not been able to care for yet. Of the three Joshua seems in the greatest need but there is nothing we can do right now. The abandoned little girl Anabel, who just had her fourth birthday, is doing okay in the home for children whose parents cannot care for them. The matron seems to be a good woman. She has suggested that it is time to think of schooling for Anabel but that is a project for the future. Anabel’s mother, who has mental issues, is homeless and I am concerned about her but we have not had the funds to help her. The new baby Vicky and her parents Zenabu and Haddi are likewise well. They are living in a bad place where the back wall floods when it rains but at least they are inside. They have no food and no things for the baby such as diapers. It concerns me that they are going hungry but we have spent all of our money for the month and there is nothing we can do until the first of the month. Baby Melbourne, who was malnourished and very ill, is recovering. Again, food is a problem, not only for him but also for his mother Agnes and his two siblings, a boy and a girl. I am concerned because I don’t want the baby to have a relapse but he is better. My friend John himself has mostly recovered from his stab wounds that he suffered in an attack early in the month. His health is always fragile because of (I think) bleeding ulcers. At least for now that seems under control. He has no food because he gave his food money for the rest of the month to Anabel (or to her matron) for the little girl’s birthday. I wish he had been more cautious, but as he said, it was an ‘emergency.’ So the thee for this week is basically no emergencies, but everyone is suffering from hunger and a need for the simplest and most basic of requirements of life, namely food. Because of John’s assault, the emergency treatment of his wounds and paying off the people who attacked him (such is justice in Ghana), and also because of Melbourne’s time in the hospital, which was more than we expected, most of our budgeted money for the month was spent early. We have about a week to go until we have funds again and everyone will just have to hang on. But things could be worse, and everyone is well for now. There are some others in our little group but I think these are the only ones I have talked about here. And these others are doing alright, at least in basic terms. Oh, and on a personal note, on Friday my roommate fell heavily when getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. He weighs over 230 pounds and fell hard on both knees, including one that is a replacement knee. Then when in the bathroom he suddenly became dizzy and fell again. We think it was because he had, on his doctor’s advice, gone cold-turkey off several high-blood medications that he had been taking. He seems to be okay but his knees are bruised and of course painful. He has a doctor’s appointment on Thursday to be checked out just to be sure. So we have all had better weeks, but we have had worse. I hope this finds everyone well. God bless. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/25/2165771/-My-Friends-in-Ghana-Hunger Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/