October 26th 10:35 pm (UTC +1:00)

Not a whole lot interesting today. I went to town to get some things
for the Asher’s some crackers and three of these Thermos things they
have here that are amazing at keeping hot water hot and cold water
cold. I got to haggle on my own for the first time today. The lady
wanted 32000 for them but I told her that was too much, that I could
find them elsewhere for 25000, which she didn’t go for, but she was
willing to go 28500 for each one since I was buying 3 of them. I was
so proud that I managed to haggle her down and didn’t just give in,
but I proceeded to wreck that pride when I got to the house. I was
trying to take one out for use, the other two were for Tom to take
home to their daughter, I dropped it on the ground and found out just
how fragile the glass flask inside of it is, it shattered into a
million pieces, luckily contained inside the Thermos. I thought for
sure Karen would be mad at me but she just told me to relax, accidents
happen. And proceeded to tell me a story about one of her bigger
accidents which made me feel a lot better. Class is going ok, but the
kids are just not getting much. I’m trying to not get bitter at them
but today was bad, I had taught them something today and was just
trying to review it with them before the end of class and it was like
none of them had listened a bit. They couldn’t answer a single
question I asked. Inside I was just seething thinking “I gave up 8
months with my family and friends for this?”. I know that I shouldn’t
feel that way, I just hate feeling like I’m wasting effort and
accomplishing nothing which is what it feels like now. Since Karen
decided I don’t need to teach the literature class on Monday I think
that will be when I have my bible study. I don’t know when I’ll start
though, I’ll keep you up to date on that. I went on a walk this
afternoon after classes with Rebecca to get her a sim card for her
phone and some units so she can make calls. Then I showed her Kamakwie
1, 2 and 3. Then we returned to the house for dinner. I had my biology
WASSCE prep class with some of the kids tonight, that at least went
pretty good and I’m feeling better about my presence here not being
futile. Anyway, I think I’m just frustrated because I had an idea
about what I could do and how fast I could go since they need to know
so much for the WASSCE but I have to let that go. The best laid plans
as they say… In reality I’m doing really well, just trying to figure
out how to best deal with and teach these kids. Anyway, that’s about
all I have for today. For some reason I can’t get to facebook or
anything else but my email right now, so if you want to write me or
comment about one of my blog posts please write me at
RyanBrooksInAfrica@gmail.com.
Blessings from Africa
Ryan Brooks

October 25th 10:23 pm (UTC +1:00)
>
> This morning Kadiatu, the African lady who cooks for the Asher’s
> (usually with Karen) came for the first time today. She made breakfast
> for Tom and I, as well as for Lisa the lady from World Hope. It was
> nice to have pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Lisa had to set out for
> Makeni pretty early so she left right after breakfast, it was good to
> meeting her, in the time she had here she shared stories of the places
> she’s been and the conditions she’s had to deal with and it made me
> really appreciate what we have here in Kamakwie. Anyway, after she
> left I spent some time reading and then Saidu came over. We ended up
> playing monopoly which was really funny because Saidu was a very
> gracious loser. Anyway, after finishing that I had to get ready for
> school. I got to teach biology again today for the second time since
> I’ve been here. It went pretty well but it’s like pulling teeth. I’m
> going over material they’ve had before hoping to get a quick review
> and it’s like having to teach it all over again. Class went well
> overall, and after class I had to get ready for this evening, I was
> supposed to begin teaching a literature class tonight with SS3
> students and other people trying to prepare for the WASSCE. The Ashers
> have decided they want to have a nightly class where people wanting to
> review and learn for the WASSCE can come. I have to teach literature
> on Monday nights and Biology on Tuesday nights and Tom and Karen teach
> the other three nights of the week. Then Tom and I went to see if the
> mattresses that are supposed to be coming were arriving. Apparently
> there is a donor from my church who helped make getting these
> mattresses possible, but I don’t know who. Anyway Tom thought it would
> be great for me to get some pictures as they arrive and were unloaded
> and such, but then we found out they won’t be in till about midnight
> so we will have to wait till tomorrow to do that. We returned to the
> house to wait for 8pm when I would have to reach the class. One kid
> showed up, Foday, who is one of my science SS3 students who don’t need
> to study literature so Tom and I just worked on math with him. Right
> as we were finishing that, Karen called letting us know she was almost
> here with the medical student, Rebecca. We got the car unpacked and
> got her all settled in, since she got in so late she just went to bed
> so I didn’t get a chance to talk to her but she seems really nice.
> Anyway, that’s about all for todays activities. I brought some group
> study books and stuff and I’m thinking about starting a bible study,
> but I haven’t had a single regular week where something wasn’t going
> on yet (having only been here for just over two weeks) so I don’t know
> when a good time would be. Well, I hope all is well in the United
> States keep writing me either e-mails or on face book, I love hearing
> from people.
>
> Blessings from Africa
> Ryan Brooks
>

October 24th 8:41 pm (UTC +1:00)
>
> I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday because I managed to pick up
> a virus last night and I couldn’t use my computer. I was stupid and
> thought I could get by without an antivirus program if I just used
> facebook, gmail and my blog. False clearly. I felt bad praying about
> it, but I didn’t know what I would do if I lost my only real contact
> with you all. Wouldn’t you know it, the Asher’s happened to have 3
> copies of Norton Antivirus 2011 and they let me have a copy. After
> installing it and running it, my computer is thankfully right as rain.
> Apparently the viruses here are killer if you get them and don’t
> handle them with an antivirus program. Anyway, enough of my computer
> troubles, today was a hot day even compared to the other days. We
> went to another church in a nearby village. It’s just really cool to
> see the passion that these people have during their worship. I just
> wish I could understand what was going on. Anyway, then we came back
> and didn’t do much all day because of the heat, I wasn‘t feeling well.
> However, we did have a visitor, we had the Lisa, the head of two
> divisions of World Hope over for dinner. She’s very nice and has a big
> heart for helping the people in Africa. She’s been traveling since the
> 10th of October and she leaves Thursday to go home. She started in
> Liberia before coming over this way. She is visiting some of the
> schools where they provide support to. She said they have 16 areas
> where they provide support, as for the size of those areas, your guess
> is good as mine because she didn‘t say. But she said in some schools
> they don’t have enough teachers, the kids come to school and sit in
> their classrooms doing nothing the whole time because the teacher
> isn’t there. You won’t be getting this till the 25th because Karen is
> in Freetown picking up the first medical student, the one from the UK.
> That was interesting, Karen was expecting to pick her up at the dock,
> but apparently the girl got a ride to some British government
> building, but we here in Kamakwie didn’t realize what was going on so
> we were all worried she told us she had gotten picked up by some guy.
> But things worked out ok and Karen ended up getting her. Anyway,
> that’s about all I have for tonight. I pray that you are all well.
>
> Blessings from Africa
> Ryan Brooks

Hi everyone,
Ryan is having trouble with the internet so he is sending me his blogs to post here for him. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers
Thank You
Connie (Ryan's Mom)

