November 30th
I killed my first scorpion tonight. That brings the scorpion count to
two. This morning I had grade some quizzes, not my favorite thing
ever, but that’s all I had to do to get ready for school today which
is ok by me. Randy came over and we went to Kamakwie two to
take Megan’s material and my material for my shirt to the tailor’s.
Our trip met with success finally, I told him that there was rush on
my shirt as I would be here a while but he told me that he wanted
to do it today and I was pretty ok with that. We walked back and I
spent some time reading. After lunch I went to school, today I had
the SS3s for science and the SS2s for biology, each for two periods.
Class went pretty well on the whole. I think I’m finally starting to
enjoy teaching but don’t think for a minute that I want to be a
teacher, I hate all the planning and preparing I have to do out of
class. After class I got back to the house and helped sort some
more boxes, we’ve done quite a bit this week which is good
because we are still looking for the chemistry supplies that the
Asher’s had sent over. At about 5:30 or so Rebecca and I walked
over to the tailors to pick up Megan’s bags, her skirt, and my shirt.
When we got there we were given Rebecca’s skirt, and after
waiting for about 20 minutes we got Megan’s bags. He told me
that he would be done by 10am tomorrow. Rebecca’s skirt was
pretty complicated so I’m guessing it took him longer than he
expected. We were a little late for dinner which was ok because
we had to get Megan’s bags since she leaves in the morning and
would not be able to. Not long after dinner we found a scorpion in
Tom and Karen’s room and I killed it. I’m hoping to not find many
more in the house. Tom said they don’t usually get in but this one
was pretty small and obviously found a way in. Anyway, the
power’s not come on yet and it’s already 8pm, so I don’t know if
we’ll be getting it tonight. I’m quite bored since everyone’s out
doing something, well Karen’s in her room reading. So I think
that’s what I’m going to do. Peace out all.
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
November 29th
I saw my first scorpion today! But I’m getting ahead of myself. This
morning I walked with Meghan down to the market around 8:30
because she wanted to find some fabric to have some more bag-
like purses made at the tailors. She leaves on Wednesday so
there’s a pretty strict time limit which is why we went early. The
place we wanted to go was not yet set up so we wandered around
the market a bit until she found some that she liked. I also found a
pretty fun colored piece of cloth I thought would make a good
shirt and got it. Then we walked over to Kamakwie 2 where there
is a really good tailor that the Asher’s use for their tailoring that
they get done. However, we got there to find that he wasn’t
open… so not a terribly successful trip. We walked all the way back
to the hospital where Meghan stayed to help out while I continued
up to the house to work on stuff for classes. I had quizzes to
prepare, oh joy. Anyway, I got that all done at around 11 so I
walked down to the hospital to see if Meghan wanted to try again.
She did so we walked over again, it’s about a 30 min walk at least
round trip and upon arriving there we found that he still wasn’t
open. We saw some older ladies and they told us he’d be back at
two. I had class at 1:50 so I asked Meghan to take my fabric and
example shirt with her when she went back. I got to the school
thinking I was running late only to find out that they were having
the first Monday of the month chapel. Except… today is the 29th of
November… you’re guess is as good as mine as for what goes
through their heads. Anyway, they finally got out of the chapel
thing in time for me to have 15 minutes of my first class. I gave
them their quiz and they ended up leaving late because they had
to finish it before leaving. Then my SS3s took forever to come to
my class, I lost probably 20 minutes there or so. I gave them their
test and then taught them some more about the skeletal system.
I’m learning about as much as they are as I never really did much
with human anatomy. Anyway, after my two periods with them
my SS1s came, and had a fit when I started handing out their
quizzes. I told them we would have one every week and they told
me they thought I was kidding and so didn’t bother to study. They
did abysmally, which is the reason for having the weekly quizzes,
to make them study. I finished teaching them and headed home. I
found out today that next week is exams and I have to write tests
for my classes that have to take them at least an hour and a half,
fun fun. After dinner I didn’t do a whole lot, I was waiting for
Foday to come because I needed to talk with him. While I waited I
talked with Tom about one of my SS3 students who got sent out
of school for the rest of the term (two weeks) which means he
won’t get to take exams or anything. Such a wonderful scenario
and I can’t do anything about it because it’s their discipline system
and I can’t make them change it for me as they have enough
trouble keeping the kids in line. I wouldn’t want to make it any
worse. Foday came by and while Tom and I were talking with him
on the front porch the scorpion just came wandering onto the porch
where we were sitting. My first reaction was to jump up off the
bench and back away, Tom’s was to crush it. They get pretty active
around here when the dry season really comes. Tom said don’t ever
pick up a box on the ground without kicking it because they like to
hide around the bottoms of boxes. They aren’t poisonous; they just
induce immense pain from what I’m told. I’m hoping I don’t get
stung by one because it just doesn’t sound fun. Anyway, that’s
about it for today. Good night.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
I saw my first scorpion today! But I’m getting ahead of myself. This
morning I walked with Meghan down to the market around 8:30
because she wanted to find some fabric to have some more bag-
like purses made at the tailors. She leaves on Wednesday so
there’s a pretty strict time limit which is why we went early. The
place we wanted to go was not yet set up so we wandered around
the market a bit until she found some that she liked. I also found a
pretty fun colored piece of cloth I thought would make a good
shirt and got it. Then we walked over to Kamakwie 2 where there
is a really good tailor that the Asher’s use for their tailoring that
they get done. However, we got there to find that he wasn’t
open… so not a terribly successful trip. We walked all the way back
to the hospital where Meghan stayed to help out while I continued
up to the house to work on stuff for classes. I had quizzes to
prepare, oh joy. Anyway, I got that all done at around 11 so I
walked down to the hospital to see if Meghan wanted to try again.
She did so we walked over again, it’s about a 30 min walk at least
round trip and upon arriving there we found that he still wasn’t
open. We saw some older ladies and they told us he’d be back at
two. I had class at 1:50 so I asked Meghan to take my fabric and
example shirt with her when she went back. I got to the school
thinking I was running late only to find out that they were having
the first Monday of the month chapel. Except… today is the 29th of
November… you’re guess is as good as mine as for what goes
through their heads. Anyway, they finally got out of the chapel
thing in time for me to have 15 minutes of my first class. I gave
them their quiz and they ended up leaving late because they had
to finish it before leaving. Then my SS3s took forever to come to
my class, I lost probably 20 minutes there or so. I gave them their
test and then taught them some more about the skeletal system.
I’m learning about as much as they are as I never really did much
with human anatomy. Anyway, after my two periods with them
my SS1s came, and had a fit when I started handing out their
quizzes. I told them we would have one every week and they told
me they thought I was kidding and so didn’t bother to study. They
did abysmally, which is the reason for having the weekly quizzes,
to make them study. I finished teaching them and headed home. I
found out today that next week is exams and I have to write tests
for my classes that have to take them at least an hour and a half,
fun fun. After dinner I didn’t do a whole lot, I was waiting for
Foday to come because I needed to talk with him. While I waited I
talked with Tom about one of my SS3 students who got sent out
of school for the rest of the term (two weeks) which means he
won’t get to take exams or anything. Such a wonderful scenario
and I can’t do anything about it because it’s their discipline system
and I can’t make them change it for me as they have enough
trouble keeping the kids in line. I wouldn’t want to make it any
worse. Foday came by and while Tom and I were talking with him
on the front porch the scorpion just came wandering onto the porch
where we were sitting. My first reaction was to jump up off the
bench and back away, Tom’s was to crush it. They get pretty active
around here when the dry season really comes. Tom said don’t ever
pick up a box on the ground without kicking it because they like to
hide around the bottoms of boxes. They aren’t poisonous; they just
induce immense pain from what I’m told. I’m hoping I don’t get
stung by one because it just doesn’t sound fun. Anyway, that’s
about it for today. Good night.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
Sunday, November 28, 2010
November 28th
I got to sleep in a little bit this morning since breakfast wasn’t until
8 as opposed to 7:15. It was kind of nice considering I’m still not
sleeping well. I don’t know why but I wake up every morning
between 4 and 5. Anyway, we set out for church at just past 10
(the service started at 10 but Karen said you don’t want to get
there early, not totally sure why) getting there at about 10 past.
Randy and I walked down and we expected Karen to arrive in the
car with Meghan, Emma and Melanie but when we got there only
Karen and Meghan had come. They stayed back to help with two
women who had come in pregnant just before they set out for
church, one needed a c-section and the other delivered naturally.
Both babies were alive and well. Church was three hours long
today, which I wouldn’t mind if it was a full three hours of stuff but
they don’t prepare well and each time they moved to something
new here was a delay. I did enjoy most of it, don’t get me wrong,
but it’s just a long time to be in a hot crowded room. It was the
youth thanksgiving service. The thanksgiving services here are not
related to our holiday of thanksgiving, and they have one for all
sorts of things, they aren’t terribly different from regular services
but usually mean an increase in the number of offerings. Today
there were five, music offering, a youth offering, the general
offering, the male/female competition offering and a baby
dedication offering. We sang the hymn Sanctuary today which
made me really happy as it’s one of my favorite hymns of all time.
After church we went back to the house and had lunch before
sorting some more boxes. We went through at least forty or so I
would say, some small some really big. It was hot getting them out
of the storage, the room is so warm and then all the physical
exertion. While we were doing it I got a call from some of the
people at my church and we had a little conference call. It was
great and I really appreciated them taking the time to come
together and call me after church today. Anyway after that I went
back to helping, we spent about 3 or so hours doing it. We only
stopped when Emma, Melanie, Randy, and Meghan got back from
their visit one of the mines where they were had been getting a
tour. The mine belongs to an Englishman named Richard. He’s
been here about 7 years getting this thing going. He’s a really great
guy, super nice and just generally jovial. He gives a back to the
community too, which is great after so many years of exploitation
of Sierra Leone. I couldn’t eat anything at dinner because I was
feeling really sick to my stomach. It was the consensus of the two
doctors, nurse, midwife, and medical student sitting at the supper
table that I had probably just gotten overheated. I did sweat through
two t-shirts. I changed the first time because my shirt was totally
soaked, every inch of it, and then again when we were done because
the second was pretty close to that. After that I was a guinea pig for a
piece of equipment that measures lung capacity that she had shipped
over and had never used before and didn’t quite have everything
needed. It was quite amusing. Anyway, that’s about all for today,
have a great night everyone!
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
I got to sleep in a little bit this morning since breakfast wasn’t until
8 as opposed to 7:15. It was kind of nice considering I’m still not
sleeping well. I don’t know why but I wake up every morning
between 4 and 5. Anyway, we set out for church at just past 10
(the service started at 10 but Karen said you don’t want to get
there early, not totally sure why) getting there at about 10 past.
Randy and I walked down and we expected Karen to arrive in the
car with Meghan, Emma and Melanie but when we got there only
Karen and Meghan had come. They stayed back to help with two
women who had come in pregnant just before they set out for
church, one needed a c-section and the other delivered naturally.
Both babies were alive and well. Church was three hours long
today, which I wouldn’t mind if it was a full three hours of stuff but
they don’t prepare well and each time they moved to something
new here was a delay. I did enjoy most of it, don’t get me wrong,
but it’s just a long time to be in a hot crowded room. It was the
youth thanksgiving service. The thanksgiving services here are not
related to our holiday of thanksgiving, and they have one for all
sorts of things, they aren’t terribly different from regular services
but usually mean an increase in the number of offerings. Today
there were five, music offering, a youth offering, the general
offering, the male/female competition offering and a baby
dedication offering. We sang the hymn Sanctuary today which
made me really happy as it’s one of my favorite hymns of all time.
After church we went back to the house and had lunch before
sorting some more boxes. We went through at least forty or so I
would say, some small some really big. It was hot getting them out
of the storage, the room is so warm and then all the physical
exertion. While we were doing it I got a call from some of the
people at my church and we had a little conference call. It was
great and I really appreciated them taking the time to come
together and call me after church today. Anyway after that I went
back to helping, we spent about 3 or so hours doing it. We only
stopped when Emma, Melanie, Randy, and Meghan got back from
their visit one of the mines where they were had been getting a
tour. The mine belongs to an Englishman named Richard. He’s
been here about 7 years getting this thing going. He’s a really great
guy, super nice and just generally jovial. He gives a back to the
community too, which is great after so many years of exploitation
of Sierra Leone. I couldn’t eat anything at dinner because I was
feeling really sick to my stomach. It was the consensus of the two
doctors, nurse, midwife, and medical student sitting at the supper
table that I had probably just gotten overheated. I did sweat through
two t-shirts. I changed the first time because my shirt was totally
soaked, every inch of it, and then again when we were done because
the second was pretty close to that. After that I was a guinea pig for a
piece of equipment that measures lung capacity that she had shipped
over and had never used before and didn’t quite have everything
needed. It was quite amusing. Anyway, that’s about all for today,
have a great night everyone!
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
November 27th
We set out for the animal park a little after 7:30 this morning on the Hondas.
