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