October 23rd
>
> I had an adventure today, at about 9:30 this morning I set out with
> Albert, the head of all the youth in the district, to go to see the
> agricultural project and the work they are doing. The goal of the
> agricultural project is to grow crops and sell them, and then plant
> more, using each years profits both to expend the farm and to give
> scholarships to students for school, these students in turn work on
> the farms to provide the labor. We took bikes, not the one provided by
> my church, though the ones from Fredericksburg were given to the
> agriculture program to help them get around and after my adventure
> today I know that it will be a huge blessing for them to have those
> bikes. We had to go up and down hills and take some trails through the
> trees and brush to get to the first farm, which is in zone one, there
> are multiple zones I don’t know how many but there are at least 7 of
> them, it was a tough ride. Once there we had to walk down this trail,
> you couldn’t take the bikes down, to one of the fields where they were
> growing kassava, which is a tree-like plant that they harvest for
> their root. I don’t know much about kassava and it’s uses but I do
> know that they grow a lot of it an one of the things made from it is
> called and apparently is eaten for breakfast. They use the inner part
> because the outer part of the root is poisonous, it makes me think
> about the trial and error involved in finding out what’s safe to eat,
> anyway… They also grow ground nuts (essentially peanuts), palm nuts,
> and pineapple. From there we traveled to another zone, which one I
> don’t know. Here they were working on a new farm where they where they
> are going to plant some more Kassava, which takes about a year to
> grow. They plant it in November, and then it’s ready for harvest the
> following November. The thing is that they have to clear the whole
> area by hand using machetes (they call them cutlasses here) and it’s
> not some light brush that has to be cleared. It’s chest high brush,
> small trees, and other tough plants. If there is one thing that God is
> really tearing me apart every day with the things I and experience
> here it’s the fact that I complain excessively. The things that I
> complain about every day are nothing compared to what these people
> have to do here. For instance, the hospital celebrates it’s 50th
> anniversary the first week of November and the people here, in
> preparing for the occasion, “mowed” the hospital grounds. It’s a lot
> of land, and while a lot of people were working on it, it’s no small
> task. They used machetes to chop down all the brush and weeds, I was
> so bad about complaining that I had to mow with a push mower at home.
> Complaining has always been one of my biggest problems, but the things
> these people deal with every day and the things they have to do leave
> me no legs to stand on if I even consider complaining. Anyway,
> self-analysis aside, the rest of my adventure was interesting. I’ve
> learned that if an African says something is not very far that you
> shouldn’t always believe them. Albert told me that we were going to
> take another way back to Kamakwie from the second farm because it
> would be easier, he said it was not very far… haha. The trip back took
> probably twice as long to get back as it did to get there, a lot of
> that being that it’s so hot here. I can do 30 miles on my bike at home
> but that’s a flat trail and the weathers cooler. Round trip it was
> only about 10 miles but by time I got home I was dying. It was almost
> 1 o’clock when I finally got back to the hospital. It was a really
> tough ride, but thinking about the people who have to walk there, or
> even ride, and then work all day long in the hot sun only to have to
> make the return trip home. The experience was really humbling for me,
> I’ve had it so easy in my life. It’s an incredible undertaking that
> these people are doing and it’s not even for personal profit, they are
> currently only being able to continue to work through the blessings of
> donations from people in the United States. They had 38 students last
> year and with the contributions from the farm and from people at home
> they are adding another 40 students, students who will be able to go
> to school, and they are effectively doubling their work force, they
> have big dreams for this project which is wonderful to see. The
> Asher’s showed the Jesus film in Krio at the hospital, I didn’t stay
> there to see it all because I had promised to make a call before it
> ended, but it was really weird seeing Jesus speak Krio. There were a
> lot of people who came to see it, patients from the hospital and kids
> from all over, there were tons of them. The Africans love movies so
> it’s a great method for reaching out to them. Reaching people is hard
> here I would say, partly because a lot of the people who come around
> to the hospital are Christian already and the other part is that being
> a Muslim here has it’s benefits. From what I’m told about the Muslim’s
> here is that the men have all the perks, they can have up to three
> wives who all provide for him and prepare him food. Tom told me he has
> seen a few Muslims that respect their wives but for the most part it
> isn’t so. Anyway, be praying that God will open the hearts of these
> people here. They have a lot working against them, and a lot of it is
> themselves.
>
> Blessings from Africa
> Ryan Brooks

October 21st 7:43 pm (UTC +1:00) and October 22nd 9:49 pm (UTC +1:00)

Thursday
Today was a pretty normal day, if one can have a normal day in Africa. I didn’t do much in the morning, mostly just read a lot. About 3pm I was tired of sulking in the house ( I was having a bit of a bad day with feeling homesick but it‘s to be expected) So I went out and talked to some people from the hospital and wandered around a bit. They are preparing a soccer field on the hospital, they asked if I would play but I said not likely, I’m no good at home, let alone here where every kids past time is playing soccer. Anyway, then I had to get ready for my one class for the day. It went well, I only had two kids show up, Abdul, the one who the Asher’s know well, and another kid Amos. They were really doing pretty good (relative to most of the other students knowledge) with the problems I was giving them. Then I came back home and Saidu was here. Him and I are going to go for a walk tomorrow morning at about 9 before it gets too warm. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful day. Maybe there will be more to report tomorrow.

Friday

So today was a pretty good day. I woke up at about 7 and couldn’t get back to sleep because the Africans were being soooo loud this morning. I understand that not having power for lights at night means that they want to get the most out of the day but the volume of the noise this morning was ridiculous. Anyway, not gonna rant about it anymore than I have. I got up and while I was having breakfast Saidu came over, almost an hour before he said he was coming. So I made him do some math problems, haha. Actually he really wanted to do them, he is one of my favorite students. Then we set out a little after 9am this morning to walk around Kamakwie and some of the local villages. We weren’t in Kamakwie long, walking first to Kadigidigi. Kadigidigi and all the other villages we visited had similar layouts, a collection of buildings (mostly homes) right along the edge of the road. The occasional church or mosque. The children LOVE to say hello and will keep saying hello until they are blue in the face, they usually call out “white man, white man, hello!” and repeat the process. The next village we walked through was Matebour, then Kasama, and finally Kadada. The road goes right through the land past over rivers or other various bodies of water. The view is so awesome, there are all kinds of trees and other plants. Tons of wild animals, I saw three separate varieties of small lizard, a belt snake, which Saidu told me will crawl up your pants if you aren’t careful. We saw an iguana climbing a tree, I got some pictures, but it was kind of far away so the quality isn’t great. Saidu told me people fear the iguanas because, and I quote, “if they hit you in the manhood with their tails you will never walk again”. I just laughed at him and told him we keep them as pets. The Sierra Leoneans seem to have many fears, I don’t remember many of them but they are afraid of the dark, figure that one out, Tom tells me it’s mostly the things crawling in the dark that they fear. I also saw some birds, there is one variety of bird here where a bunch of them all nest in the same tree, there is literally a nest on every branch. Oh, we passed a place where they grow their electric poles. It’s a type of tree that grows tall and straight with almost no branches until you get near the very top. We saw a school for orphans, that made me sad because there were a lot of kids there. But when the mother death rate in Sierra Leone for birthing is as high as 3 in 5 in places, and a lot of men were killed during the civil war I guess it isn’t too surprising. When we reached Kadada, Saidu informed me we had to walk back the way we came, which is not what he told me when I asked if you could get back to Kamakwie after having passed Kadigidigi. Oh well, anyway so by time I got back to the house it was a little before 12, we had walked for almost two and a half hours, and I could feel every minute of it, haha. While we were walking we talked about a bunch of things, one of which being relationships. Saidu told me he has two girlfriends, and apparently dating multiple people is pretty common place here. He told me his one girlfriend has many boyfriends. He told me he doesn’t want a woman who has more money than him because then they will call him a lazy man. I asked Tom about that here and he said that it’s pretty true, the women do a lot of the work here, raise kids, keep house, farm and the men are pretty often not doing very much. He said a lot of the economy is due to the efforts of the women. Anyway, I had a good walk and enjoyed getting to know more about Saidu, it’s good to feel like I’m finally starting to for at least one friendship here. Peter and I took some books down to the secondary school library, some books on English comprehension and a 26 volume encyclopedia of inventions. After that I had to spend a while preparing for class tonight, it took me forever to do anything because I was so tired from the walk this morning. Class went well, I actually ran over my time which is good because so far I’ve not felt like I had enough to talk about for a 45 minute period, let alone having my kids for a 90 minute solid block like I did tonight. We are doing math still, I started trying to work on fractions with them, they have kind of an idea but are really struggling with actually working them out. After class I came back and had dinner, but while we were eating the lights went out because the power was late coming on, we weren’t sure if we were actually going to get power tonight, but we did which is good. We met with some kids that we are going to be working with at the Ashers house at night, I have them for literature on Monday night and for Biology on Tuesday night. I seem to be teaching everything but Chemistry which is what I really liked, though I liked Organic and Biochemistry far more than the general chemistry stuff I’m supposed to be teaching. I had a little spider scare, there was this big spider in the bathroom when I went to brush my teeth. I saw it and thought oh that’s cool, so I got my camera, and I was taking pictures when Karen came in and told me it would bite, so I backed of and Abdul came in with bug spray, well he started trying to spray it and it started running all over, which made me a bit nervous, then Abu came over and he pointed at the wall and went, Ryan look out there’s another one which scared me and then he started laughing. He got me, Mr. Gullible. Anyway, apparently tomorrow morning I’m going to the market in Kamakwie with Abu at 8am to get some phone units, some t-shirts because the ones I brought (stupidly) are good shirts that I want to have for a long time and the washing process here is very hard on fabrics and maybe to look for a cross necklace for Abu. Then at 9 I’m going to visit the agricultural project near Kadigidigi, I’m not sure why but the guy in charge wants me to go. Anyway I miss you all and look forward to seeing your faces again.
Blessings from Africa
Ryan Brooks