My driver’s name Michael. What a sight we must have been, a procession of 7
Hondas each carrying a “white man” as they call all white people regardless of
gender. We stopped in Kamakwie so the drivers could pick up something to eat
since they would be waiting there at the park to bring us back when we were
finished. It was an awesome ride through a beautiful landscape. Fields, forests,
through a valley, the variety in the short distance was pretty impressive. We
passed through many villages where of course all the children had to say hello
to us as we passed. I did so much waving I felt like I was in a parade or
something. The road was pretty rough but on a Honda can dodge the worst and we
made pretty good time I’d say. At one point we had to get on this ferry that was
attached to a steel cable running across the river. The people then pull the
ferry across the river by hand. It’s a pretty sizable river so it takes a couple
of minutes to cross. While we were there we saw a man who was pretty much
catatonic and the people told us he couldn’t speak. They said he used be fine
but got sick and stopped speaking. Tom went to see him and asked how long ago he
got sick, they said a year. A YEAR? If I stopped talking altogether for a day
people would be rushing me to an emergency room. Waiting a year to seek
treatment for someone so sick is just crazy. Tom saw him at the hospital today
after we got back and thinks he might have a thyroid problem. He ordered some
tests and should have them in the morning. If that’s the problem and they have
what they need to treat it Tom said there won’t be any lasting damage beyond
losing one year of his life. From there it was about a third of the way left to
get to the park. The roads got even worse on the other side of the ferry so it
was a bit of a rougher ride but I still enjoyed it. We arrived at the park at
about 9:30. To see the hippos you have to take a canoe. Since there was only one
canoe and 6 people who were going out we had to go in shifts. Melanie, Meghan
and Randy went first. It’s about a two hour trip on the river to get there, see
them, and come back. So while they were off on the river Rebecca, Emma, Tom and
I did a little exploring, though we didn’t find very much, the available paths
were limited. After about an hour and or so we decided to have lunch and while
we were eating the other group returned and Rebecca, Emma and I set out on our
little river adventure. The person sitting in the front (aka me) had to help row
the canoe down the river to where we would see the hippos. It was just over a 45
minute journey to the spot and along the way we saw some beautiful trees, the
water was so calm that the shoreline and sky were reflected clearly in the
water. The river was very wide, about a football field at least. Since I was
rowing and Rebecca camera had died she was using my camera to take pictures, I
haven’t really had a chance to look at them to see what she took but I’m sure
there are some good ones. We got to see some monkeys up in the trees and an
iguana in a tree along the shore. It was so beautiful. We finally reached the
spot where you can find the hippos and watched them for a little bit. All you
can see is their head but it was still cool to be seeing hippos in their natural
habitat. We watched them for a bit, when they would surface and take a breath,
making a really loud sound. It was so cool, but we couldn’t get any closer as
they are quite dangerous. They kill more people every year than any other animal
in at least West Africa but I think Karen and Tom said all of Africa. They are
herbivores but if they feel threatened they can be quite vicious. But we were
careful and respected their space so we were quite safe. After watching them for
a little while we turned around and headed back upstream (not really much harder
because the river is quite still) getting back after about an hour and 45
minutes. On the way back we saw some more monkeys, even six in one tree, it was
really cool. My arms were tired from paddling all the way down and back;
considering I’ve not been in a canoe in years I’m not too surprised. Also, I had
a bunch of insect bites, from the black flies that live near the rivers. They
can carry a parasite that causes Onchocirciasis (sp?) which is called
river-blindness because left untreated it can spread to the eyes, though it
doesn’t seem quite desirable even without that little tidbit as it pretty much
spreads everywhere else and itches like crazy. So not taking any chances, when
we got back all of us took a dose of the medication that kills it off. After we
got back it was time to leave, and we kind of just dispersed, there wasn’t
really any order to it and we didn’t stick together. My driver almost got us
lost when passing through the first village outside the park but he got back on
the right track. We all met back at the ferry that takes you back across since
it was on the other side when we got there. As we were crossing one of the
drivers had fix a flat tire. Rather than replacing it (they had no spares) the
guy took a piece of rubber and wrapped it tightly around a piece of tire
including the hole to isolate it, put the tube back in and re-inflated it. After
crossing the ferry my driver and I were the last ones to get going. Michael is a
very safe but fast driver. On flat open stretches he really got going and we
passed a few of the other drivers but he went slow and carefully over bad spots
which is where he often lost ground (not that I’m complaining mind you) but I
think I picked the right driver for me, safe but speedy. Beneath all the fears
and worrying I really do enjoy a good thrill and he did it safely. It was a
great ride and the wind felt so good since it was really hot today. Though our
drivers were all wearing winter coats and weren’t even sweating, they are crazy
and think it is cold even when I’m still sweating. Anyway, we made it back safe
and sound at about 3 and after some picture taking all went our separate ways to
get cleaned up, we were all really dirty from the drive since the soil is very
dry and therefore a lot of dust was kicked up by the bikes. Anyway, after we got
cleaned up we wandered down to the market where I got a flashlight since the one
I brought is just too much effort. You have to it pretty much constantly to get
a good beam out of it. I thought a flashlight you wind would be good, but it’s
pretty rubbish sadly. The women got some fabric and they picked up some things
they had a tailor make for them. A few purse like bags and a skirt. By time we
got to the house it was dinner time and after dinner we chatted for a bit but
then everyone dispersed and Karen and I played card games. It was nice to just
relax. Anyway, that’s about all for today (you’re all probably thinking
“finally”) this was a pretty long one with just a brief recounting of the animal
park. It was an awesome experience and I’m really glad I got to go. It was so
cool. Off to bed now though, night all!
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
We set out for the animal park a little after 7:30 this morning on the Hondas.
My driver’s name Michael. What a sight we must have been, a procession of 7
Hondas each carrying a “white man” as they call all white people regardless of
gender. We stopped in Kamakwie so the drivers could pick up something to eat
since they would be waiting there at the park to bring us back when we were
finished. It was an awesome ride through a beautiful landscape. Fields, forests,
through a valley, the variety in the short distance was pretty impressive. We
passed through many villages where of course all the children had to say hello
to us as we passed. I did so much waving I felt like I was in a parade or
something. The road was pretty rough but on a Honda can dodge the worst and we
made pretty good time I’d say. At one point we had to get on this ferry that was
attached to a steel cable running across the river. The people then pull the
ferry across the river by hand. It’s a pretty sizable river so it takes a couple
of minutes to cross. While we were there we saw a man who was pretty much
catatonic and the people told us he couldn’t speak. They said he used be fine
but got sick and stopped speaking. Tom went to see him and asked how long ago he
got sick, they said a year. A YEAR? If I stopped talking altogether for a day
people would be rushing me to an emergency room. Waiting a year to seek
treatment for someone so sick is just crazy. Tom saw him at the hospital today
after we got back and thinks he might have a thyroid problem. He ordered some
tests and should have them in the morning. If that’s the problem and they have
what they need to treat it Tom said there won’t be any lasting damage beyond
losing one year of his life. From there it was about a third of the way left to
get to the park. The roads got even worse on the other side of the ferry so it
was a bit of a rougher ride but I still enjoyed it. We arrived at the park at
about 9:30. To see the hippos you have to take a canoe. Since there was only one
canoe and 6 people who were going out we had to go in shifts. Melanie, Meghan
and Randy went first. It’s about a two hour trip on the river to get there, see
them, and come back. So while they were off on the river Rebecca, Emma, Tom and
I did a little exploring, though we didn’t find very much, the available paths
were limited. After about an hour and or so we decided to have lunch and while
we were eating the other group returned and Rebecca, Emma and I set out on our
little river adventure. The person sitting in the front (aka me) had to help row
the canoe down the river to where we would see the hippos. It was just over a 45
minute journey to the spot and along the way we saw some beautiful trees, the
water was so calm that the shoreline and sky were reflected clearly in the
water. The river was very wide, about a football field at least. Since I was
rowing and Rebecca camera had died she was using my camera to take pictures, I
haven’t really had a chance to look at them to see what she took but I’m sure
there are some good ones. We got to see some monkeys up in the trees and an
iguana in a tree along the shore. It was so beautiful. We finally reached the
spot where you can find the hippos and watched them for a little bit. All you
can see is their head but it was still cool to be seeing hippos in their natural
habitat. We watched them for a bit, when they would surface and take a breath,
making a really loud sound. It was so cool, but we couldn’t get any closer as
they are quite dangerous. They kill more people every year than any other animal
in at least West Africa but I think Karen and Tom said all of Africa. They are
herbivores but if they feel threatened they can be quite vicious. But we were
careful and respected their space so we were quite safe. After watching them for
a little while we turned around and headed back upstream (not really much harder
because the river is quite still) getting back after about an hour and 45
minutes. On the way back we saw some more monkeys, even six in one tree, it was
really cool. My arms were tired from paddling all the way down and back;
considering I’ve not been in a canoe in years I’m not too surprised. Also, I had
a bunch of insect bites, from the black flies that live near the rivers. They
can carry a parasite that causes Onchocirciasis (sp?) which is called
river-blindness because left untreated it can spread to the eyes, though it
doesn’t seem quite desirable even without that little tidbit as it pretty much
spreads everywhere else and itches like crazy. So not taking any chances, when
we got back all of us took a dose of the medication that kills it off. After we
got back it was time to leave, and we kind of just dispersed, there wasn’t
really any order to it and we didn’t stick together. My driver almost got us
lost when passing through the first village outside the park but he got back on
the right track. We all met back at the ferry that takes you back across since
it was on the other side when we got there. As we were crossing one of the
drivers had fix a flat tire. Rather than replacing it (they had no spares) the
guy took a piece of rubber and wrapped it tightly around a piece of tire
including the hole to isolate it, put the tube back in and re-inflated it. After
crossing the ferry my driver and I were the last ones to get going. Michael is a
very safe but fast driver. On flat open stretches he really got going and we
passed a few of the other drivers but he went slow and carefully over bad spots
which is where he often lost ground (not that I’m complaining mind you) but I
think I picked the right driver for me, safe but speedy. Beneath all the fears
and worrying I really do enjoy a good thrill and he did it safely. It was a
great ride and the wind felt so good since it was really hot today. Though our
drivers were all wearing winter coats and weren’t even sweating, they are crazy
and think it is cold even when I’m still sweating. Anyway, we made it back safe
and sound at about 3 and after some picture taking all went our separate ways to
get cleaned up, we were all really dirty from the drive since the soil is very
dry and therefore a lot of dust was kicked up by the bikes. Anyway, after we got
cleaned up we wandered down to the market where I got a flashlight since the one
I brought is just too much effort. You have to it pretty much constantly to get
a good beam out of it. I thought a flashlight you wind would be good, but it’s
pretty rubbish sadly. The women got some fabric and they picked up some things
they had a tailor make for them. A few purse like bags and a skirt. By time we
got to the house it was dinner time and after dinner we chatted for a bit but
then everyone dispersed and Karen and I played card games. It was nice to just
relax. Anyway, that’s about all for today (you’re all probably thinking
“finally”) this was a pretty long one with just a brief recounting of the animal
park. It was an awesome experience and I’m really glad I got to go. It was so
cool. Off to bed now though, night all!
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
Saturday, November 27, 2010
November 26th
I had a really good day today. I made it to chapel this morning for the first
time this week. The chaplain starts it early and so when I’m even a little late
getting down there because I had to finish up something at the house I’ve missed
it. I tried twice this week before and always missed it. The other days I just
didn’t get done soon enough. After chapel I came up to the house and spent a
little too long sorting out some stuff on the computer. I’m trying not to be too
attached to my computer; after all I did pretty well not having the internet for
almost a week when Karen was gone. When I finally finished that stuff up, well I
can’t really remember what I did. After lunch I had an hour to kill before class
but I can’t remember what I did then either… my memory seems a little cloudy
this evening. Class went well, I taught biology to the SS1 students and unveiled
my recently decided grading scale; they were rather dismayed when I told them
that 63% and less was a failing grade and that they would not pass my class. I
guess even as low as 50% is passing normally here, but I told them as science
students who wanted to become doctors and the like that I expected better from
them and if they couldn’t do it then perhaps it would be better if they switched
to Commercial or Arts now before they waste too much time in the sciences. I
don’t want to be mean, but I would rather they not try to do something they
can’t when there are easier paths. Science is definitely the hardest path to
follow. I gave the SS2 kids their chemistry test and gave them the grading
scale, they were equally disturbed at the “high standards” that I have for them
but Tom told me they have a tendency to settle for a passing grade and if they
are going to do that I’d rather have a passing grade be a higher grade than 50%.
We had a candlelight dinner this evening, we didn’t get any power this afternoon
and I didn’t run the generator so the lights died out before the power came on
(since it gets too dark to see very well by 6 and the power doesn’t come on till
7). After dinner we went downtown at night to pick up some drinks to take along
tomorrow. We are going to the animal park tomorrow, I’m pretty excited about
that. We will get to see hippos for sure Tom says. There are also monkeys that
we might see and Emma says that her Sierra Leone travel guide says that this
place is home to leopards. That would just be AMAZING to see one since
unfortunately there are no lions in West Africa, or at least this part of it,
which pretty much shoots my whole plan of riding one, darn… haha. Oh, there are
also supposedly elephants too. That would just be pretty sweet to see a wild
elephant. Anyway, we have to ride Hondas to the park which should be exciting,
it’s about a 45 minute ride to the park and I’m a bit nervous about riding that
long on a Honda but Tom swears that these drivers we are getting are very safe,
and he’s done it before so I am willing to trust him. Anyway, I’m pretty excited
about tomorrow to say the least. But for now I’m going to get ready for bed and
hit the hay. G’night all!
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
I had a really good day today. I made it to chapel this morning for the first
time this week. The chaplain starts it early and so when I’m even a little late
getting down there because I had to finish up something at the house I’ve missed
it. I tried twice this week before and always missed it. The other days I just
didn’t get done soon enough. After chapel I came up to the house and spent a
little too long sorting out some stuff on the computer. I’m trying not to be too
attached to my computer; after all I did pretty well not having the internet for
almost a week when Karen was gone. When I finally finished that stuff up, well I
can’t really remember what I did. After lunch I had an hour to kill before class
but I can’t remember what I did then either… my memory seems a little cloudy
this evening. Class went well, I taught biology to the SS1 students and unveiled
my recently decided grading scale; they were rather dismayed when I told them
that 63% and less was a failing grade and that they would not pass my class. I
guess even as low as 50% is passing normally here, but I told them as science
students who wanted to become doctors and the like that I expected better from
them and if they couldn’t do it then perhaps it would be better if they switched
to Commercial or Arts now before they waste too much time in the sciences. I
don’t want to be mean, but I would rather they not try to do something they
can’t when there are easier paths. Science is definitely the hardest path to
follow. I gave the SS2 kids their chemistry test and gave them the grading
scale, they were equally disturbed at the “high standards” that I have for them
but Tom told me they have a tendency to settle for a passing grade and if they
are going to do that I’d rather have a passing grade be a higher grade than 50%.
We had a candlelight dinner this evening, we didn’t get any power this afternoon
and I didn’t run the generator so the lights died out before the power came on
(since it gets too dark to see very well by 6 and the power doesn’t come on till
7). After dinner we went downtown at night to pick up some drinks to take along
tomorrow. We are going to the animal park tomorrow, I’m pretty excited about
that. We will get to see hippos for sure Tom says. There are also monkeys that
we might see and Emma says that her Sierra Leone travel guide says that this
place is home to leopards. That would just be AMAZING to see one since
unfortunately there are no lions in West Africa, or at least this part of it,
which pretty much shoots my whole plan of riding one, darn… haha. Oh, there are
also supposedly elephants too. That would just be pretty sweet to see a wild
elephant. Anyway, we have to ride Hondas to the park which should be exciting,
it’s about a 45 minute ride to the park and I’m a bit nervous about riding that
long on a Honda but Tom swears that these drivers we are getting are very safe,
and he’s done it before so I am willing to trust him. Anyway, I’m pretty excited
about tomorrow to say the least. But for now I’m going to get ready for bed and
hit the hay. G’night all!
