A Tale of Two Gatekeepers

Our two gatekeepers are the security at our compound around the clock.  They monitor who comes and goes and open and shut the gates when we leave. 

Yaki:
Yaki is 70 years old (which is ancient for a Ghanaian) and rides a dilapitated old bike to work.  He is very skinny, has no teeth, speaks little, if any English, and is deaf as a doornail.  A few days after we moved in, the pump to our polytank broke.  Most homes have a large black water tank (called a polytank) where the water is pumped up and stored 'til needed.  When the brand new pump failed, the water ran out and drained the tank.  The owner of our compound is a young, fairly wealthy man from Kumasi named Christopher, and he happened to be here at the time.  He was furious with Yaki because the he had not been walking behind our home to notice that it was malfunctioning.  He began yelling loudly, "I'll sack you old man; I'll sack you!  It was awful.  Poor Yaki kept bowing and apologizing.  Gary finally smoothed it over and told Christopher that we really like our gatekeepers and that they help us a lot.  Yaki is poor as a church mouse, doesn't even have enough money to eat and really needs the job.  Christopher pays the gatekeepers 100 cedis a month which is about $70.00.  The other tenant here, Enoch, doesn't like Yaki to work the night shift because he can't hear and isn't much security at night.  We agree and prefer Yaki works days.

David:
David is a nice-looking African man, about 35, who has a wife and two little kids, a girl who is 4 years old and a little boy who is 2.  David also rides a decrepit old bike that's literally falling apart.  One day, he told Gary that he had seen us at the Fiapre Branch House cleaning  the weeds and "wacking" the lawn.  David speaks a little English.  Gary asked him how he saw us because Fiapre is clear on the other side of town--miles away.  David told him that he lives over there and that his wife had even been taught by the missionaries and that they are very interested in the Church.  It took him over two hours to ride the old bike every day to our compound so he was leaving before 5 am so he could be here by 7.  Our Elders here all have bikes and Elder Thayne has made it his personal mission to repair, clean and keep all of them in good order.  They take a terrific beating daily with the dirt roads and potholes, so we are into the bike repair shop almost daily.  Someone in Accra or Cape Coast decided that they were getting a fantastic deal on a bunch of bikes and bought several new ones and shipped them up to us.  It was quite the joke.  Kumasi (Elder Zoll) got a little girl's pink bike with flowers.  We got two big heavy, one gear, beach-type Schwinns that are just not suitable for the Elders.  One of our African Elders liked one of them, however, and traded his in for the new one, but none of the other Elders would even consider riding the other one.  Gary was feeling really sorry for David, so he has loaned him the Elder's old bike and it has made about an hour's difference to David for getting here.  He cleans it every day and has been very appreciative.  A few days ago, Gary went up to David and he was crying.  His little 2 year-old boy has malaria and he doesn't have the money to buy medicine. Try feeding a family of four on $2.10 a day.  Malaria is the biggest killer in West Africa, but it is treatable.  The problem is the little kids get bitten so often and the parents can't afford the medicine. That's why the death rate is so high for little children. It is heartbreaking to see a father crying for his little son and not be able to do anything.  David told Gary that they live in a wooden cow shed and they can't keep the mosquitos out.  I had about a half a dosage of coartem, the medicine for malaria, left in the medicine box.  We read up on what the dosage for a two year-old would be and believe it or not, it was a half dose.  We gave David the medicine, and the little boy is getting better (this time) so our goal is to find David a better day job, have him keep working the night shift here and try to get them a better place to live.  It's a tall order, but we're determined to help this little family.  They are meeting us at Church this weekend.  We only hope and pray we can help to make a difference in their lives.