October 18,19,20 Freetown

This is going to be a long post (very long in fact, I apologize for my verbosity) so be ready to be reading for a while, haha. Feel free to take breaks or to come back to it later. I have a lot to write about my experiences and the things that were told to me about Sierra Leone along the way so there will be random insertions of information.

Monday
We set out at about 8:30 am. The trip from Kamakwie to Makeni was no fun, but it was better than the first time. I’ve decided probably because I was sitting in the front of the vehicle as opposed to the back seat, I originally thought due to not being so stressed from flying across two continents but the return trip this evening was just plain awful. Imagine the worst road you’ve been on and then try to imagine it being a million times worse. Most of the distance you have to creep along going slow as you hit ruts and pot holes. Some holes are so big that when they fill with water the water almost reaches the top of the tires on the car. A 55 miles drive takes about 3 and a half hours. I will never again disparage any road in the United States as they are ALL better than this road. By time you finish you feel like you have probably suffered brain trauma. While the road conditions are deplorable the scenery on the way is beautiful. You would not think you were in Africa, lush endless green that rolls off into the distance, spotted with trees. There are mountains off in the distance the whole way. The whole experience is breath-taking. It’s almost to much to take in. I’m kind of excited for the coming dry season because I’m told it will look way different as everything dries out, like you were in a whole different place. Anyway, that aside we met Steven in Makeni. Steven is the hospitals driver, he normally would have driven from Kamakwie because he lives there, but he was in Makeni for a funeral. We spent about 30 minutes in Makeni because we were looking into getting me a bank account. Leaving from Makeni for Freetown is nicer, the road is paved but still uneven in places. But the drive is also beautiful, but different. Kamakwie is up country, in the hilly region of Sierra Leone, the road to Freetown goes mostly through open country, flat but not Kentucky flat. Way in the distance you can see green mounds that are the distant mountains. Being out in the open you really notice the clouds, you can almost see the water in them they look so full and heavy and seem to press down upon you. Being here is like experiencing a whole new aspect of God’s creation, totally different from what I’m used to and so amazing. I wish you all could see it because so much of what I am seeing and experiencing here is beyond words and I can’t get pictures that do it any justice. The vegetation along the road is only broken by small villages, most no more than a few huts and many of them having little stands trying to sell things. You can buy all sorts of things along the road, fruits, vegetables and many other things. We stopped one time and I got four big bananas right from a tree for 2000 Leones, which is only 50 cents. We made it to Freetown around 3pm, which means it took us about 6 hours to get there, excluding the 30 min spent in Makeni, and we are just at the edge of the city. Imagine fitting 3 million people into a city where not many buildings are more than 2 stories tall and its built in mountains so not all the available land is actually usable. Then add the fact that there is one main road that gets you around. Then put crazy drivers in cars and let them drive around like maniacs and try to get anywhere. Any time you come to a stop in the city, which is often, people will mob your car trying to sell you things. Most of the buildings along the streets are shops selling anything you could possibly imagine. Look hard enough and you’ll find it here. The economy is really driven by selling stuff, people sell their food they grew or harvested from random trees to people. Then buy stuff like phones, clothes and other things from the people buying their food. I thought America represented materialism, the only thing keeping Sierra Leoneans from being materialists is lack of money. Navigating the narrow people packed streets of the city is hard enough, but then you add another challenge, Honda drivers. (Honda is a general term for motorbikes since most of them here are Hondas anyway) They drive around like maniacs, swerving in and out of traffic, I haven’t seen them cause an accident yet but they have to, they ignore right-a-way and pretty much other traffic law. We almost hit one who tried to dodge around a car and ended up coming head on at us, he just glared at us like it was our fault we were in his way despite the fact that we were in our lane. We had to pick up some propane, I paid 140,000 for a can. I keep experiencing number shock, I was like, 140000!?!? But it’s really only 35$ It‘s because the Leone is worth so little in comparison, I‘ve probably said before but it‘s 1$ to 4000 Leones. One thing I’ve noticed in the two times I’ve been here in Freetown is the lack of beggars. One would think that in such a poor country there would be beggars everywhere, I did anyway, but the few I’ve seen have been those who really would have trouble finding work and money, the physically disabled. We passed the special courts where the rebels are being held and tried for atrocities committed during the civil war. Such as amputations, in the last 18 months of the war, the rebels took over Freetown and broke into the jail. They freed the political prisoners and such and went about maiming people they thought had been a part of the party who was in power and had jailed them. There were many cases of amputations, in some cases a foot, or even both, a hand or, as I saw today, both hands. It’s so depressing because these people had done nothing really beyond voting the former government into power, and they likely didn’t even have much control over that, things were already not great here pre-civil war. It’s starting to rain and the people scatter, it’s crazy how quickly all the people along the street can clear when the rains come, if you remember the rains can be pretty bad. They are attempting to widen the main road to make it four lanes instead of the current two lanes now, so all along the road there are piles of rubble where they demolished walls or even building, the people weren’t really given a choice but will be compensated for anything they lost in the project, or so it’s said. What is said and what happens tend to be somewhat different from what I’ve heard. Right now though you spend more time sitting then moving so I have affectionately termed it Freetown Parkway. After lunch, they use cucumber on sandwiches which I love so that’s good, and dessert was coconut “cakes” which were actually very thin hard cookie like things, blasted British English, haha. We then headed to the docks where Karen would be arriving, standing by the water was wonderful, because the breeze was making it nice and cool. Another thing I’ve noticed, there are police everywhere, directing the flow of cars as best they can, which is hard because there are so few roads and so many people, complicated again by the crazy Honda drivers. Something that keeps throwing me off is the clothing that people wear here, it just comes from all over, but especially from America. I’ve seen shirts with obscure sports teams from several American states, one I saw on Monday was from Tennessee. Today I saw a Three Days Grace shirt. I had sort of expected Africans to wear, well either not much if they didn’t have it or African clothing, but I guess the American stuff is cheaper because it’s mostly used when it gets here. Oh, and you’ll never guess what else is huge here, cell phones. Many, many people have cell phones here, there are shops all over dedicated to selling time for the phones, charging phones, etc… There are signs EVERYWHERE that announce the different companies, Africell, Comium, Zain(which is what I have). There are signs in almost every shop (not that you really go “in” many shops here, most are little stands packed with junk) on every wall, on homes, fences. Zain dominates radio advertising, coming on every time there are commercials and some times a few times in a row. While we were waiting for Karen to come in we walked around near the docks and looked out over the water and I was reminded again of why I love large bodies of water, like the great lakes and the ocean. The water crashing against the shore just fills me with a sense of awe at the majesty of God’s glory. It’s sucha a powerful feeling. We got Karen safely and headed to the place we were staying, it’s not pretty, and doesn’t have running water but there are beds and there is power. Plus it’s only $2.50 for a night. One note of caution, if an outlet was 110V before, that doesn’t mean it won’t change and be 220V later. Things in Africa are not always as they seem, that’s for certain. This was just Monday… I hope you aren’t put off by my endless exploits, you can always come back later don’t feel compelled to read it all at once or not at all.