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
November 25th
Happy Thanksgiving! (Yes I know it’s not Thanksgiving anymore
now that you are reading this but it was on this day) Today was a
pretty good day and I was reminded many times today of all the
things that I am thankful for. Being here so far has been equally
incredibly difficult and incredibly amazing. It’s also made me think
about many of the things that I took for granted but really are very
thankful for. I am thankful for a savior who loves me so much and
knows better than I do the things I need. I am also very thankful
for the people in my life that mean so much to me that it causes
me to ache with how much I miss them. I feel like it’s really hard to
appreciate something when it’s always there and you can have
access to it all the time. Even when I was away from people say in
the summer they were never more than a car ride away. Knowing
what I know now I hope that I never take the ones I love for
granted like I used to ever again. I’m also very thankful to be here
in Africa not only to be able to experience the things I am
experiencing here but also being able to share them with you. I’m
thankful for the wonderfully cool weather we have been having in
the morning and at night. It’s still about 84 degrees in the morning
but with the total cloud coverage we’ve been having in the
morning it feels quite cool. Anyway, I’m so very thankful for so
many things that I could probably on forever, clean water, safe
food, etc… I spent the morning catching up on all the important
business that I had been unable to do without the internet (and
some not so important business). Classes went well, I gave my SS1
students a test in chemistry. Some of them did well and others did
outright horrid, but with what they’ve come from as previous
learning I’m not too surprised. I’m hoping these grades, along with
giving them my grade scale I’ve finally come up with, will persuade
them that they need to work harder. Life here is hard, and I feel
bad about giving them so much to do considering they have so
much work to do just for the sake of eating and survival in general
but if they don’t learn they won’t ever get anywhere and they will
be stuck in this position forever, so I’m doing my utmost best to try
and get them to put all the effort that they can into this stuff. I got
back from classes just in time for dinner, everyone who was
currently eating here (Randy, Emma, Rebecca, Melanie, Meghan,
the Ashers, Abu and I) plus the Emmits all had a thanksgiving
dinner. We had chicken, no turkey here, stuffing, mash potatoes
(instant variety) corn, cranberry sauce (canned), corn bread and a
pasta salad courtesy of the Emmits. Then for desert we had
pumpkin pie, custard pie and walnut pie. It was all very good and
really great considering we are here in Africa. Dr. Emmit shared
with us about the Wesleyan Medical Fellowship which helps
support a few Wesleyan hospitals around the world, here in
Kamakwie, one in Zimba, Zambia, India. They also help medical
missionaries cover the costs of continuing their medical education
in the States, sending short term missionaries to overseas hospitals,
and funding the training of nationals to work in overseas hospitals.
It’s a pretty cool thing and does great work. Dr. Emmit is the head of
it. Anyway, after that everyone kind of dispersed home and now I’m
going to bed. So I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I had
a really great one here.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
Happy Thanksgiving! (Yes I know it’s not Thanksgiving anymore
now that you are reading this but it was on this day) Today was a
pretty good day and I was reminded many times today of all the
things that I am thankful for. Being here so far has been equally
incredibly difficult and incredibly amazing. It’s also made me think
about many of the things that I took for granted but really are very
thankful for. I am thankful for a savior who loves me so much and
knows better than I do the things I need. I am also very thankful
for the people in my life that mean so much to me that it causes
me to ache with how much I miss them. I feel like it’s really hard to
appreciate something when it’s always there and you can have
access to it all the time. Even when I was away from people say in
the summer they were never more than a car ride away. Knowing
what I know now I hope that I never take the ones I love for
granted like I used to ever again. I’m also very thankful to be here
in Africa not only to be able to experience the things I am
experiencing here but also being able to share them with you. I’m
thankful for the wonderfully cool weather we have been having in
the morning and at night. It’s still about 84 degrees in the morning
but with the total cloud coverage we’ve been having in the
morning it feels quite cool. Anyway, I’m so very thankful for so
many things that I could probably on forever, clean water, safe
food, etc… I spent the morning catching up on all the important
business that I had been unable to do without the internet (and
some not so important business). Classes went well, I gave my SS1
students a test in chemistry. Some of them did well and others did
outright horrid, but with what they’ve come from as previous
learning I’m not too surprised. I’m hoping these grades, along with
giving them my grade scale I’ve finally come up with, will persuade
them that they need to work harder. Life here is hard, and I feel
bad about giving them so much to do considering they have so
much work to do just for the sake of eating and survival in general
but if they don’t learn they won’t ever get anywhere and they will
be stuck in this position forever, so I’m doing my utmost best to try
and get them to put all the effort that they can into this stuff. I got
back from classes just in time for dinner, everyone who was
currently eating here (Randy, Emma, Rebecca, Melanie, Meghan,
the Ashers, Abu and I) plus the Emmits all had a thanksgiving
dinner. We had chicken, no turkey here, stuffing, mash potatoes
(instant variety) corn, cranberry sauce (canned), corn bread and a
pasta salad courtesy of the Emmits. Then for desert we had
pumpkin pie, custard pie and walnut pie. It was all very good and
really great considering we are here in Africa. Dr. Emmit shared
with us about the Wesleyan Medical Fellowship which helps
support a few Wesleyan hospitals around the world, here in
Kamakwie, one in Zimba, Zambia, India. They also help medical
missionaries cover the costs of continuing their medical education
in the States, sending short term missionaries to overseas hospitals,
and funding the training of nationals to work in overseas hospitals.
It’s a pretty cool thing and does great work. Dr. Emmit is the head of
it. Anyway, after that everyone kind of dispersed home and now I’m
going to bed. So I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I had
a really great one here.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
November 24th
The morning didn’t go so well, I think I was just overstressed
because I went from daily communication with people to not
being able to write anyone or receive messages for almost a week.
Plus I haven’t been feeling well. I spent most of the morning
working on stuff for school and by lunch time I was starting to feel
better and then my classes went pretty well. Last night was pretty
good, we taught English for Karen since she wasn’t back yet but
she got in when we were almost done. She told us all about the
different things she had to do at the OB conference. She also
brought the internet stick, YAY! Haha, it’s nice to be able to know
what’s going on in the outside world again. I don’t have a whole lot
for today, so I guess that’ll be it for the evening.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
The morning didn’t go so well, I think I was just overstressed
because I went from daily communication with people to not
being able to write anyone or receive messages for almost a week.
Plus I haven’t been feeling well. I spent most of the morning
working on stuff for school and by lunch time I was starting to feel
better and then my classes went pretty well. Last night was pretty
good, we taught English for Karen since she wasn’t back yet but
she got in when we were almost done. She told us all about the
different things she had to do at the OB conference. She also
brought the internet stick, YAY! Haha, it’s nice to be able to know
what’s going on in the outside world again. I don’t have a whole lot
for today, so I guess that’ll be it for the evening.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
November 23rd
I went to the market this morning to get Rebecca’s phone charged
since they do it downtown for 1000 Leones, a quarter. The
universal charger she bought is pretty much rubbish. Over four
hours of charging and getting her one bar of three and lasting
under a day. I haven’t been feeling very well today. My stomach
has been upset all day, it has been cool all day and I haven’t
stopped sweating, and I feel extremely fatigued. It may just be that
I’m feeling stressed out since I have been out of contact for so
long. I mean I did get to talk to my mom and my friend Rhett, who
is just awesome and a great encouragement, on Sunday but I miss
getting to read the e-mails I get from people and being able to
write bad. It also doesn’t really help that I just found out that I
probably won’t have internet for a while, at least a week. Class
was ok today, nothing special. I gave back the quizzes to the 2s and
3s but I didn’t have the 1s so I’ll give those back tomorrow. I
finished up class and headed home at around 4. When I got home
Randy had finished putting together this rocking chair that the
Asher’s had sent over. Tom showed me an example of an African
attempt at a rocking chair. The carpenter had made the bottoms
of the legs flat because he was afraid that they would get hurt by
the moving chair. They brought this one over to serve as an
example for him because they want to put some in the OB ward
for the pregnant mothers. Anyway, after dinner everyone went off
to their respective places of residence or down to the hospital to
see some patients. Today was not a good day for children sadly.
There were two deaths, a 15 year old and a 3 year old, both were
girls. The 15 year old died early in the morning due to complications
with gastrointestinal bleeding. The three year old died in the late
afternoon; she had cerebral malaria and meningitis. She was being
treated for both and was improving then suddenly took a turn for the
worse and died. It’s such a hard and sad thing, but all too common
here. When Tom and Rebecca came back we watched two episodes of CSI
before going to bed.
Greetings from Sierra Leone
Ryan Brooks
I went to the market this morning to get Rebecca’s phone charged
since they do it downtown for 1000 Leones, a quarter. The
universal charger she bought is pretty much rubbish. Over four
hours of charging and getting her one bar of three and lasting
under a day. I haven’t been feeling very well today. My stomach
has been upset all day, it has been cool all day and I haven’t
stopped sweating, and I feel extremely fatigued. It may just be that
I’m feeling stressed out since I have been out of contact for so
long. I mean I did get to talk to my mom and my friend Rhett, who
is just awesome and a great encouragement, on Sunday but I miss
getting to read the e-mails I get from people and being able to
write bad. It also doesn’t really help that I just found out that I
probably won’t have internet for a while, at least a week. Class
was ok today, nothing special. I gave back the quizzes to the 2s and
3s but I didn’t have the 1s so I’ll give those back tomorrow. I
finished up class and headed home at around 4. When I got home
Randy had finished putting together this rocking chair that the
Asher’s had sent over. Tom showed me an example of an African
attempt at a rocking chair. The carpenter had made the bottoms
of the legs flat because he was afraid that they would get hurt by
the moving chair. They brought this one over to serve as an
example for him because they want to put some in the OB ward
for the pregnant mothers. Anyway, after dinner everyone went off
to their respective places of residence or down to the hospital to
see some patients. Today was not a good day for children sadly.
There were two deaths, a 15 year old and a 3 year old, both were
girls. The 15 year old died early in the morning due to complications
with gastrointestinal bleeding. The three year old died in the late
afternoon; she had cerebral malaria and meningitis. She was being
treated for both and was improving then suddenly took a turn for the
worse and died. It’s such a hard and sad thing, but all too common
here. When Tom and Rebecca came back we watched two episodes of CSI
before going to bed.
Greetings from Sierra Leone
Ryan Brooks
November 22nd
I took Mrs. Emmit down to the market today. I was worried that
with a severely arthritic knee and having to use a cane that it
wouldn’t be a very good idea but it went pretty well. She made it
down and back alright and even came up to the house directly
afterwards to look at getting some books. People thought she was
my mom or grandmother. I’m not sure what to make of the mom
comment, either that she looks young or I look old, so I chose to
believe it was the former. Some of my kids in class today even
asked me about it. Anyway, I spent the afternoon preparing some
materials and such for my classes today so the afternoon was
really not very exciting. I had class from 2-6 today, five periods of
biology. Fun times that is. I gave all three classes quizzes today.
Many of the results were quite poor but there are a few really
good ones, I’m hoping that I can convince them to study more
because they really need too; most of them are barely passing
right now. Or in the case of one kid carrying a 13.5% average…
Granted they have quite a while to work on that but it’s never too
early to start. But classes went pretty well, though writing so much
on the chalk board is actually quite strenuous. I went downtown to
grab some onions and bread immediately after school because
Tom and the 3 new strangers were coming in tonight. I was just on
the way back when I ran into Pa, the Asher’s watchman, Pa is like
mister but they refer to him as Pa anyway. I greeted him and he
said “Dr. done come” which means that Tom had made it in. So I
double timed it up to the house because I didn’t want to be late to
dinner with the bread, and so I could help if needed. A guy named
Randy and his daughter Meghan came, as well as another lady
named Melanie who is a nurse I think. The guy and his daughter
are here for a week and a half or so the other nurse is here for like
6 days. I talked with Abu for the first time since Saturday, which
was good. Tom and Karen said I had been in the right sending him
out but I don’t think so and so I apologized because I really do feel
bad about it. Not to say that he was blameless I just reacted too
strongly. We talked a bit and I think we came to an understanding,
which is good because he’s really not a bad kid. He’s just young
and needs someone to work with him which I can’t do if we aren’t
speaking. Anyway, I’m glad to have at least gotten to talk with him
bit, even if he didn’t learn anything really. After dinner Rebecca
and I were just chatting when Emma came over because she is
watching the Mahr’s house while they are gone and their kerosene
fridge needed more fuel. The problem is that you have to fill it while
it’s burning because it’s a very finicky thing and if you’ve got it
burning good you don’t want to stop it. She was nervous about
pouring kerosene next to the flame so Tom went over to help her do
it. Emma and I managed to get some ants that bite on us, her worse
so than me. I got them off pretty easily before they climbed very far.
But sadly I can no longer claim to not have suffered any bug bites,
which I’ve been extremely lucky not to have since Rebecca is getting
eaten alive by the bugs. Everyone else has some problems with the
bugs but I haven’t had so much as a single bite before now. Oh well,
bound to happen sometime right? That’s about all I got for now. Off
to bed with me, g’night world.
From Sierra Leone
Ryan Brooks
I took Mrs. Emmit down to the market today. I was worried that
with a severely arthritic knee and having to use a cane that it
wouldn’t be a very good idea but it went pretty well. She made it
down and back alright and even came up to the house directly
afterwards to look at getting some books. People thought she was
my mom or grandmother. I’m not sure what to make of the mom
comment, either that she looks young or I look old, so I chose to
believe it was the former. Some of my kids in class today even
asked me about it. Anyway, I spent the afternoon preparing some
materials and such for my classes today so the afternoon was
really not very exciting. I had class from 2-6 today, five periods of
biology. Fun times that is. I gave all three classes quizzes today.