Tuesday
I’m still having trouble sleeping, the dreams that keep waking me up are really getting on my nerves, it happens two to three times a night. The Ashers tell me it’s not the malaria meds I’m on so I’m guessing its just the excessive level of mental stimulation. The traffic is not any better in the morning than it was the previous night. We had to stop to get air in the tires, but since they don’t have the right adaptor for airing up the tires they actually remove the valve stem and place an air hose over the hole and let the tire fill. Then they have to quickly remove the hose and replace the valve stem before they lose too much air from the tire. I know I’ve said it before, but there are dogs all over the place! All shapes and sizes of dog and they are all so cute and I just want to pet them all but again, not a fan of rabies so I’m not allowed sadly. We went to the market to get food and the Ashers bought a new stove for their kitchen, they gave their other one to the Manrs since they needed to get a bigger one anyway because they host a lot of the people who come to visit. I learned something else, some times buying more than one thing is a good idea, Karen bought two cabbages for 14000, they wanted 11000 for one, so by buying the second one she only had to pay 3000 for it. We passed two arguments, called palavers (again, British influence) One fight was over a thief, who had apparently been caught in the act and suffered for it. He was pretty beat up and bloody. Obviously it didn’t pay to steal. I have no idea what the other was about but it was pretty much right across the road from the first one. A large group of people arguing with a police officer discourages one from trying to get close, I’m glad we were in the car because people were looking very angry. Oh, the trash along the streets is AWFUL, there are places where it’s so bad because the people just start using certain places as trash dumps, so it just piles up, but usually it’s in a place where the ground slopes down so as trash is added it just tumbles down the hill, but there is trash allover the place elsewhere too, it’s a dirty city in general. I was looking for some dress shirts as I have to wear a nice shirt and pants to teach and to church and I only brought 2, I couldn’t find any I like that weren’t long sleeved but we did find a place selling African shirts and I got a really nice green one, Tom told me it will be fine for church and teaching, but it really needs washed because it’s very stiff and a little uncomfortable. But Tom promised they are really comfortable once broken in. It cost me 50000 Leones which is kind of pricey, but really it’s only 12.50 and it’s a nice shirt, plus we haggled down from 70000 which made me feel better haha. If I like it I plan on trying to get some more because they really are nice looking shirts, but I want to make sure it’s comfortable. Describing the traffic is just impossible, I know I’ve commented on it several times but it’s just crazy. There are no lights anywhere and when no cop is present you have to be respectful, and go for it when you get a chance and hope you don’t get hit. I could never drive here, I would either never get anywhere because I don’t know when to move, or I would quickly be in an accident because I tried to go at a bad time, so I’m glad that the Ashers have a driver because they don’t like to drive in Freetown either, they pretty much agree with me on how hard it would be. I find it amusing that the little shops along the street take themselves very seriously, like Bambaya Enterprise and Rafobu International, they sound impressive but they are these dinky dingy little shops that sell mostly junk, like a lot of shops here. One I saw was supposed to be electronics and stuff, but they had written Electrolytes which made me laugh. Oh, and many walls here and in Kamakwie are serious about keeping people out, they are topped either with shards of glass or rusty nails, you do not want to try and cross them. I had fun at dinner Tuesday, I love rice, which is good because it’s a pretty big staple with Africans here, and the place we went to served plain boiled rice as an appetizer. I was really in the mood for some rice so I ordered it and the waiter did a double take, stared at me and asked several times if what I wanted was boiled rice, making it clear that it was plain. The look on his face was priceless. And I ordered a cheeseburger to go along with it. I know rice and a cheeseburger sounds weird, but it was wonderful and I loved every bite of it all. The cheeseburger was strange because it had cucumbers and some other things I wouldn’t expect on a burger, but it was good. Something humorous but at the same time embarrassing is that Tom and Karen keep giving me a hard time about the “strangers” that are coming during the time I’m here. Strangers is a general term here for anyone coming from out of country. Why you might ask? Because 9 of the people who are coming are medical students. Oh, did I mention that all nine are female? So Tom and Karen keep making comments about it and Tom says I’m going to be busy taking them on dates. Ridiculous, right? Well… maybe, haha. We’ll just have to see I suppose. Tom did tell me that since I will have been here for a while before most of them come that I might have to help make sure things are going ok with them and that they are settling in well and things like that. I think I can handle that. The first one however is coming this Monday from England. Thus endeth Tuesday, sorry I’m being so long winded but I’m finding this all so fascinating and I want to share it, I hope you enjoy reading it all. Remember, take breaks if you need to.

Wednesday (Today) 10:00 pm
Karen pointed out something this morning that I hadn’t really caught onto before now, there are very few, almost no, old people in Freetown and not that many up country in Kamakwie. When I asked why she told me something that saddened me, the life expectancy here in Sierra Leone is 44, That makes me middle aged here, how crazy and sad is that? We set out from Freetown at around 8:30am (our first stop was so that the Ashers could change the $5000 that Karen brought for their living expenses, it came out to 21 million Leones, it took a bag to carry it. Crazy right? We made it to Makeni somewhere a little after noon and we stopped at this place called the “Women of Hope Guest House” Their goal is to help women who are suffering as a result of the war, or other circumstances, but especially women who lost husbands and ones suffering with a disability in the form of an amputated limb. The Ashers know Kim, the lady running it, and we had lunch there. We also met Kelsey, a girl working there with Kim, they leave in like a week to return to the States but are coming back in January I think they said. Lunch was rice with some kind of African bean thing over it. It was yellowish which I was told was palm oil (palm trees are the main tree around here) I was afraid to try it as it looked really gross but I did and it wasn’t terrible, it went well with the rice. But then afterward there were bananas and oranges, eaten of course by squeezing them for their juice. It was good. After that we finally began the long arduous journey from Makeni to Kamakwie. Well, first we stopped at a store to pick up some meat and cheese stuffs. The market is one of a chain called St. Mary’s Supermarket, it’s kind of expensive but it’s the last real store on the way to, and including, Kamakwie. I don’t much like the place because you get mobbed by handicapped people in the parking lot and it kills me to be unable to help them. The journey up the road was rough, the worst yet so I was very glad to get here. Overall it was a good trip and I’m glad I went. It was nice to see Freetown when I wasn’t so shell-shocked from everything that was happening. It’s back to classes tomorrow, and I might wait a day or two to write here again so that you have time to relax after all this reading. It just depends on if much of interest happens tomorrow. Anyway, time to get ready for bed, I’m exhausted from the trip. Have a blessed evening.

Blessings from Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital, Sierra Leone,
Ryan Brooks

October 17th 5:49 pm (UTC +1:00)

Ok, so I don’t need the universal time code, but it’s fun to use it in some way. I tried cutting it out today and it just felt like something was missing. Also, from what everyone says my posts are very interesting and I’m kind of looking forward to going back 8 months from now and reading through everything. There is so much going on it’s just hard to take it all in. Anyway, kuisay (greeting, sounds like coo-shay) today was a good day. Tom and I took a walk this morning at about 8:30 while all you American peoples were sleeping away at 4:30 in the morning. It was nice, we wandered a back path past the primary school and then circled around and passed through Kamakwie 2 into 1 before returning to the hospital. We ran into Saidu on the way up from Kamakwie and he walked back to the hospital with us and we talked some. We got back to the house to find two pickens(kids) sitting on the porch. I got to know them a little because they walked to church with us and sat with us. The one is Andrew and the other was Abdul, different from the one that comes around to Tom’s house all the time. They are great kids and by the end of the service they decided they like me a lot and were all over me, leaning on me, resting on me. Which was ok, except for the fact that it’s so hot here! Haha. We went to the what is referred to as the Wesleyan mother church in Kamakwie. It’s the biggest and has some power, probably solar, but they have a sound system and fans in the ceiling to help try to keep the people cooler. And tons of windows all thrown wide open. Anyway, the service was nice, a lot of it was in English but hard to understand anyway because they were very passionate about the service. They raised their voices and yelled occasionally and were just very into it. They are very passionate during worship too. They sing at the top of their voices and move and clap it’s a very passionate worship unlike what I’ve seen in all the churches at home I’ve been too. It’s, to use my favorite word of the month, overwhelming, especially because it’s so warm. Another thing I’m trying to get used to is the smell. It’s not that they are particularly unclean but without the use of deodorant, well… you can understand right? There were a good number of people packed into the building too… I tried to ignore it as best I could, I mean, I was in church, but it’s kind of distracting. After church Saidu introduced me to some of his friends. I can’t remember them, as much as I struggle with names at home I’m really having trouble here, between the number of people I meet and everyone looks the same at first. I mean it, all the boys keep their hair cut short so you can’t really identify them from behind and until I see them a few times their facial features just don’t stick with me. Saidu came back with us from church and I visited with him some, but we kept getting interrupted by the Asher’s cat patches, whom I affectionately have dubbed satan, because he is evil. Not really, just very annoying, a big troublemaker. He keeps escaping from the back porch no matter what we do to try and contain him. I had to use a bunch of duct tape to patch a hole in the screen on the porch. We’ll see how well that holds. I talked to Saidu some and eventually age and birthdays came up, would you believe that Saidu, who is 20 years old, has never had a birthday. He knows his birthday which I guess is more than some can say. He told me his birthday is May 4th and I promised we would have a birthday for him before I leave, because it’s just a shame that he has never celebrated the day of his birth. I didn’t do a whole lot after that. I rested for a while because I wasn’t feeling well, mostly due to the heat. We had oranges for dinner, and here they have a strange way of eating them. They peel the outer layer off with a knifw, but not all the way to the fruit, just enough to remove the whole outer skin but have some of the skin left around the fruit. Then they cut off one of the ends and squeeze the orange and just suck the juice out of it. Apparently there is a small risk of getting a parasite from the outer skin if you aren’t careful about how you eat the inside of the orange. It’s not a very attractive way of eating the fruit I must say, what with all the making of faces and the sucking noises, haha. So, I know a lot of you like reading my daily blog but I must inform you that I am leaving tomorrow morning to go with Tom to Freetown to retrieve his wife Karen who is getting in tomorrow evening. I’m exciting for her to come because Tom keeps telling me that she is such a good cook and so I’m kind of excited. Tom has been doing a good job of preparing meals and such so if he feels the need to apologize for how bad his food is his wife must be a great cook. Haha. He asked me if I wanted to stay here or come with him. I feel kind of bad because since I’m going with him I’m going to miss three days of teaching but I just don’t know if I’m ready to be here without Tom. The Mahrs are here and they have offered to let me eat with them if I stay here but it’s the whole family of them and I feel a little awkward intruding. Also, I’m just excited to get to meet Karen, by meet I mean get to know her. I know I have a long time for that but with as much as Tom has referred to her coming I don’t want to wait till Wednesday evening. Additionally I would like a chance to see Freetown without all the other distracting emotions. So, while you wait with bated breath for my next post, I will be recording the things I see and any experiences I have so that I might share them with you.

Blessings from Africa
Ryan Brooks

October 16th 8:49 pm (UTC +1:00)

So, I thought today was going to be a fairly uninteresting day. Abu had come over some this morning and we talked and he tried to teach me Krio, which is a broken form of English, though apparently spelled similar it’s fairly hard to understand when they speak it. It was about 10 this morning, Abu told me he hadn’t eaten since 2pm the previous day which just breaks my heart because I know there are so many other kids like him who have to face the prospect of maybe not getting dinner. Abu has problems because his father died in the civil war and his mother remarried. For some reason his step-father doesn’t like him and usually won’t let him eat dinner with the family. I would love to be able to help Abu and all the kids like him, to make sure they get to eat a good meal at night, but I just don’t have the means. And I know it wouldn’t really do any good in the long run because I won’t be here forever. Also, I don’t believe handouts ever really helped anything because they just breed dependency when what these people need is independence and the ability to support themselves. But their situation here really strikes into my heart with a vengeance. Many times I’ve complained in the past because lunch is late or dinner is late and here Abu hasn’t eaten in 22 hours because he has no choice. It just makes me sad, anyway I didn’t mean to go all depressing on you there. I was supposed to go for a walk with Abdul at 12 but he never came around, I found out later he was helping out the youth which was an acceptable excuse. But things started picking up a little bit after noon. I was helping Tom collect some boxes from the shipment that had come in. The Mahrs had volunteered to help sort some of the books that had come in so that they could get to the appropriate level at the primary school to do the most good. But I don’t think they realize just how much there is. We took them 13 boxes of books and there are many, many more in the storage room where all the boxes are. We packed another 20 boxes of supplies and such into the truck to take back to the house to sort. When we closed the door to the storage room it looked like we hadn’t even been there, the room is full of hundreds of boxes. It’s so awesome that they managed to get so much but it’s such a daunting task thinking about all there is to go through. I don’t think all of it will have been gone through when I leave here in May. We got the boxes back here and started going through them, stuff from pill bottles to blankets, clothing, medical supplies and even some non-perishable food stuffs that one lady packs for the Ashers in her shipments. We had a box that was about 2ft by 2ft, by 1.5ft and it was packed with pill bottles. I figured that would last a while but Tom told me it would last a few weeks which I guess is why they didn’t have any pill bottles till the shipment got here. We just put most the stuff back into the boxes once we figured out what we had there. Karen, Tom’s wife, will go through it more thoroughly when she gets here. She’ll be here on Wednesday. After that we spent some time working on math with Abu, the poor kid doesn’t even know his multiplication tables and he took the test to become a sophomore in high school. After that Tom got a call from one of the welders in the village, John. Tom needed him to come work on a lock in his house, to replace or repair it. But John needed Tom to come pick up his welding machine in the hospital truck to bring it here so he could do the work. Which was interesting, we drove there on the bad roads, loaded it up, and one of the welders helpers sat in the back to make sure it didn’t come loose and fall out. We finally got back here and John went to work. It was interesting watching him work. In the US, when we have the wrong lock for a door, we go buy a new one, here they make the door fit the lock they have. He cut a little bit out of the frame of the door so the door would be able to close with the new lock on it and welded the new lock to the door since it didn’t fit in the space where the old lock was. It was very interesting to watch and he did a good job of rigging it. It’s not the most pleasing looking lock but it’s functionality that they care about here. The whole thing, lock and all, only cost 45,000 Leones, or 11.25 dollars, think about buying a lock in the US, that alone is probably 20 dollars, imagine paying a welder for over an hours worth of work. I don’t know what it cost but certainly more than 5 dollars. But he charges the rates that people here can pay. Anyway, we took the machine back to his shop and this time both of his apprentices rode in the back to keep it in place. I saw Saidu at the shop which was nice. He is a senior in high school, and he was very nice to me and tried to help me the first day when I tried to teach biology and failed miserably. I’m hoping that we will be able to be friends. Right now though I’m still struggling with trying to connect with Africans, I just don’t know how really. Our backgrounds are so different I struggle finding enough significant common ground on which to build a real friendship, but that’ll come in time. Anyway I’m running on battery so I need to finish up, I don’t like to run out my battery at night right now because we don’t always get the power in the morning and I like to be able to look for messages since I usually turn the computer off by 5 or 6 pm US time and most people are busy with life till then and don’t really get a chance to write me yet. Anyway, have a great evening and a good night.