Many of the results were quite poor but there are a few really
good ones, I’m hoping that I can convince them to study more
because they really need too; most of them are barely passing
right now. Or in the case of one kid carrying a 13.5% average…
Granted they have quite a while to work on that but it’s never too
early to start. But classes went pretty well, though writing so much
on the chalk board is actually quite strenuous. I went downtown to
grab some onions and bread immediately after school because
Tom and the 3 new strangers were coming in tonight. I was just on
the way back when I ran into Pa, the Asher’s watchman, Pa is like
mister but they refer to him as Pa anyway. I greeted him and he
said “Dr. done come” which means that Tom had made it in. So I
double timed it up to the house because I didn’t want to be late to
dinner with the bread, and so I could help if needed. A guy named
Randy and his daughter Meghan came, as well as another lady
named Melanie who is a nurse I think. The guy and his daughter
are here for a week and a half or so the other nurse is here for like
6 days. I talked with Abu for the first time since Saturday, which
was good. Tom and Karen said I had been in the right sending him
out but I don’t think so and so I apologized because I really do feel
bad about it. Not to say that he was blameless I just reacted too
strongly. We talked a bit and I think we came to an understanding,
which is good because he’s really not a bad kid. He’s just young
and needs someone to work with him which I can’t do if we aren’t
speaking. Anyway, I’m glad to have at least gotten to talk with him
bit, even if he didn’t learn anything really. After dinner Rebecca
and I were just chatting when Emma came over because she is
watching the Mahr’s house while they are gone and their kerosene
fridge needed more fuel. The problem is that you have to fill it while
it’s burning because it’s a very finicky thing and if you’ve got it
burning good you don’t want to stop it. She was nervous about
pouring kerosene next to the flame so Tom went over to help her do
it. Emma and I managed to get some ants that bite on us, her worse
so than me. I got them off pretty easily before they climbed very far.
But sadly I can no longer claim to not have suffered any bug bites,
which I’ve been extremely lucky not to have since Rebecca is getting
eaten alive by the bugs. Everyone else has some problems with the
bugs but I haven’t had so much as a single bite before now. Oh well,
bound to happen sometime right? That’s about all I got for now. Off
to bed with me, g’night world.
From Sierra Leone
Ryan Brooks
November 21st
I got up this morning and made pancakes for Rebecca and Emma. I
was almost late getting it ready, I got up on time but I dilly-dallied
doing the dishes from yesterday and feeding the cats. I then
realized I had 15 minutes to make the pancakes, set the table, and
get everything out that I needed for breakfast, the coffee, sugar,
etc… Anyway, I got it all ready in time and had a good breakfast
chatting about the differences between England and America. It’s
quite fun to discuss the views people have of their own country.
We went to the Wesleyan Katherie Church this morning. The
service lasted about 2 hours and was quite good. They had one
offering where it was a competition of the surnames. They would
call out a surname and then everyone with that surname came
forward and gives an offering. For us it was the Ashers and the rest
of mankind. I had to get up and hold the offering basket. It was ok
because that’s all I had to do, for each of the previous surnames
one of them had to stand up and start singing, because they sing a
song during each offering. They really get passionate about their
offerings, smiling and dancing and singing. After church we
returned to the house and had some lunch, then I read for a little
while. I’m currently reading the books in the Chronicles of Narnia
and I finished the first one today. From there I went down to
Rebecca’s because we were supposed to see Samuel who got
some palm wine for us to try. It was interesting; it’s fairly fizzy with
a strange taste. It was good to try it but not something I think I
would really enjoy having very often. From there we went over to
visit a couple who live here in Kamakwie but work out in villages.
Pietro and Adele, two people from some group called Interaid.
Pietro is from Italy and Adele is from France. Adele is a primary
school teacher but she’s working with Interaid to get some
experience living in a country like this because from what is sounds
like is that she wants to work in a country like this. I almost got bit
by a “safe” dog. It had the rabies vaccine so it was ok to pet, but
that doesn’t mean it like to be pet. I was petting him and it was
going ok but I think he has a sore spot on his back that was sore
because he snapped at me when I touch a certain spot. So I quit
petting him. Pietro apologized because he had told me that it was
ok to t him. Anyway, we were there for a little over an hour. They
will be here until just after I leave so I’m hoping to be able to talk
to them some more. Nothing against the English but there are so
many here that I think it would be cool to learn more about France
and Italy first hand. They were really nice and offered to feed us
this evening but we felt like it would be imposing since they weren’t
really planning on having us there. We promised we would be back
some time to take them up on their offer because they insisted. We
went back to the house and made a quick dinner of macaroni and
cheese with tuna, it was quite tasty. I’m pretty tired but expecting a
call so I have to wait up, but that’s about it for my day.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
I got up this morning and made pancakes for Rebecca and Emma. I
was almost late getting it ready, I got up on time but I dilly-dallied
doing the dishes from yesterday and feeding the cats. I then
realized I had 15 minutes to make the pancakes, set the table, and
get everything out that I needed for breakfast, the coffee, sugar,
etc… Anyway, I got it all ready in time and had a good breakfast
chatting about the differences between England and America. It’s
quite fun to discuss the views people have of their own country.
We went to the Wesleyan Katherie Church this morning. The
service lasted about 2 hours and was quite good. They had one
offering where it was a competition of the surnames. They would
call out a surname and then everyone with that surname came
forward and gives an offering. For us it was the Ashers and the rest
of mankind. I had to get up and hold the offering basket. It was ok
because that’s all I had to do, for each of the previous surnames
one of them had to stand up and start singing, because they sing a
song during each offering. They really get passionate about their
offerings, smiling and dancing and singing. After church we
returned to the house and had some lunch, then I read for a little
while. I’m currently reading the books in the Chronicles of Narnia
and I finished the first one today. From there I went down to
Rebecca’s because we were supposed to see Samuel who got
some palm wine for us to try. It was interesting; it’s fairly fizzy with
a strange taste. It was good to try it but not something I think I
would really enjoy having very often. From there we went over to
visit a couple who live here in Kamakwie but work out in villages.
Pietro and Adele, two people from some group called Interaid.
Pietro is from Italy and Adele is from France. Adele is a primary
school teacher but she’s working with Interaid to get some
experience living in a country like this because from what is sounds
like is that she wants to work in a country like this. I almost got bit
by a “safe” dog. It had the rabies vaccine so it was ok to pet, but
that doesn’t mean it like to be pet. I was petting him and it was
going ok but I think he has a sore spot on his back that was sore
because he snapped at me when I touch a certain spot. So I quit
petting him. Pietro apologized because he had told me that it was
ok to t him. Anyway, we were there for a little over an hour. They
will be here until just after I leave so I’m hoping to be able to talk
to them some more. Nothing against the English but there are so
many here that I think it would be cool to learn more about France
and Italy first hand. They were really nice and offered to feed us
this evening but we felt like it would be imposing since they weren’t
really planning on having us there. We promised we would be back
some time to take them up on their offer because they insisted. We
went back to the house and made a quick dinner of macaroni and
cheese with tuna, it was quite tasty. I’m pretty tired but expecting a
call so I have to wait up, but that’s about it for my day.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
November 20th
So, this morning I spent some time writing some contemplating
that came to mind this morning. Then Saidu came over and we
talked for a while. I got bored sitting in the house so we went to
the market to pick up some bread for lunch. Returning to the
house I spent a while trying to get a DVD to play in my computer
but I couldn’t, so I tried to get some other video programs from
one of the Asher’s computers but that didn’t work either. Osman
and his mom came up while I was doing that. It was kind of hard
because I didn’t really know what to talk about. She didn’t stay
long so I wondered if she wanted something because she came
quite a distance just to visit for a few minutes. But I don’t think she
did, because anyone else who needs something hasn’t been afraid
to ask thus far. After that I went down to the hospital to see if
Rebecca was almost done with rounds at the hospital. Saidu and I
then watched an episode of CSI on one of the Asher’s computers
until Rebecca got done. Abu came by to get math help but we had
just sat down to lunch so Saidu helped him. Unfortunately I did
something I feel kind of bad but I don’t know if it was wrong or
not. Abu picked up Rebecca’s phone and started playing with it.
She lost her regular charger and the universal charger is not very
good so she tried to take her phone from him so he didn’t waste
any of the battery. He however didn’t feel like handing it over and
I was forced to intervene to retrieve it from him. He asked why I
had grabbed his hand because he’s not a baby. I proceeded to
explain that he should have given Rebecca her phone when she
tried to request it let alone when she tried to take it from him. I
told him he shouldn’t pick up other peoples things and just start
playing with them because he isn’t careful about what he does like
when he used my camera and managed to erase my pictures. He
said “so?” and I got really mad at him and sent him out telling him
not to come back until the Ashers come back because he has no
reason to be here since they are gone anyway. I didn’t mean to get
so mad but he has no concept of guilt over anything. If it’s not his
he doesn’t care if it gets broken because it doesn’t hurt him. The
Ashers told me he’s broken numerous things of theirs since they
started letting him eat with them. I am just at a loss of how to deal
with him and I just figured it would be better to just keep him out
of the house. He takes no personal responsibility and when the
Ashers or anyone else tries to discipline him he gets indignant and
mad and just plain pouty like he’s being mistreated. I just don’t
know what to do. Anyway, drama aside, Saidu left and I spent some
time by myself since I hadn’t been alone since 8:30ish this morning.
After that I went down to Rebecca’s house to get here, where we
talked to Amy and Emma a bit. Amy is a lady with an Australian
group who do technical work, they helped install some of the solar
in the area and work on the computers at the Wesleyan Secondary
School. Emma is a midwife from England, also Zoey’s friend, and has
come to help with the hospital here for a few weeks. Then Rebecca
and I went on a walk for a while around the area. I showed her the
Secondary School and the Primary School. It was a good walk. We got
back to the hospital at about 6 and met up with Emma and Samuel
(the accountant) and we went downtown to Pa Kanu’s for a drink,
before going down to a place to get rice and soup (soup being a
sauce you put over rice consisting of a lot of mystery ingredients and
fish, it’s also very spicy) but they only had one bowl left and since I
was the first one there I got it. When I got it I didn’t realize they were
out so I felt kind of bad. But then Rebecca and Emma got some food
from one of the places that serves meat, Mr. Ba was out when we got
there. It was a great time and I really enjoyed it. I kind of like having
the freedom to do whatever whenever with whoever at nights. Not
that I mind having dinner provided but it was really fun. Now it’s time
for bed.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
So, this morning I spent some time writing some contemplating
that came to mind this morning. Then Saidu came over and we
talked for a while. I got bored sitting in the house so we went to
the market to pick up some bread for lunch. Returning to the
house I spent a while trying to get a DVD to play in my computer
but I couldn’t, so I tried to get some other video programs from
one of the Asher’s computers but that didn’t work either. Osman
and his mom came up while I was doing that. It was kind of hard
because I didn’t really know what to talk about. She didn’t stay
long so I wondered if she wanted something because she came
quite a distance just to visit for a few minutes. But I don’t think she
did, because anyone else who needs something hasn’t been afraid
to ask thus far. After that I went down to the hospital to see if
Rebecca was almost done with rounds at the hospital. Saidu and I
then watched an episode of CSI on one of the Asher’s computers
until Rebecca got done. Abu came by to get math help but we had
just sat down to lunch so Saidu helped him. Unfortunately I did
something I feel kind of bad but I don’t know if it was wrong or
not. Abu picked up Rebecca’s phone and started playing with it.
She lost her regular charger and the universal charger is not very
good so she tried to take her phone from him so he didn’t waste
any of the battery. He however didn’t feel like handing it over and
I was forced to intervene to retrieve it from him. He asked why I
had grabbed his hand because he’s not a baby. I proceeded to
explain that he should have given Rebecca her phone when she
tried to request it let alone when she tried to take it from him. I
told him he shouldn’t pick up other peoples things and just start
playing with them because he isn’t careful about what he does like
when he used my camera and managed to erase my pictures. He
said “so?” and I got really mad at him and sent him out telling him
not to come back until the Ashers come back because he has no
reason to be here since they are gone anyway. I didn’t mean to get
so mad but he has no concept of guilt over anything. If it’s not his
he doesn’t care if it gets broken because it doesn’t hurt him. The
Ashers told me he’s broken numerous things of theirs since they
started letting him eat with them. I am just at a loss of how to deal
with him and I just figured it would be better to just keep him out
of the house. He takes no personal responsibility and when the
Ashers or anyone else tries to discipline him he gets indignant and
mad and just plain pouty like he’s being mistreated. I just don’t
know what to do. Anyway, drama aside, Saidu left and I spent some
time by myself since I hadn’t been alone since 8:30ish this morning.
After that I went down to Rebecca’s house to get here, where we
talked to Amy and Emma a bit. Amy is a lady with an Australian
group who do technical work, they helped install some of the solar
in the area and work on the computers at the Wesleyan Secondary
School. Emma is a midwife from England, also Zoey’s friend, and has
come to help with the hospital here for a few weeks. Then Rebecca
and I went on a walk for a while around the area. I showed her the
Secondary School and the Primary School. It was a good walk. We got
back to the hospital at about 6 and met up with Emma and Samuel
(the accountant) and we went downtown to Pa Kanu’s for a drink,
before going down to a place to get rice and soup (soup being a
sauce you put over rice consisting of a lot of mystery ingredients and
fish, it’s also very spicy) but they only had one bowl left and since I
was the first one there I got it. When I got it I didn’t realize they were
out so I felt kind of bad. But then Rebecca and Emma got some food
from one of the places that serves meat, Mr. Ba was out when we got
there. It was a great time and I really enjoyed it. I kind of like having
the freedom to do whatever whenever with whoever at nights. Not
that I mind having dinner provided but it was really fun. Now it’s time
for bed.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
November 19th
I went down to the Emmits this morning to take Storer and electric
razor, unfortunately they experienced a theft at some point. A
man with a broom just came into the house so Wilma Emmit
thought he was supposed to be there, he was going around
sweeping and cleaning and making beds. It wasn’t until after he
left, and even the next day, that they realized that he had taken
some things including Storer’s electric razor and Dr. Tom Putnam’s
, a visiting physician, digital camera. So that really isn’t very good.
Wilma asked me to go downtown to the market to get them bread
since I had been unable to yesterday. I ran into Abdul downtown
and we went to see if we couldn’t find Rebecca a phone charger as
hers has inexplicably disappeared. The man told me I had to come
back later when the power was on so that he could check the
chargers. So I went back up to the house and started the
generator, set up my computer to play music and started doing the
dishes. Unfortunately, like I pretty much expected, I started having
trouble and ended up crying for about 20 minutes despite my best
efforts to calm down. The most frustrating thing about feeling that
way is that I like it here, I really do. I love the people and the land
is just beautiful. I’m just so attached to everyone at home.
Anyway, thankfully Saidu came by and he talked with me, he was
quite encouraging, and then we went down to the market to see
about getting Rebecca’s charger. They have some in the market
but they won’t sell them because they use them to charge phones
and they don’t have any spares, so we headed back home. After
lunch I headed downtown with Rebecca to get her a charger for
her phone battery, they have this strange little thing called a
universal charger that you clip you battery into and it charges the
actual battery, it’s interesting. Anyway, after that I went to teach
classes, I only was supposed to have three but the SS1s told me
they have a free period and wanted me to continue to teach them
since I didn’t have another class. So I did. Then I had the SS2s and
taught them for two periods. I do so much writing my arm actually
hurts so I stopped teaching about halfway through the second
period with them and just started reviewing the material we have
gone over. After class Saidu, Rebecca and I went downtown to eat
at Mr. Ba’s, it was really good. Then we headed back towards the
house, stopping at Saidu’s house to get his books because we were
going up to the house to teach math to any kids who came. Saidu
was the only one there so we spent an hour teaching him math.
But now it’s time for bed, I’m so tired. I’m hoping I sleep well tonight
because I haven’t been sleeping very well, which is interesting
considering it has been really cool and comfortable at night. I don’t
know, anyway fare thee well.
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
I went down to the Emmits this morning to take Storer and electric
razor, unfortunately they experienced a theft at some point. A
man with a broom just came into the house so Wilma Emmit
thought he was supposed to be there, he was going around
sweeping and cleaning and making beds. It wasn’t until after he
left, and even the next day, that they realized that he had taken
some things including Storer’s electric razor and Dr. Tom Putnam’s
, a visiting physician, digital camera. So that really isn’t very good.
Wilma asked me to go downtown to the market to get them bread
since I had been unable to yesterday. I ran into Abdul downtown
and we went to see if we couldn’t find Rebecca a phone charger as
hers has inexplicably disappeared. The man told me I had to come
back later when the power was on so that he could check the
chargers. So I went back up to the house and started the
generator, set up my computer to play music and started doing the
dishes. Unfortunately, like I pretty much expected, I started having
trouble and ended up crying for about 20 minutes despite my best
efforts to calm down. The most frustrating thing about feeling that
way is that I like it here, I really do. I love the people and the land
is just beautiful. I’m just so attached to everyone at home.
Anyway, thankfully Saidu came by and he talked with me, he was
quite encouraging, and then we went down to the market to see
about getting Rebecca’s charger. They have some in the market
but they won’t sell them because they use them to charge phones
and they don’t have any spares, so we headed back home. After
lunch I headed downtown with Rebecca to get her a charger for
her phone battery, they have this strange little thing called a
universal charger that you clip you battery into and it charges the
actual battery, it’s interesting. Anyway, after that I went to teach
classes, I only was supposed to have three but the SS1s told me
they have a free period and wanted me to continue to teach them
since I didn’t have another class. So I did. Then I had the SS2s and
taught them for two periods. I do so much writing my arm actually
hurts so I stopped teaching about halfway through the second
period with them and just started reviewing the material we have
gone over. After class Saidu, Rebecca and I went downtown to eat
at Mr. Ba’s, it was really good. Then we headed back towards the
house, stopping at Saidu’s house to get his books because we were
going up to the house to teach math to any kids who came. Saidu
was the only one there so we spent an hour teaching him math.
But now it’s time for bed, I’m so tired. I’m hoping I sleep well tonight
because I haven’t been sleeping very well, which is interesting
considering it has been really cool and comfortable at night. I don’t
know, anyway fare thee well.
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
Thursday, November 18, 2010
November 18th
Like I said yesterday, today is my last blog for a few days till Tom
gets back on Monday. Karen is staying in Makeni for a conference
but she has said she will send the internet modem back to
Kamakwie with Tom. I went to the market today to get onions,
cucumbers and bread. I only managed to find onions, there were
no cucumbers and the only bread available was pretty stale so I
decided it would be better to wait and get it later. Back at the
house I helped Karen scan some more glasses. The official count is
493 pairs of scanned glasses in the inventory. After we finished up
the glasses we had lunch and after that I had to go off to school.
On the way I saw this lady who in the United States whould be in a
wheel chair. The poor woman was literally walking on the top of
her foot. Her foot was bent backwards at the ankle. We exchanged
the common pleasantries including asking “how’s the body”. I had
expected a fine or something like that. But instead she said “tell
God thanks” (in Krio of course) which is the best response to
asking how someone is. Don’t get me wrong, I do thank God for
everything I’ve gone through (both good and bad) that has shaped
me into who I am, but I don’t think that if my ankle was bent like
that so I had to stoop over and walk on the top of my foot that I
would be saying thank God for. I have asked Karen in the past if
this is a society where no one really says anything but fine or says
thank God even if they really aren’t ok. But she made a good point,
every day they wake up again is a good day. Class went pretty
good with my SS 1 kids today. I had them for both chemistry and
biology. I had two really hard concepts to try and explain to them
today. The taxonomy classification system in biology, how do you
explain phylum and the other levels to people who don’t even
necessarily understand the words that regularly come out of my
mouth? Then in chemistry I was trying to explain atomic structure,
shells and orbitals. That was a task and a half considering it’s such
an abstract concept. Anyway, then two of my SS3s came down and
told me that they were the only two there and didn’t want to have
class because they were tired and were leaving. Since I could really
stop them I went ahead and went home. We had cherry
cheesecake soup for dessert tonight. Karen tried to make
cheesecake but didn’t set up despite over an hour in the freezer.
After that I got my first haircut in Africa, Karen did it. It’s not quite
as short as I would like but it’s a lot better than it was. On a great
note, I heard today that there is this village where the elders are
muslim and most of the people are as well. They planted a church
there and last week they held a clinic there and this past Sunday
they had 30 people attend the service. Some of the people went
up to Albert, who is kind of in charge, and told him they were going
to be coming in the future. So praise the Lord for that. Anyway, I
think that’s about all I have for this evening. I’ll be compiling one
big blog post to put up Monday evening, or Wednesday if Karen
doesn’t remember to send me the internet stick on Monday. So if
you don’t hear from me till then don’t be worried. This is going to
be a test because it will be the longest time where I can’t send or
receive messages. Thankfully I’m supposed to receive a call from
my mom at some point and I’ve arranged to call one of my friends
on Sunday. I might get some more units to make more calls if I find
myself desperate for some communication. I’m doing a lot better
about being homesick, but some days are not as good as others,
and without Karen or Tom around for such a length of time might
be hard. Anyway, thanks for your patronage.
Greetings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
Like I said yesterday, today is my last blog for a few days till Tom
gets back on Monday. Karen is staying in Makeni for a conference
but she has said she will send the internet modem back to
Kamakwie with Tom. I went to the market today to get onions,
cucumbers and bread. I only managed to find onions, there were
no cucumbers and the only bread available was pretty stale so I
decided it would be better to wait and get it later. Back at the
house I helped Karen scan some more glasses. The official count is
493 pairs of scanned glasses in the inventory. After we finished up
the glasses we had lunch and after that I had to go off to school.
On the way I saw this lady who in the United States whould be in a
wheel chair. The poor woman was literally walking on the top of
her foot. Her foot was bent backwards at the ankle. We exchanged
the common pleasantries including asking “how’s the body”. I had
expected a fine or something like that. But instead she said “tell
God thanks” (in Krio of course) which is the best response to
asking how someone is. Don’t get me wrong, I do thank God for
everything I’ve gone through (both good and bad) that has shaped
me into who I am, but I don’t think that if my ankle was bent like
that so I had to stoop over and walk on the top of my foot that I
would be saying thank God for. I have asked Karen in the past if
this is a society where no one really says anything but fine or says
thank God even if they really aren’t ok. But she made a good point,
every day they wake up again is a good day. Class went pretty
good with my SS 1 kids today. I had them for both chemistry and
biology. I had two really hard concepts to try and explain to them
today. The taxonomy classification system in biology, how do you
explain phylum and the other levels to people who don’t even
necessarily understand the words that regularly come out of my
mouth? Then in chemistry I was trying to explain atomic structure,
shells and orbitals. That was a task and a half considering it’s such
an abstract concept. Anyway, then two of my SS3s came down and
told me that they were the only two there and didn’t want to have
class because they were tired and were leaving. Since I could really
stop them I went ahead and went home. We had cherry
cheesecake soup for dessert tonight. Karen tried to make
cheesecake but didn’t set up despite over an hour in the freezer.
After that I got my first haircut in Africa, Karen did it. It’s not quite
as short as I would like but it’s a lot better than it was. On a great
note, I heard today that there is this village where the elders are
muslim and most of the people are as well. They planted a church
there and last week they held a clinic there and this past Sunday
they had 30 people attend the service. Some of the people went
up to Albert, who is kind of in charge, and told him they were going
to be coming in the future. So praise the Lord for that. Anyway, I
think that’s about all I have for this evening. I’ll be compiling one
big blog post to put up Monday evening, or Wednesday if Karen
doesn’t remember to send me the internet stick on Monday. So if
you don’t hear from me till then don’t be worried. This is going to
be a test because it will be the longest time where I can’t send or
receive messages. Thankfully I’m supposed to receive a call from
my mom at some point and I’ve arranged to call one of my friends
on Sunday. I might get some more units to make more calls if I find
myself desperate for some communication. I’m doing a lot better
about being homesick, but some days are not as good as others,
and without Karen or Tom around for such a length of time might
be hard. Anyway, thanks for your patronage.
Greetings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
November 17th
I didn’t really do anything remarkable today, besides being in
Africa of course, haha. I helped Karen do some more glasses, this
time tagging them and putting them into labeled bags. If I never
see another pair of glasses again it will be too soon, shoot, there is
a pair on my face… Haha. Anyway, that being done, I went to
school and taught for four periods today, a mix of biology and
chemistry. I’m definitely getting more comfortable with teaching,
but I wish we would stop missing school because then I don’t want
to start teaching again because the same insecurities start to creep
up with the down time. Not that down time is really very “down” I
feel like I haven’t stopped running around and doing things around
the house in days. Which is nice, and I’m helping the hospital out
in general by making things easier for the Ashers, but it’s not what
I came here for, but like Tom Garber, one of the guests last week,
said a big part of being a missionary is being flexible because you
often won’t be doing what you thought you would be. Anyway,
tangent aside, the classes went well, I’ve started actually teaching
chemistry rather than just the math I was teaching before, I still
haven’t even begun to think about doing labs. I figure they need
some more information before they are ready for that. Anyway,
we had the Emmits and the Mahrs over for dinner this evening. It
was going well when Karen got a call that there had been a
motorbike collision and there were several trauma cases to take
care of. Half the people here being doctors the place cleared out
pretty quick. I kind of wish that I were medical personnel because
everyone left and I’m quite bored now. I got to talk to one of my
best friends on facebook this evening which was good. Just a
heads up, Tom and Karen are leaving Friday morning to go to
Freetown and they won’t be back till Monday, so I will have a blog
tomorrow but then you won’t have anything to read after that
until Monday, I’m sure you’ll wait with bated breath until then.
Until tomorrow then, have a great day!
Walie Masala (Thank the Lord, in Limba)
Ryan Brooks
I didn’t really do anything remarkable today, besides being in
Africa of course, haha. I helped Karen do some more glasses, this
time tagging them and putting them into labeled bags. If I never
see another pair of glasses again it will be too soon, shoot, there is
a pair on my face… Haha. Anyway, that being done, I went to
school and taught for four periods today, a mix of biology and
chemistry. I’m definitely getting more comfortable with teaching,
but I wish we would stop missing school because then I don’t want
to start teaching again because the same insecurities start to creep
up with the down time. Not that down time is really very “down” I
feel like I haven’t stopped running around and doing things around
the house in days. Which is nice, and I’m helping the hospital out
in general by making things easier for the Ashers, but it’s not what
I came here for, but like Tom Garber, one of the guests last week,
said a big part of being a missionary is being flexible because you
often won’t be doing what you thought you would be. Anyway,
tangent aside, the classes went well, I’ve started actually teaching
chemistry rather than just the math I was teaching before, I still
haven’t even begun to think about doing labs. I figure they need
some more information before they are ready for that. Anyway,
we had the Emmits and the Mahrs over for dinner this evening. It
was going well when Karen got a call that there had been a
motorbike collision and there were several trauma cases to take
care of. Half the people here being doctors the place cleared out
pretty quick. I kind of wish that I were medical personnel because
everyone left and I’m quite bored now. I got to talk to one of my
best friends on facebook this evening which was good. Just a
heads up, Tom and Karen are leaving Friday morning to go to
Freetown and they won’t be back till Monday, so I will have a blog
tomorrow but then you won’t have anything to read after that
until Monday, I’m sure you’ll wait with bated breath until then.
Until tomorrow then, have a great day!
Walie Masala (Thank the Lord, in Limba)
Ryan Brooks
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
November 16th
Today was a pretty uninteresting day as a whole. I got up and went
to visit the Emmits after breakfast. I ended up speaking with Mrs.
Emmit for about an hour or so, then I went to the market to get
her some things don’t know if I told you but the Emmits are an
elderly couple in their 80s who previously served in Sierra Leone
and are continually serving wherever the Leads them, that often
including Haiti. They amaze me with their willingness to serve at
age where I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to get out of bed in the
morning. On the way to the market I saw Abu and invited him to
come along though I didn’t particularly want to. It’s such a struggle
to deal with him. I am the first person who should be showing up
to show him grace. The friends I made at Mount brought such
change to my life; they showed me grace so often when I don’t
think I could have. They taught me how to love and what it means
to be loved when I didn’t think I was worth loving. Without them I
have no idea where I would be at right now, certainly not here in
Africa. Anyway, having experienced such grace in those
relationships I feel that I need to show the same to him but he
makes it so hard. I’m not going to go into details but he has the
Asher’s so close to turning him out as he’s a constant source of
frustration for them, and between them. As much as I would hate
to see that in the short time I’ve been here I can see why they
might want to. Pray that God would use me to touch his life,
because if he doesn’t change I can’t imagine he will make it very
far. We couldn’t get anything we wanted from the market but
bread because ¾ of the shops in town were closed when we went
because of a Muslim holiday, I think it has a name but even the
Muslims just called today “pray day” I prayed alright, that God
would lead them to see Christ as more than just a prophet, but as
savior. Returning to the house I helped Karen straighten things up
a bit in the living room where they store a lot of their food and
some other stuff. Karen is doing much better, moving around
pretty well with minimal pain. I wouldn’t believe a knee injury that
kept her from standing that first day would heal this fast, but I
think it’s one part sheer willpower and one part prayer, because
it’s amazing how well she’s doing. After that I went for a walk to
try and find a nice quiet place to do devotions but there are
Africans everywhere. I ran into a group resting by the roadside,
they needed me to help them lift these huge bags of Cassava up
onto their heads. I can’t believe the weight they carry on their
heads, I think it would break my neck. I never did find a place.