Blessings from Africa
Ryan Brooks

October 15th 9:21 (UTC +1:00)

Had a rough start to the day, feeling a little homesick again, nothing serious but just a little sadness. I think part of it was that I kept thinking about today being the end of my first week and having about 30 weeks or so to go. Part of it was I spent too much time inside today, reading helped some but once I had to set to preparing what I was teaching today I had trouble focusing. Also another part was knowing that I was missing my brother Trent’s birthday. A few friends have had birthdays so far but missing my little brothers birthday was sad. Anyway I managed to shake it off. I got mobbed by a bunch of little kids wanting sidewalk chalk while I was trying bring in the laundry. I gave them some chalk and then they spent the whole time I was trying to prepare for class going “Mr. Mr., come see what we drew” which didn’t help me prepare at all, haha. I walked to school and on the way quickly wished I had brought an umbrella because a storm was moving in. I got to my classroom just in time for it to start raining. Because it was raining so hard it delayed my students from coming I had some time and was feeling particularly move by the storm I wrote a little contemplating the storm and how it was affecting me.

“As I sit here in the middle of a thunderstorm that has rolled in like so many before it, I am overcome by the thoughts of how awesome the power of God really is. The storm rages, the thunder crashes and the lightning flashes and I consider the might of God. This storm is but a small occurrence in the whole of this world He has created for us. Despite the storms power its just a tiny sample of God’s glory. It’s akin to sitting by the ocean and watching the waves batter the shore. Mighty and powerful and yet so small. I’ve been praying for the rains to stop and for the cool weather to come, but I think I shall miss these storms for I shall not likely see their like again while I’m here in Africa. No rains I’ve endured in the US compare to the rains here in Africa, it really is a thing of majesty. The storms are short, but pretty vicious. The rain falls so hard that it drowns out all other sound, especially indoors under the metal roof. The rain is slowing but the thunder still rolls. The glory of God’s power fills my heart with joy.”

Then class went well, my SS2s are actually very good at math compared to the SS3s. They are still very basic math skills but today gave me great hope for what I can accomplish with them. I walked home in the rain because it was still raining lightly over an hour later. We were invited to eat at the Mahr’s house. We had chicken and some vegetables over rice. It was so good. We spent almost 2 hours just visiting and sharing stories, it was nice. Then I came home and was helping a kid named Joseph with some chemistry tutoring. He actually finished school but still is trying to pass the WASSCE tests, which are the tests they have to pass to go to the university. Anyway, that’s my day in a nutshell, overall a good day. I love you all and miss you all. And I love God for the opportunity He’s given me and the support of the people He’s placed in my life to help me adjust here.

Blessings from Africa
Ryan Brooks

October 15th 8:56 am (UTC +1:00)

I hope I’m not overwhelming anyone with updates. Several people have expressed that they like hearing from me every day, but I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading because they don’t have time to go through it all. I’m hoping that I can get down to every other day or even once every couple days, we’ll have to see, I might just keep bombarding you every day and I apologize to those who don’t have the time to try and keep up with it all. I have more of yesterday to share about, I had a pretty good day yesterday like I said. It was so hot I had to change like three times though. It’s like a hot Ohio summer day right now, and walking to market, while not that far, is a pretty strenuous endeavor. I went back later to get the bread I wanted, around 1pm, the clouds had passed so the sun was beating down mercilessly. Abu and Peter Mahr (apparently it’s Mahr not Maher like I thought, still sounds like Mayor regardless) went to town. Peter is one of the Doctors. Anyway he went along because he wanted to get some bread and to find some cucumbers, the Mahrs are vegetarians… that could be interesting during the dry season when produce becomes scarce. Anyway, we walked all the way over to Kamakwie 2 which is where the baker is located only to find out that he hadn’t started baking the bread yet even though he promised it would be done 1. Oh well, they have a boy, really a teen, who delivers bread around, you don’t even have to pay any extra, and so he brought me the bread here. It was nice and warm and very good, I love bread, so even if it hadn’t been good it would have been good anyway. The Ashers have two kittens, patches and snowball, and they are two trouble making animals. There was supposed to be a third one who was king of mean and I wanted to name it Hunter, because that’s what they have them for, to hunt the rats, but he hasn’t been around so Tom guesses it made someone a light meal (cat is a meat source for the Africans here, but not dogs. So dogs are everywhere) Anyway, they kept finding a way off the back porch even though it’s screened off. So Abu and I had to try repair the screen, which was interesting, I kept getting cut by the screen because it’s not very good and shreds pretty easy. Abu wasn’t a very good helper because he kept letting it slack as I was stapling so I would get to where he was holding and find the screen was in the wrong position so I could staple it anywhere. On top of that we had very few staples to work with. So I got a little bit frustrated with him, the screen, the cats and the fact that I had to stop and wipe the sweat off my glasses every 30 seconds. Anyway, we got done, there are still two hole I’m thinking they can get out for now, if they grow any they should be ok, but the things are so scrawny. Between all the goats, chickens, sheep, dogs and cats I’ve seen here I haven’t seen one animal that looks fat, let alone healthy at all. Getting that done I read some to try and relax before having to go teach. Teaching went well, though it’s pretty discouraging to be teaching elementary math to people who are supposed to be ready to go to the university next year. I like the kids and I’m hoping to improve them as much as possible even if it’s not enough to make the university hopefully they will be able to pass something to their kids and build up the people that way. Sadly, one kid John will not likely pass anything on even after I’m done teaching him. The poor kid couldn’t tell me if 12 or 100 was the larger number. I asked him if I had 100 coins and you took 12 would I have any left, and he couldn’t answer that. It’s really sad how little they have after all this time. It doesn’t help that some grades at the primary school have 70-100 kids, how do you work with that many. I would love to bring a whole team of teachers over here just to work on teaching the teachers they have here. After teaching I came home and did a lot of reading and thinking about how I’m going to handle this teaching, because I have so much work ahead of me and I want to be as prepared for it as I can to make the most of my opportunity here. After that, I got to watch a movie last night, The Perfect Storm. The Ashers have a tv with a dvd player in it, or should I say had… During a certain part in the movie a man gets hooked in the hand and pulled into the ocean, this startled Tom so much he swore, and almost immediately the dvd burnt out. We joked that God was expressing His disappointment with Tom, but it was really eerie. Anyway, we finished watching it in a laptop they have here. Then it was bed time. I think I really might be writing a novel, haha. Anyway, I will be posting again tonight about today if anything interesting does happen, but then I should be able to just post at night about that day, and not the day before. I continue to wish you all God’s Blessings from Africa

Ryan Brooks

October 14th 11:37 (UTC +1:00)

I feel like there is an overwhelming number of things to share in this blog. Every time I sit down to write I think of a million different things I’ve seen and experienced already and I’ve only been here since Saturday. Though today does mark the end of my first week since I got onto the plane in Cleveland and set out for Africa. It still blows my mind that I’m sitting here in Sierra Leone writing to you. I had a conversation with Tom a few nights ago about how blessed I feel to have so much here, and how it actually makes me feel a little sick how much I take for granted and waste when I’m home. Even taking a hot shower for 5-10 minutes at home wastes more water than we use here in a day generally. And I’m including all the hot and cold water we go through. I could imagine having that much hot water here. We have 2-4 hours of electricity a day, we always get our two at night but it’s been hit or miss during the day. We have running water (it’s pumped into a water tower when the generator is on and then gravity fed into the houses) We have generally at least two meals a day. In this heat lunch is often a small snack because you don’t feel like eating a whole lot. I have a nice bed with a pillow and set of sheets. I have my computer for about 5-7 hours a day because I can store energy in the battery. There’s a lot more stuff we have food wise that the Ashers have shipped over from America, jello is amazing so good when it’s nice and cold in this heat. Anyway I told him how blessed I feel to have all of this and he told me something I found startling. He said if there was such a thing as a fourth world country it’s Sierra Leone. He said the other Wesleyan Hospital, I can’t remember where it is, it’s in another country, has 20 hours of power a day. They have meat shipped to their hospital, fresh meat. When he was there he said that the power went out for a few hours and they had a fit. He said that as far as missions go this one here in Kamakwie is pretty much the lowest of the low. Here if we have meat it’s from a can. It’s possible to get some fresh meat from Makeni but because of the shape of the roads it takes about three hours to get from here to there or visa versa. So they don’t do it that much. I just think that the other missions waste so much money on comforts that it makes me really sad. I know that without what we have here this would be so much harder but even in the short time I’ve been here I wish we had more to give. The people all around me have so little, they live in houses without screens, they have either a pitiful excuse for a bed or a floor to sleep on. It’s just so poor that it’s hard to describe. Anyway, enough pitying I guess, for all I feel they lack they are so nice. They love to greet you as you pass and think it’s great when you ask them how they are, especially when you attempt to do it in Creo, which is something like howdabody, all in one word. The children run up to me and just want a chance to grab my hand and say hi and think it’s so wonderful to see me. The people are so grateful that I’ve come to help them that they haven’t even waited to see if I’m actually going to be any good. Which I think I will because they know so little I could probably teach them just what I remember, which is generally not very much, haha. Anyway I’m having a great day so far. Abu took me to get some things from town and showed me around Kamakwie 1,2 and three. I got to see a large group of students who were marching and singing to advertise the new school being started, it hasn’t been built yet but one of the people in town has a big house and they are taught there until the school gets built. He took me along the back side of town to see some other things and we passed a Muslim school. There are so many mosques around here it’s crazy. Many people here are Muslim but the church is growing here too as God continues to work on the hearts of the people. It’s strange to buy water in little bags. The water you can get in town comes in little 250mL pouches for 500 Leones which is 12.5 cents, so it’s pretty cheap here. Other things are more expensive. Toilet paper is 3500 Leones, or 87.5 cents a roll. I don’t know what it is in the US, but at the same time paying 14000 Leones makes me cringe. I’m still getting used to the money amounts. I have a picture, but when I got into Freetown I exchanged $500 for Leones and received 2,150,000 Leones. They came in 5000 and 10000 increments so I have this huge bundle of money, I felt like I had robbed bank or something. It’s just crazy. Anyway that’s probably a lot to read and take in all at once, but I still have so much to share. I have to go back town later to buy some bread, it wasn’t ready when we went through earlier. If you were wondering, I still lose things left and right, the lady who washes our clothes has found my house key and my flashlight in my laundry already and I’ve only had it done twice. Anyway,
God’s Blessings from Africa.
Ryan Brooks

October 13th 9:09 pm (UTC +1:00)

I had a good day today, it was hot today, 84 degrees and 74% humidity, so it was very muggy. I can’t wait for the rainy season to end, then humidity drops and the temperature falls to the 60s and 70s for November through January. I got up this morning and had Rice Crispies for breakfast, imagine that, Rice Crispies in Africa, and it only costs 29,000 Leones for the whole big box (that’s about 7.75 so that’s actually a really awful price). I went to chapel with Tom at 8 this morning where I got introduced to a lot of the hospital staff. I’m struggling even worse with names here in Sierra Leone because the traditional names are hard. There is a Frank and a Michael, but many people have names like Liman and Nabi, and even more obscure ones that, here’s a shocker, I can’t remember, haha. Anyway I was supposed to get to meet the Paramount Chief today. He’s the traditional head of the Sella Limba. He is in charge of the land, works with the people, helps settle issues of justice, guides the development of the chiefdom. The Sella Limba Chiefdom, of which Kamakwie is part, has 8 sections and covers approximately 500 miles. However, he had a meeting today in Makeni so I was not able to meet him, hopefully tomorrow. I spent a lot of time reading When Life is Hard, I thought it particularly apt, and Treasures of a Transformed Life, thanks Fredro Presby! It has actually applied really well to me here in this situation so far. I also studied biology some today, looking over what I would be teaching in class today. Today I taught an hour of biology today, which went well other than the fact that we covered almost nothing. They know so little it is shocking. I was teaching people who are supposed to be SENIORS in science, the year before they go to university if they qualify and they were struggling to learn the concepts related to an animal cell, like organelles and stuff, like 9th grade biology. Then I had an hour of chemistry, which was in reality math. The math skills of my JUNIORS are at an elementary level, and I mean like elementary school. They struggled to solve 1024 divided by 32 and I had to do it for them in the end. They are really bad at math, lets leave it at that. On the way home we passed the Maher’s house and they invited us in for almost an hour and a half. It was nice to talk with them and I got to meet Zoey a nurse/midwife from England. We had said hello in passing but this was the first I got to talk to her. She’s really nice, she’s been here for almost a year, she came in January. We finally got home about 2 hours ago and while we were getting ready to do dinner Pastor Maurice and his wife Priscilla. He was the District superintendent of the church and now is the superintendent of the bible school where they teach pastors. They were very nice and are where I got my info on Sella Limba from. Tomorrow I am going to the market in Kamakwie with Abu to pick up some bread and maybe some other stuff to snack on. So that should be fun, I only have one class to teach tomorrow, a chemistry class which will be a math review like today probably. Anyway, I miss everyone of you who reads this blog, and the onse who don’t. I will be home sooner than you think and I don’t care who you are you can be sure to receive a hug from me.

God’s Blessings from Africa,
Ryan Brooks

October 12, 4:28 PM (UTC +1:00)

So this morning has been pretty come and go, sometimes I feel at peace with what I am doing here and in the next moment I suddenly feel sad. But it’s been getting better every day and I’m hoping as I draw nearer to God and begin to shed my doubts and fears that by the end of a week that I will be at peace more often than not. We had dinner last night with a family who just arrived last night, the Mahers. There are four of them, Linda and Peter who are both doctors and their two kids Jordan and Philip who are 10 and 8 respectively. They are really nice and they are going to be here for 4 months. I couldn’t believe how well their kids are taking it. I understand that their parents are here but my first night here was devastating so figured they would be cranky or at least a little down but they are doing remarkably well, all excited about getting to go to school with all the African kids. We helped them set up their fridge and stove today. And I got to see the primary school where their kids will be going. It’s so crowded with little kids who are all so adorable, we peeked into one room and the kids just came flooding over just want to touch me or shake my hand, saying all kinds of stuff from their names to a bunch of stuff I couldn’t understand. It was really cool. Anyway, I taught for the first time today, that was an adventure that went from bad to worse. I started out feeling really good about it. I got ready to go and at 12 I started heading to the school with my loaded backpack and a box with 14 biology books in it, now that’s heavy. And because it’s hot here I was immediately dripping with sweat. Anyway, I got lost, I thought I knew where I was going but definitely not. Thankfully I ran into two students Siman and Nabi from the school getting ready to go and they led me there. Once I got there I met with principal Kimaro. He got me my schedule and I was getting ready to teach when I realized I hadn’t brought any water, I had to walk back to the hospital the long way because I still don’t know how to go the short way. I got my water and headed back. I had to teach two hours of chemistry to the Senior Secondary 3 class, which is like the seniors. This started off bad because I couldn’t get them to talk about what they know, then they suggested I work on radioactivity which basically turned out to be a math tutoring session as I attempted to teach them about radioactive half lives. But I held on and felt ok once that ended. Then came the two hours of biology with the SS2 class, the juniors. Well that didn’t go so well. I fumbled for a bit trying to find what they knew, got no response so I tried to begin teaching about the skeleton system but that was going well either. They know English but it’s not good and when three or four of them are trying to explain how they were taught before you pretty much cant understand anything. I got so overwhelmed by the feelings of being inadequate and worrying about how I was going to last 8 months when I wanted to give up on my first day. Eventually we decided to end class early and I left and cried part of the way back to the hospital. God must have some serious growth plan for me. There is no way I can handle this with what I have, I need Him so bad. Please pray that I can focus on Him and somehow manage to teach the 19 hours of class I’m scheduled for, because the 19 hours of class doesn’t cover any of the planning I have to do or anything and I’m just feeling seriously overwhelmed right now. I’m finally getting adjusted and now I have this. I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into but I know God is the only one who can pull me through this.