After that I pretty much spent the rest of the day cleaning glasses
and helping Karen get some progress made on the project she has
going, which is trying to prepare glasses and get them to the
people who need them. We just stopped a little bit ago (it’s after
12am now) and we still have a good number more to do. We’ve
scanned almost three hundred pairs so far, they were told they
need at least a thousand to have a good chance of matching the
needs of any possible person. Anyway, I’m tired so this is where
it ends. Have a great morning/day/night.
Greetings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
Today was a pretty uninteresting day as a whole. I got up and went
to visit the Emmits after breakfast. I ended up speaking with Mrs.
Emmit for about an hour or so, then I went to the market to get
her some things don’t know if I told you but the Emmits are an
elderly couple in their 80s who previously served in Sierra Leone
and are continually serving wherever the Leads them, that often
including Haiti. They amaze me with their willingness to serve at
age where I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to get out of bed in the
morning. On the way to the market I saw Abu and invited him to
come along though I didn’t particularly want to. It’s such a struggle
to deal with him. I am the first person who should be showing up
to show him grace. The friends I made at Mount brought such
change to my life; they showed me grace so often when I don’t
think I could have. They taught me how to love and what it means
to be loved when I didn’t think I was worth loving. Without them I
have no idea where I would be at right now, certainly not here in
Africa. Anyway, having experienced such grace in those
relationships I feel that I need to show the same to him but he
makes it so hard. I’m not going to go into details but he has the
Asher’s so close to turning him out as he’s a constant source of
frustration for them, and between them. As much as I would hate
to see that in the short time I’ve been here I can see why they
might want to. Pray that God would use me to touch his life,
because if he doesn’t change I can’t imagine he will make it very
far. We couldn’t get anything we wanted from the market but
bread because ¾ of the shops in town were closed when we went
because of a Muslim holiday, I think it has a name but even the
Muslims just called today “pray day” I prayed alright, that God
would lead them to see Christ as more than just a prophet, but as
savior. Returning to the house I helped Karen straighten things up
a bit in the living room where they store a lot of their food and
some other stuff. Karen is doing much better, moving around
pretty well with minimal pain. I wouldn’t believe a knee injury that
kept her from standing that first day would heal this fast, but I
think it’s one part sheer willpower and one part prayer, because
it’s amazing how well she’s doing. After that I went for a walk to
try and find a nice quiet place to do devotions but there are
Africans everywhere. I ran into a group resting by the roadside,
they needed me to help them lift these huge bags of Cassava up
onto their heads. I can’t believe the weight they carry on their
heads, I think it would break my neck. I never did find a place.
After that I pretty much spent the rest of the day cleaning glasses
and helping Karen get some progress made on the project she has
going, which is trying to prepare glasses and get them to the
people who need them. We just stopped a little bit ago (it’s after
12am now) and we still have a good number more to do. We’ve
scanned almost three hundred pairs so far, they were told they
need at least a thousand to have a good chance of matching the
needs of any possible person. Anyway, I’m tired so this is where
it ends. Have a great morning/day/night.
Greetings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
Monday, November 15, 2010
November 15th
So today was a long day. I went to bed early last night but that
didn’t do me much good, I woke up many times in the middle of
the night, then I had dream about something that happened in the
US, and it was about the time that it really happened, and it’s not
good, praying for a friend who is very special to me. Getting up I
got ready to go for a walk because I was feeling very down this
morning because I couldn’t be there for my friend. I think that will
be one of the hardest things here. Not being able to be there the
people I love, but I always want to know if something is going on
because then I can at least pray for you. Anyway, a walk always
helps me; it’s a little personal time with the Father. I feel I connect
better then than any other time on an individual basis.
Unfortunately just as I was leaving I was asked to track down
Abdul because one of the Africans had gifted the Ashers a chicken
and they needed him to kill it for them. I decided to watch, which
was probably not the best idea. I won’t go into detail but I didn’t
stay for the whole process. I only watched out of morbid curiosity.
I spent the rest of the morning helping Karen sort out the living
room because it was full of junk and she can’t really get around. I
helped sort all the baby clothes they have up here. The hospital
provides baby layettes for all new born babies and Karen makes
sure they are all assembled and ready up here. For example, one
church sent a bunch of them but didn’t include blankets in them,
which are important because the babies need to be kept warm.
We spent a few hours doing that, had lunch, and then I went off to
school. I have 5 periods today, all biology, which is good because
biology is so much easier to teach than chemistry. Classes went
well. I had a pleasant surprise when I had my SS1s today. I taught
two of them one day last week, but I figured I would just have to
go back over the same material with the rest of them today. I
began to teach and I was asking what is biology and what are some
fields of biology not really expecting to get much. However, I
started getting responses and I was like, ok whats going on. I asked
them how they knew the information and they told me they had
copied the notes from the other two kids. There were 12 kids in
class which means 10 kids took their own initiative to copy the
notes from the other kids. I was shocked, for a moment I didn’t
know what to do. Then I decided we would just move on to the
next information. It was a good day of classes which was good
after this morning. I promise I really do like being here, and I really
like a lot of the people I’ve met. It’s just very hard for me to stop
missing everyone at home. It’s getting better over time, but I feel
like by time I’m really settled here I’ll be on the plane home and
spend the next month missing everyone here. I don’t want to be here
grudgingly, I’m grateful for this opportunity, but I want to be serving
the Lord gladly. Pray that I can, not forget the people at home, but to
let them go for now realizing that I only have a little time here and
that I will have so much time once I leave here and I don’t want to
spend the whole time I’m here wishing I was home and then return
home regretting that I wasted such an awesome opportunity. Thanks
for all of your continued prayers, thoughts, and messages.
Blessings from Sella Limba Chiefdom
Ryan Brooks
So today was a long day. I went to bed early last night but that
didn’t do me much good, I woke up many times in the middle of
the night, then I had dream about something that happened in the
US, and it was about the time that it really happened, and it’s not
good, praying for a friend who is very special to me. Getting up I
got ready to go for a walk because I was feeling very down this
morning because I couldn’t be there for my friend. I think that will
be one of the hardest things here. Not being able to be there the
people I love, but I always want to know if something is going on
because then I can at least pray for you. Anyway, a walk always
helps me; it’s a little personal time with the Father. I feel I connect
better then than any other time on an individual basis.
Unfortunately just as I was leaving I was asked to track down
Abdul because one of the Africans had gifted the Ashers a chicken
and they needed him to kill it for them. I decided to watch, which
was probably not the best idea. I won’t go into detail but I didn’t
stay for the whole process. I only watched out of morbid curiosity.
I spent the rest of the morning helping Karen sort out the living
room because it was full of junk and she can’t really get around. I
helped sort all the baby clothes they have up here. The hospital
provides baby layettes for all new born babies and Karen makes
sure they are all assembled and ready up here. For example, one
church sent a bunch of them but didn’t include blankets in them,
which are important because the babies need to be kept warm.
We spent a few hours doing that, had lunch, and then I went off to
school. I have 5 periods today, all biology, which is good because
biology is so much easier to teach than chemistry. Classes went
well. I had a pleasant surprise when I had my SS1s today. I taught
two of them one day last week, but I figured I would just have to
go back over the same material with the rest of them today. I
began to teach and I was asking what is biology and what are some
fields of biology not really expecting to get much. However, I
started getting responses and I was like, ok whats going on. I asked
them how they knew the information and they told me they had
copied the notes from the other two kids. There were 12 kids in
class which means 10 kids took their own initiative to copy the
notes from the other kids. I was shocked, for a moment I didn’t
know what to do. Then I decided we would just move on to the
next information. It was a good day of classes which was good
after this morning. I promise I really do like being here, and I really
like a lot of the people I’ve met. It’s just very hard for me to stop
missing everyone at home. It’s getting better over time, but I feel
like by time I’m really settled here I’ll be on the plane home and
spend the next month missing everyone here. I don’t want to be here
grudgingly, I’m grateful for this opportunity, but I want to be serving
the Lord gladly. Pray that I can, not forget the people at home, but to
let them go for now realizing that I only have a little time here and
that I will have so much time once I leave here and I don’t want to
spend the whole time I’m here wishing I was home and then return
home regretting that I wasted such an awesome opportunity. Thanks
for all of your continued prayers, thoughts, and messages.
Blessings from Sella Limba Chiefdom
Ryan Brooks
Sunday, November 14, 2010
November 14th
This morning started out very poorly, I was very down and missing
people and feeling like I wanted to come home. I had ascribed it to
the fact that the work team was leaving today, they were only
here about a week but I loved having them here and I knew I was
going to miss them (and they were going home to the US where I
know that I would like to be). However it was the worst I had been
feeling in over a week and I just really didn’t want to do anything. I
really didn’t feel like going to church since I knew it would be at
least a two and a half hour service, I don’t understand much of
what goes on, etc… I did end up going and I’m so glad I went. The
first thing they do in the service is sing a worship song, at first I
was very much frustrated with being there because I couldn’t
understand, but it wasn’t long into the song that I just had this
feeling, it was like someone was there, and then there was this
thought that entered my mind. It’s hard to explain, but it was
something akin to “Ryan, the ache you feel for the love ones you
miss is nothing compared to the ache you felt for 20 years when
you felt unwanted and unloved.” It wasn’t really that clear but it
was the impression I was left with. I was moved to tears and it was
like this weight was lifted from me. It was an awesome experience
but I am at a loss to explain it. Since then I’ve been in a great mood
all day, minus the crying when the guests left. I spent most of the
afternoon helping the group get ready to go, they left at about 3 in
the afternoon. Then I was with Foday and Saidu from 3 until about
6. We went to Daniels house to try and take him some batteries
from his calculator but he wasn’t there, and then Saidu said he
could find me better sandals, since the ones I bought like a week
and a half ago were falling apart already… We went into the
market and we found a really nice pair, the guy wanted 35000 for
them and Saidu managed to haggle him down to 20000, which was
really nice. Saidu is quite the haggler, if I have to get anything else
I’m gonna make sure I have him with me. He then took me over to
this guy who works on shoes to have him stitch them around the
edge to help make them stronger. He promised me that they
should hold together for pretty much the rest of the time I’m here.
Then we ran into Saidu’s martial arts teacher Alie, I said that I
wanted to participate, but I have to figure out how to have time
since the class has to be at 5 or 6 pm. 5 pm is during class some
days of the week and 6 is dinner time. So we’ll have to see how
that goes. We seem to be having a power shortage this evening,
the generator came on at 7 like it was supposed to, went out at
7:40, came back on 7:50 and went out a few minutes later. Now
it’s 8:30 and there’s no power.
Hoping all is well,
Ryan Brooks
One last note, Karen is still in pain
but she is managing and is feeling a lot better emotionally I think.
She would benefit from continued prayers. Thanks.
This morning started out very poorly, I was very down and missing
people and feeling like I wanted to come home. I had ascribed it to
the fact that the work team was leaving today, they were only
here about a week but I loved having them here and I knew I was
going to miss them (and they were going home to the US where I
know that I would like to be). However it was the worst I had been
feeling in over a week and I just really didn’t want to do anything. I
really didn’t feel like going to church since I knew it would be at
least a two and a half hour service, I don’t understand much of
what goes on, etc… I did end up going and I’m so glad I went. The
first thing they do in the service is sing a worship song, at first I
was very much frustrated with being there because I couldn’t
understand, but it wasn’t long into the song that I just had this
feeling, it was like someone was there, and then there was this
thought that entered my mind. It’s hard to explain, but it was
something akin to “Ryan, the ache you feel for the love ones you
miss is nothing compared to the ache you felt for 20 years when
you felt unwanted and unloved.” It wasn’t really that clear but it
was the impression I was left with. I was moved to tears and it was
like this weight was lifted from me. It was an awesome experience
but I am at a loss to explain it. Since then I’ve been in a great mood
all day, minus the crying when the guests left. I spent most of the
afternoon helping the group get ready to go, they left at about 3 in
the afternoon. Then I was with Foday and Saidu from 3 until about
6. We went to Daniels house to try and take him some batteries
from his calculator but he wasn’t there, and then Saidu said he
could find me better sandals, since the ones I bought like a week
and a half ago were falling apart already… We went into the
market and we found a really nice pair, the guy wanted 35000 for
them and Saidu managed to haggle him down to 20000, which was
really nice. Saidu is quite the haggler, if I have to get anything else
I’m gonna make sure I have him with me. He then took me over to
this guy who works on shoes to have him stitch them around the
edge to help make them stronger. He promised me that they
should hold together for pretty much the rest of the time I’m here.
Then we ran into Saidu’s martial arts teacher Alie, I said that I
wanted to participate, but I have to figure out how to have time
since the class has to be at 5 or 6 pm. 5 pm is during class some
days of the week and 6 is dinner time. So we’ll have to see how
that goes. We seem to be having a power shortage this evening,
the generator came on at 7 like it was supposed to, went out at
7:40, came back on 7:50 and went out a few minutes later. Now
it’s 8:30 and there’s no power.
Hoping all is well,
Ryan Brooks
One last note, Karen is still in pain
but she is managing and is feeling a lot better emotionally I think.
She would benefit from continued prayers. Thanks.
November 13th
Today was awesome, and also stricken by some difficulty. I got to
sleep in a bit, and by sleep in I mean 7:20 or so, though that didn’t
do a lot of good because I didn’t go to bed until after 12:30. Tom
and Rebecca got called down to the hospital just before midnight,
a lady who had previously had a cesarean section went into labor,
which means she pretty much has to have another one if you don’t
want to risk rupturing the uterus, which would be bad… Anyway,
we went down to the hospital at 10:30 to go to the hospital
celebration. The president of Sierra Leone was supposed to be
coming to the celebration but he was not able to come sadly. That
would have been really cool to meet him. Instead one of the
ministers came, there were two other ministers of the country
present as well, one of them being the head of health in the
country. They’ve promised that they are about to begin a project
to pave the road from Makeni to Kamakwie then on to Guinea in
order to better foster trade and increase government revenues.