October 11th 10:53 (UTC +1:00)

Hey, getting to freetown was crazy. I had to fly for what felt like forever. First to Brussels which was eh, I didn't do anything there because I had no Euros so I couldn't get food, really glad for those snacks. So I pretty much went right to my gate. The Brussels airport sucked because they didn't offer free internet or anything like that. I was hoping to write a few letters and stuff but I didn't bother since I couldn't send them. After brussels my flight had to stop in a place called Dakar in Africa. That was about a five hour flight. Then a little more than an hour to freetown. Once in Freetown things didn't get much better. I got off the plane and it took so long to get my lugagge I was sure I lost it. It finally came out and the guy from the airport helping me led me out to the pelican taxi, then he took me off into a side room, asked for the ticket money, then a 20 dollar tip, then he said he needed one for himself, so I gave him 10 because I was just overwhelmed and a bit scared. So I'm starting out $30 I hadn't expected to use. Anyway, I had to wait forever to get on the water taxi but once I got on that was scary too, the water wash very choppy and the boat kept bouncing up and slamming down, I thought for sure we were gonna sink. But we made it, I met Dr. Asher and then we proceeded to wait another two hours because we thought there was a family coming, two doctors with two kids sadly 8 and 10 so not really good friend material. They never came and here they had other arrangements. So we left and stayed at a place in freetown for the night, I didn't have to pay at least, which wouldn't have mattered cause the place we stayed was only 10,000 Leones, or 2.50 for the night. I'm having some trouble with sticker shock when I see something marked 36,000 leones I keep forgetting thats only like nine dollars. Anyway, so we set out in the morning for Kamakwie. The road to Makeni wasn't bad, it's paved and so we made good time. When we got to Makeni we did some grocery shopping, I didn't get anything that I feel like snacking on because my stomach is in a foul mood with all this stress. Anyway, then we ate at this place, chicken in fries. It was good but spicy so my mouth hurt. From there we headed to Kamakwie, which was the worst part of the ride. It took forever to get here because the road is dirt and has so many ruts and trenches we had to slow down a lot and all the bouncing gave me a killer headache. I haven't had a headache since arriving which is good, though it's only been three days. It's crazy here, the hospital is a big campus with several houses, I'm staying at the doctors at least for now instead of my own place because I couldn't take it, being alone and in the dark is what triggered my panic attack on Saturday evening, which was my first night here. I got to see the village some which was interesting. It's very poor, everything built of wood and mud brick. I got to see the house of the former president, the one in power before the war. They never finished building it which is sad because I think it could have really been nice, instead it's pretty much a dump. Anyway, thats about all I have for now.
By His grace
Ryan Brooks

October 9, 9:17 pm (Kamakwie UTC -1:00)

So I made it safely to Kamakwie after a long arduous 7ish hour trek across the country, the roads were so awful I think I am suffering brain damage from all the bouncing. But I’m here and the people have been nice. I met two of my students, Abu and Abdul. Abu wants to call me Mr. R.W.B. for some reason, I think he thinks it cool cause I said he can and he goes by A.K.K. among his friends, I don’t know for sure though. Sitting here in the dark because our two hours of evening electricity is over, so I don’t want to stay on too long so I don’t run down my laptop since for now they are only going to have the evening two hours of electricity, the two in the morning won’t come till later when more people have come here. I’m feeling a lot better, Abu and Abdul are really nice and want to show me around at some point. I miss everyone a lot and while I don’t think that will go away I am at least doing better now that I’ve met some people. It’s crazy hot here, it’s only in the 80s but the humidity is almost that high as well. My little house is nice but the bugs are going nuts over my candles and computer screen. Anyway, I will write more later.

October 9th, 12:55 am (UTC -1:00)

I’m in Sierra Leone now and can’t sleep because I spent all day sleeping on planes… Anyway I feel a lot better now that I’m with Dr. Tom Asher and am not all alone. My last flight to Sierra Leone went pretty well, it stopped over in Dakar before making its final one hour journey to Sierra Leone.
Once I got here it was crazy, it took forever to get my luggage and I was afraid it hadn’t made it but it did. Then I got outside and one of the airport workers led me to the water taxi to get across to the mainland. However he got me pretty good. He pulled me aside saying I shouldn’t pull money out in the open but he pulled me into this little room where I felt very intimidated. He asked for $40 for the taxi, then he wanted a $20 dollar tip and since he had been so nice, and I was freaking out, I gave it, then he wanted another tip saying it was for all his help, he told me the first one wasn’t for him. He wanted another 20 but I only gave him a 10. So basically I got swindled out of $30 because I was alone, never done this before, and very insecure. Crap… anyway.
I made it to the taxi thing where I waited for what felt like forever, though I got to see a crab wandering around which was cool. When I finally got on it I prayed the whole way across the thing didn’t sink because it wasn’t very big and the water was very choppy, every time the thing bounced I was sure it was going to either sink or fall apart. Upon arriving at the mainland I met Tom and we talked about a lot of things but especially what I’ll be doing and all the people waiting to meet me which really helped me feel better. I’m super excited for all the opportunities I have here to build up the people of Sierra Leone and God’s kingdom. I assure you I am doing well, just being a little melodramatic because I’m missing home and friends and feeling very much like I skipped the frying pan and just jumped in the fire. I promise that my updates are not all going to be like depressing. Oh, one more sad story, there are dogs everywhere and I’m not allowed to pet them because they might give me rabies, lame…

October 8th, 10:02 AM (UTC +1:00)

I’m currently sitting here in Brussels waiting for my last flight, from Brussels to Lungi International in Freetown, Sierra Leone and there are about a million things running through my mind. The biggest thing is that I was totally naïve thinking it would be no problem to leave everyone I know and love behind for eight months for a place where I don’t really know anyone, I was wrong. I currently feel ok but on the flight from DC to Brussels I cried for almost an hour doing the best I could to keep it under control, hopefully the low lighting helped but regardless I am sure at least some of the people around me noticed. I have not felt as torn inside as I did last night on the plane in a long time.
The last three years have been an incredible period of growth and change as I went from hurting anti-social introvert to somewhere closer to content super-social extrovert. In that period of time God has placed amazing people in my life that have helped me make that transition, however as I have realized for a while I really put too much of my faith in people, relying on people to help keep me sane as I’ve struggled through a lot of things in my past. I can’t help but find myself wondering if this may be part of God’s plan for me as I go to Kamakwie to teach for eight months, to break the bonds of needing people so much that by myself I get apathetic and quite frequently depressed.
I know moving from needing people in my life to help me deal to wanting people in my life because I love them is important because when I rely on the people in my life I don’t rely enough on God. This is going to be a hard experience regardless and I would ask for your prayers as I confront and deal with this during my time in Africa.