The Sierra Leone government has a health program that gives free
care to kids under 5, pregnant and lactating mothers. They pay the
hospitals associated costs for caring for them. However as a faith
based private hospital they do not qualify for the assistance and so
they still have to charge them. The minister in charge health
promised that they are working on rolling out the program to
hospitals like the one here in Kamakwie. There were some other
people, including the superintendant of the entire Wesleyan
Church of Sierra Leone Reverend Osman. There were a bunch of
speeches for about two hours and then they fed us, and by us I
mean hundreds of people. It was so crazy! While we were eating
there were a bunch of women doing some traditional dancing.
There was this person with a grass skirt on and a red cloth over his
head, the cloth was covered in horns and mirrors. Tom told me
that the person was the witch doctor, which is interesting since it
is part of an pagan belief system at a very Christian event. Anyway,
I had a great time after they fed us. Took some pictures of kids,
talked with Foday, Saidu and Albert, as well as Rebecca, and just
generally enjoyed the celebration. Oh, before they fed us we went
to dedicate the new pediatric ward they recently finished in a little
ceremony then we toured the new building. It was really awesome
getting to experience and be a part of the 50th celebration of the
hospital, though they were quick to remind the people present
that it was not the 50th year of having a Wesleyan hospital in
Kamakwie, the first one opened in Kamakwie 2 in 1920, moved to
Kamakwie 1 in 1930 before the new hospital being built in 1959.
After that I headed back up to the house to get some water then we
went to call on the work team. I then proceeded to walk back and
forth between their house and my house numerous times carrying
out various tasks. It was several trips in when I found out Karen was
not doing well. She hurt her knee climbing into the truck when she
and Tom were taking Mary Lane home. So she’s not in the greatest
of shape and feeling very frustrated I think. The work team came
over and we prayed over her, it was a really awesome experience.
However, she is still in pain and barely able to walk with a walker,
so please pray for her, for healing, strength and comfort. After
that we got ready to go to a dinner also being catered by the
Africans, which meant more spicy food, yay… haha. We got there
at 7 and didn’t eat until nearly 8:3o. It’s that BMT again. While we
were waiting the “dj” people were trying to get set up and were
playing music so loud we could barely hear each other talking face
to face, Tom got them to turn it way down but they were slowly
turning it up as time went on. About 45 minutes into our wait
some sparks came flying out of all the wiring they had just pushed
under a table. This was followed by some smoke and a bunch of
fleeing Africans, however no fire started and things back under
control. Sadly they were able to fix the problem and turn the music
back on. Thankfully this time they actually played some Christian
music instead of whatever they had been playing. Daniel Turay
was there and so we spent the most of the time just talking.
Daniel is one of my favorite people here. He’s a great kid and
he’s really got a heart for the Lord. It’s pretty cool. His plan is
to go to university for banking, make some money, and then go
to a pastoral college to become a pastor. It was hot and noisy in
the room with all the people and the speakers so Daniel and I
went outside where it was cooler and less noisy, though there
were a lot of people congregated outside hoping to get in but it
was only for the hospital staff and missionaries. We hung out
there for a little while then the dinner ended and so we started
walking home and we ran into Solomon (the community health
officer from the hospital) and he walked along with us. Daniel
turned off first and as Solomon and I continued walking I asked
him about his name. Many people here seem to take a new
Christian name when they become Christian, especially if they
were a Muslim. He said to me it wasn’t his birth name but I never
got to ask what it was because we got to the place where we
went separate ways. But he did tell me he was born into a Muslim
family before moving to Kamakwie to be with family. They were
Christians and he became a Christian. I thought that was pretty
cool. Anyway, so now I sit here at home getting ready to go to bed,
I had a really good day, but it was also the last day for the visitors
staying here, they are coming to church tomorrow but then they
have to leave to head home not long after that. I’m going to miss
having them here, it’s been crazy but enjoyable getting to meet new
people with such cool experiences from their past in Kamakwie.
Blessings from Sierra Leone, Africa
Ryan Brooks
P.S.
I was on Sierra Leone tv apparently, the Asher’s driver Steven was
here tonight, the poor man has run back and forth to Freetown
and Makeni so many times in the last week, and he said he saw me
on tv. Apparently they were showing some of the video from the
school celebration last week. I’m hoping to get a copy of it, Daniel
Turay told me that Principal HB might have a copy.
Today was awesome, and also stricken by some difficulty. I got to
sleep in a bit, and by sleep in I mean 7:20 or so, though that didn’t
do a lot of good because I didn’t go to bed until after 12:30. Tom
and Rebecca got called down to the hospital just before midnight,
a lady who had previously had a cesarean section went into labor,
which means she pretty much has to have another one if you don’t
want to risk rupturing the uterus, which would be bad… Anyway,
we went down to the hospital at 10:30 to go to the hospital
celebration. The president of Sierra Leone was supposed to be
coming to the celebration but he was not able to come sadly. That
would have been really cool to meet him. Instead one of the
ministers came, there were two other ministers of the country
present as well, one of them being the head of health in the
country. They’ve promised that they are about to begin a project
to pave the road from Makeni to Kamakwie then on to Guinea in
order to better foster trade and increase government revenues.
The Sierra Leone government has a health program that gives free
care to kids under 5, pregnant and lactating mothers. They pay the
hospitals associated costs for caring for them. However as a faith
based private hospital they do not qualify for the assistance and so
they still have to charge them. The minister in charge health
promised that they are working on rolling out the program to
hospitals like the one here in Kamakwie. There were some other
people, including the superintendant of the entire Wesleyan
Church of Sierra Leone Reverend Osman. There were a bunch of
speeches for about two hours and then they fed us, and by us I
mean hundreds of people. It was so crazy! While we were eating
there were a bunch of women doing some traditional dancing.
There was this person with a grass skirt on and a red cloth over his
head, the cloth was covered in horns and mirrors. Tom told me
that the person was the witch doctor, which is interesting since it
is part of an pagan belief system at a very Christian event. Anyway,
I had a great time after they fed us. Took some pictures of kids,
talked with Foday, Saidu and Albert, as well as Rebecca, and just
generally enjoyed the celebration. Oh, before they fed us we went
to dedicate the new pediatric ward they recently finished in a little
ceremony then we toured the new building. It was really awesome
getting to experience and be a part of the 50th celebration of the
hospital, though they were quick to remind the people present
that it was not the 50th year of having a Wesleyan hospital in
Kamakwie, the first one opened in Kamakwie 2 in 1920, moved to
Kamakwie 1 in 1930 before the new hospital being built in 1959.
After that I headed back up to the house to get some water then we
went to call on the work team. I then proceeded to walk back and
forth between their house and my house numerous times carrying
out various tasks. It was several trips in when I found out Karen was
not doing well. She hurt her knee climbing into the truck when she
and Tom were taking Mary Lane home. So she’s not in the greatest
of shape and feeling very frustrated I think. The work team came
over and we prayed over her, it was a really awesome experience.
However, she is still in pain and barely able to walk with a walker,
so please pray for her, for healing, strength and comfort. After
that we got ready to go to a dinner also being catered by the
Africans, which meant more spicy food, yay… haha. We got there
at 7 and didn’t eat until nearly 8:3o. It’s that BMT again. While we
were waiting the “dj” people were trying to get set up and were
playing music so loud we could barely hear each other talking face
to face, Tom got them to turn it way down but they were slowly
turning it up as time went on. About 45 minutes into our wait
some sparks came flying out of all the wiring they had just pushed
under a table. This was followed by some smoke and a bunch of
fleeing Africans, however no fire started and things back under
control. Sadly they were able to fix the problem and turn the music
back on. Thankfully this time they actually played some Christian
music instead of whatever they had been playing. Daniel Turay
was there and so we spent the most of the time just talking.
Daniel is one of my favorite people here. He’s a great kid and
he’s really got a heart for the Lord. It’s pretty cool. His plan is
to go to university for banking, make some money, and then go
to a pastoral college to become a pastor. It was hot and noisy in
the room with all the people and the speakers so Daniel and I
went outside where it was cooler and less noisy, though there
were a lot of people congregated outside hoping to get in but it
was only for the hospital staff and missionaries. We hung out
there for a little while then the dinner ended and so we started
walking home and we ran into Solomon (the community health
officer from the hospital) and he walked along with us. Daniel
turned off first and as Solomon and I continued walking I asked
him about his name. Many people here seem to take a new
Christian name when they become Christian, especially if they
were a Muslim. He said to me it wasn’t his birth name but I never
got to ask what it was because we got to the place where we
went separate ways. But he did tell me he was born into a Muslim
family before moving to Kamakwie to be with family. They were
Christians and he became a Christian. I thought that was pretty
cool. Anyway, so now I sit here at home getting ready to go to bed,
I had a really good day, but it was also the last day for the visitors
staying here, they are coming to church tomorrow but then they
have to leave to head home not long after that. I’m going to miss
having them here, it’s been crazy but enjoyable getting to meet new
people with such cool experiences from their past in Kamakwie.
Blessings from Sierra Leone, Africa
Ryan Brooks
P.S.
I was on Sierra Leone tv apparently, the Asher’s driver Steven was
here tonight, the poor man has run back and forth to Freetown
and Makeni so many times in the last week, and he said he saw me
on tv. Apparently they were showing some of the video from the
school celebration last week. I’m hoping to get a copy of it, Daniel
Turay told me that Principal HB might have a copy.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
November 12th
So this morning was fun. I’ve been enjoying chapel this week with the visiting
pastors have been giving the “thought for the day” message each morning. I know
that shouldn’t matter but I can’t understand half of the things pastor Jarr says
when she normally gives the message. Anyway, at about 10am we started the march
pass for the hospital celebration. It was crazy; there were hundreds upon
hundreds of kids. Most of the students from the Wesleyan schools, both primary
and secondary, were there. That alone was probably nearly a thousand. It was
similar to the march pass that the secondary school had, obviously larger, we
walked from the hospital to Kamakwie 3 and back. I got all the kids on video but
unfortunately you won’t be able see it for months, should you want to see it. In
order to get it I had to walk down the line of students, it’s still about a 7
minute video, and then when I had recorded it all I had to run back up to the
front where the hospital staff were. It felt kind of good running up there at
first but the instant I stopped the sweat just started running in rivers. I
should have just waited for them to turn around and come back to me. It also
left me feeling like crap for several hours, my body didn’t take well to the
exertion in this heat. But I feel fine now that it has cooled down and I went
for a little walk in the “bush” this evening before dinner. I met a man who
reminded me of ten second Tom from the movie 50 First Dates. I ran into him and
he said hello and asked my name, I told him my name and asked his. He said that
he loved my friends, which I think means he wants to be my friend. He then
proceeded to say hi, told me his name and asked for mine. I felt bad because he
didn’t seem to be all there, but I was laughing on the inside. Anyway, I
continued on my walk exploring some paths I hadn’t been on, probably not super
bright but I was told by one of the Africans the path I was following leads to
Kamakwie, and it did after I met a man who said his name was Mr. B.A. Turay he
lead me back to Kamakwie, I would have gotten there because he lead me along the
path I was going anyway, they like to lead you to where you are going if you ask
them how to get there. Mr. Turay told me he used to teach agriculture at the
Kamakwie Wesleyan School and is now a principal at another school, an all girls
Christian school. Then he started talking and said that God arranged our
meeting, because he needs assistance. Not that I know what I can do, he told me
his first need is a manual typewriter. I told him that I don’t know if I can be
any help at all, it’s not like I really have resources for things like that, and
the Ashers said they probably don’t even have manual typewriters here, let alone
electric typewriters. I’m supposed to talk with him later but I don’t know what
I can do really. I’ll just have to see what his other needs are to see if I can
help; he said he has a few. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him more because I
had to return home for dinner, I am supposed to talk to him later this week.
After dinner we went down to the hospital where they were showing a movie, they
are having one every night this week. Tonight they showed a slide show with some
photos from the hospital when it was built 50 years ago and some from the 60s as
well, it was kind of cool. They were going to show a Nigerian movie, which I’ve
been told are like extremely cheap soap operas. Apparently they have a term for
movies of the type, Nollywood. They are low budget movies produced usually in
one room of some place. I haven’t watched one yet, but I saw a bit of one and I
couldn’t stand it. Now Karen, Rebecca and I are watching 50 First Dates. We
paused momentarily to go down to the staff quarters where a bunch of women were
working on cooking the food for the celebration tomorrow. Can you imagine
cooking for 1500 people using nothing but camp fires and huge pots? They had
sooo much food, onions, carrots, green beans and a ridiculous amount of chicken.
I got a few pictures, it’s so much food! Anyway, going to finish the movie and
then go to bed. Have a great day!
Greetings from Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital,
Ryan Brooks
So this morning was fun. I’ve been enjoying chapel this week with the visiting
pastors have been giving the “thought for the day” message each morning. I know
that shouldn’t matter but I can’t understand half of the things pastor Jarr says
when she normally gives the message. Anyway, at about 10am we started the march
pass for the hospital celebration. It was crazy; there were hundreds upon
hundreds of kids. Most of the students from the Wesleyan schools, both primary
and secondary, were there. That alone was probably nearly a thousand. It was
similar to the march pass that the secondary school had, obviously larger, we
walked from the hospital to Kamakwie 3 and back. I got all the kids on video but
unfortunately you won’t be able see it for months, should you want to see it. In
order to get it I had to walk down the line of students, it’s still about a 7
minute video, and then when I had recorded it all I had to run back up to the
front where the hospital staff were. It felt kind of good running up there at
first but the instant I stopped the sweat just started running in rivers. I
should have just waited for them to turn around and come back to me. It also
left me feeling like crap for several hours, my body didn’t take well to the
exertion in this heat. But I feel fine now that it has cooled down and I went
for a little walk in the “bush” this evening before dinner. I met a man who
reminded me of ten second Tom from the movie 50 First Dates. I ran into him and
he said hello and asked my name, I told him my name and asked his. He said that
he loved my friends, which I think means he wants to be my friend. He then
proceeded to say hi, told me his name and asked for mine. I felt bad because he
didn’t seem to be all there, but I was laughing on the inside. Anyway, I
continued on my walk exploring some paths I hadn’t been on, probably not super
bright but I was told by one of the Africans the path I was following leads to
Kamakwie, and it did after I met a man who said his name was Mr. B.A. Turay he
lead me back to Kamakwie, I would have gotten there because he lead me along the
path I was going anyway, they like to lead you to where you are going if you ask
them how to get there. Mr. Turay told me he used to teach agriculture at the
Kamakwie Wesleyan School and is now a principal at another school, an all girls
Christian school. Then he started talking and said that God arranged our
meeting, because he needs assistance. Not that I know what I can do, he told me
his first need is a manual typewriter. I told him that I don’t know if I can be
any help at all, it’s not like I really have resources for things like that, and
the Ashers said they probably don’t even have manual typewriters here, let alone
electric typewriters. I’m supposed to talk with him later but I don’t know what
I can do really. I’ll just have to see what his other needs are to see if I can
help; he said he has a few. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him more because I
had to return home for dinner, I am supposed to talk to him later this week.
After dinner we went down to the hospital where they were showing a movie, they
are having one every night this week. Tonight they showed a slide show with some
photos from the hospital when it was built 50 years ago and some from the 60s as
well, it was kind of cool. They were going to show a Nigerian movie, which I’ve
been told are like extremely cheap soap operas. Apparently they have a term for
movies of the type, Nollywood. They are low budget movies produced usually in
one room of some place. I haven’t watched one yet, but I saw a bit of one and I
couldn’t stand it. Now Karen, Rebecca and I are watching 50 First Dates. We
paused momentarily to go down to the staff quarters where a bunch of women were
working on cooking the food for the celebration tomorrow. Can you imagine
cooking for 1500 people using nothing but camp fires and huge pots? They had
sooo much food, onions, carrots, green beans and a ridiculous amount of chicken.
I got a few pictures, it’s so much food! Anyway, going to finish the movie and
then go to bed. Have a great day!
Greetings from Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital,
Ryan Brooks
Thursday, November 11, 2010
November 11th
Today was another crazy day, very busy but it was a good day. We
went to chapel, on Thursdays they have a thing called
singspiration, instead of having a small daily message they sing
several hymns which was good. I don’t even remember all that I
did this morning; it’s a bit of a blur, helping Karen prepare food
and Tom find things, and some other stuff. I’m enjoying having all
the visitors and hearing their stories and sharing my own with
them, but it’s also crazy with 15 extra people. I had class today
finally, well, two kids anyway. I got to school at 1pm and there was
a grand total of 17 students, out of the approximately 300 kids
who are supposed to be there, and about 3 teachers. Principal
Kamara was there and he decided, thankfully, that we were gonna
go ahead and teach. I grabbed the two SS1 science students who
came and spent over an hour and a half getting to know them a
little bit and teaching them biology. I had a GIRL, Mary; there are
no others girls in my science students so that made me happy. I
hate to see that the girls don’t go to sciences, which I think is a
product of the male dominated society here. The other was a boy
named Baimba. It was a good session with them, they really
wanted me to teach them so they had notes to study, that made
me really happy inside. After that I came back and ran into the
Todd, one of visiting pastors, and we were chatting down in front
of the hospital when a car pulled up and they pulled out this lady
who sort of flopped onto the ground. The first thought through my
mind was “Uh, that’s not good” So Todd and I ran looking for Tom
because we found out she was a snakebite victim. He said it was a
red snake and I was like good, it wasn’t a green or black mamba. A
bite from a mamba is almost guaranteed to be fatal. Sadly, I found
out that the Africans call the green mamba a red snake, the
woman who was bitten did not make it. Setting up for dinner
tonight was super crazy; we had 21 people in one medium sized
dining room. The four of us, Tom, Karen, Rebecca and I, some
missionary doctors and pastors from the past, three of them in
their 80s, the work team of 8 people, Abu and Abdul, the two
Africans who eat with us. After dinner I got to talk a bit to Tom and
Linda Garber, who are two people from Itec, a missionary
engineering and power group. Linda spent 21 years in Papua-New
Guinea. Tomorrow is gonna be a crazy day, no school since they
are having the hospital march pass with all the kids from the
Wesleyan schools and 50 kids from all the other schools, plus all
the other stuff going on with the visitors. I have been getting
really frustrated with not being able to teach since that’s primarily
what I came to do. I was getting really mad with the teachers and
the students with all the school canceling and stuff, I felt like I
wasn’t accomplishing my job here. But after encouragement from
a few of the visitors I now feel like that as long as I’m doing
anything to advance the mission here, whether it’s teaching or
making it possible for Tom and Karen to accomplish their goals by
helping with their numerous responsibilities then I’m ok with it. I
came to teach, but not just science, but about Christ and the love
He has for us. I’m doing well and I am looking forward to the
things to come.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
Today was another crazy day, very busy but it was a good day. We
went to chapel, on Thursdays they have a thing called
singspiration, instead of having a small daily message they sing
several hymns which was good. I don’t even remember all that I
did this morning; it’s a bit of a blur, helping Karen prepare food
and Tom find things, and some other stuff. I’m enjoying having all
the visitors and hearing their stories and sharing my own with
them, but it’s also crazy with 15 extra people. I had class today
finally, well, two kids anyway. I got to school at 1pm and there was
a grand total of 17 students, out of the approximately 300 kids
who are supposed to be there, and about 3 teachers. Principal
Kamara was there and he decided, thankfully, that we were gonna
go ahead and teach. I grabbed the two SS1 science students who
came and spent over an hour and a half getting to know them a
little bit and teaching them biology. I had a GIRL, Mary; there are
no others girls in my science students so that made me happy. I
hate to see that the girls don’t go to sciences, which I think is a
product of the male dominated society here. The other was a boy
named Baimba. It was a good session with them, they really
wanted me to teach them so they had notes to study, that made
me really happy inside. After that I came back and ran into the
Todd, one of visiting pastors, and we were chatting down in front
of the hospital when a car pulled up and they pulled out this lady
who sort of flopped onto the ground. The first thought through my
mind was “Uh, that’s not good” So Todd and I ran looking for Tom
because we found out she was a snakebite victim. He said it was a
red snake and I was like good, it wasn’t a green or black mamba. A
bite from a mamba is almost guaranteed to be fatal. Sadly, I found
out that the Africans call the green mamba a red snake, the
woman who was bitten did not make it. Setting up for dinner
tonight was super crazy; we had 21 people in one medium sized
dining room. The four of us, Tom, Karen, Rebecca and I, some
missionary doctors and pastors from the past, three of them in
their 80s, the work team of 8 people, Abu and Abdul, the two
Africans who eat with us. After dinner I got to talk a bit to Tom and
Linda Garber, who are two people from Itec, a missionary
engineering and power group. Linda spent 21 years in Papua-New
Guinea. Tomorrow is gonna be a crazy day, no school since they
are having the hospital march pass with all the kids from the
Wesleyan schools and 50 kids from all the other schools, plus all
the other stuff going on with the visitors. I have been getting
really frustrated with not being able to teach since that’s primarily
what I came to do. I was getting really mad with the teachers and
the students with all the school canceling and stuff, I felt like I
wasn’t accomplishing my job here. But after encouragement from
a few of the visitors I now feel like that as long as I’m doing
anything to advance the mission here, whether it’s teaching or
making it possible for Tom and Karen to accomplish their goals by
helping with their numerous responsibilities then I’m ok with it. I
came to teach, but not just science, but about Christ and the love
He has for us. I’m doing well and I am looking forward to the
things to come.
Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
November 10th
I’m going to start out with a funny story that happened
yesterday but I forgot to share about it. I went to meet with
Pastor Jarr, the hospital chaplain. She was formerly a Muslim
and I’ve been trying to figure out what that means in order to
better understand what is going on here. So we went to her
office and talked to her for a bit and she told me a bit about her
childhood and how being a Muslim impacted her as a child and
how she came to be a Christian. After she finished her
testimony, she asked if she could pray and I said sure. She
proceeded to pray that I would receive Christ… Oh Pastor Jarr,
a very nice lady but I’m not quite sure she understood what I
was asking. I thanked her and left because I had no idea how to
respond, haha. You’d think that my being here would be a hint
that I might likely be Christian but I suppose that not all people
come here, a lady named Kim, from our trip through Makeni with
Karen, told us the story of a medical student who had come to
Sierra Leone a non-Christian. He had a terrible drinking problem
and would get into fights. One night he got into a fight and was
punched in the nose. His drinking had impaired his ability to clot
and he very nearly died of blood loss from his nose. This
experience affected him so deeply that his life was totally
altered, he became Christian and is now a pastor.
So, I had a really crazy but good day. I think I walked to and from
the hospital from the house like 20 times today. It’s only like a 4
minute walk or something but it’s quite a walk in the heat. But
today thankfully was a fairly cool day, not that it wasn’t warm but
there was a nice light breeze that would come and go. I went to
chapel at the hospital, but getting the Asher’s generator running
and getting some stuff for the clinic I got there just in time for it to
be over. Today, as part of the celebration, the hospital was
offering a free clinic for everyone to come and have the basics
checked, blood sugar, blood pressure and eye sight. I spent about
20 minutes helping set up then I had to up to the house to shut off
the generator and get it over to the house where the work team
was building the beds. Which I might add is pretty impressive. The
wood they are working with is rough cut, and they have to plane it
down, and then try to cut it to the right size, no two pieces are the
same thickness. It’s pretty impressive. The clinic was supposed to
go from 10 – 12, and I was going to be down there to help, but
several times Kadiatu, the cook Karen hires, called me or Karen
because she couldn’t find something so I had to come back up and
sort it out. Then I would go back down only to have to do
something else. It was nice though because without school today
and no planned activities to do I was afraid I would just sit and feel
homesick like I tend to when I don’t have anything to do. The clinic
ended up running later, till about 12:40 and when we tried to close
it up the nationals decided that they wanted to keep it open, there
were people still waiting to be seen. The doctors and the visitors
needed to stop because many of them were going off to another
village nearby to have a clinic in the afternoon. I spent the
afternoon running about doing errands, running here and there;
again I enjoyed having stuff to do if a bit hot. I have a request,
there seems to be a real attack by Satan on our efforts here, things
have been breaking down with such frequency that it just doesn’t
seem normal. The sink faucet broke, several times. The 110
electric system has gone down several times in the last 6 days,
without which we can’t store all the food we need to feed the
guests who are here. Of the three generators the hospital has only
one of them works, the water filter broke today but I managed to
fix it. In the house where the guests have been trying to work on
building the bunk beds, that the 11 nursing students who are
coming are supposed to sleep in, has had a ton of trouble with
wires shorting out. So my request is that you would pray for
the work here and that we would manage to keep serving and
reaching out to the people here. Some new strangers came
tonight for the celebration; there are a few more coming still.
Then the people who went out to the clinic got back, it rained
again and it kept them from showing the Jesus film sadly, but
they got to see over 140 people, so they now know if they
need to seek medical treatment and or to get glasses, which
will hopefully be ready by December. Karen finally got her
machine (the last one she got was broken) that measures the
glasses strength and we got about 70 pairs measured today. I
had to chase some kids away from the house the team is
staying because they were trying to lift some of the smaller
bits of the wood, I was afraid that if they thought they could
get away with smaller bits that they might get the idea to try
and get some of the bigger bits. Oh, I worked on one of the
bunk beds with Bud and several of the kids, which was an
interesting experience since the kids were having trouble
understanding what to do. Hopefully there will be school
tomorrow, though the school lost their football game today,
they might decide to take a day off for “mourning” haha.
Anyway, have a great night everyone!
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
I’m going to start out with a funny story that happened
yesterday but I forgot to share about it. I went to meet with
Pastor Jarr, the hospital chaplain. She was formerly a Muslim
and I’ve been trying to figure out what that means in order to
better understand what is going on here. So we went to her
office and talked to her for a bit and she told me a bit about her
childhood and how being a Muslim impacted her as a child and
how she came to be a Christian. After she finished her
testimony, she asked if she could pray and I said sure. She
proceeded to pray that I would receive Christ… Oh Pastor Jarr,
a very nice lady but I’m not quite sure she understood what I
was asking. I thanked her and left because I had no idea how to
respond, haha. You’d think that my being here would be a hint
that I might likely be Christian but I suppose that not all people
come here, a lady named Kim, from our trip through Makeni with
Karen, told us the story of a medical student who had come to
Sierra Leone a non-Christian. He had a terrible drinking problem
and would get into fights. One night he got into a fight and was
punched in the nose. His drinking had impaired his ability to clot
and he very nearly died of blood loss from his nose. This
experience affected him so deeply that his life was totally
altered, he became Christian and is now a pastor.
So, I had a really crazy but good day. I think I walked to and from
the hospital from the house like 20 times today. It’s only like a 4
minute walk or something but it’s quite a walk in the heat. But
today thankfully was a fairly cool day, not that it wasn’t warm but
there was a nice light breeze that would come and go. I went to
chapel at the hospital, but getting the Asher’s generator running
and getting some stuff for the clinic I got there just in time for it to
be over. Today, as part of the celebration, the hospital was
offering a free clinic for everyone to come and have the basics
checked, blood sugar, blood pressure and eye sight. I spent about
20 minutes helping set up then I had to up to the house to shut off
the generator and get it over to the house where the work team
was building the beds. Which I might add is pretty impressive. The
wood they are working with is rough cut, and they have to plane it
down, and then try to cut it to the right size, no two pieces are the
same thickness. It’s pretty impressive. The clinic was supposed to
go from 10 – 12, and I was going to be down there to help, but
several times Kadiatu, the cook Karen hires, called me or Karen
because she couldn’t find something so I had to come back up and
sort it out. Then I would go back down only to have to do
something else. It was nice though because without school today
and no planned activities to do I was afraid I would just sit and feel
homesick like I tend to when I don’t have anything to do. The clinic
ended up running later, till about 12:40 and when we tried to close
it up the nationals decided that they wanted to keep it open, there
were people still waiting to be seen. The doctors and the visitors
needed to stop because many of them were going off to another
village nearby to have a clinic in the afternoon. I spent the
afternoon running about doing errands, running here and there;
again I enjoyed having stuff to do if a bit hot. I have a request,
there seems to be a real attack by Satan on our efforts here, things
have been breaking down with such frequency that it just doesn’t
seem normal. The sink faucet broke, several times. The 110
electric system has gone down several times in the last 6 days,
without which we can’t store all the food we need to feed the
guests who are here. Of the three generators the hospital has only
one of them works, the water filter broke today but I managed to
fix it. In the house where the guests have been trying to work on
building the bunk beds, that the 11 nursing students who are
coming are supposed to sleep in, has had a ton of trouble with
wires shorting out. So my request is that you would pray for
the work here and that we would manage to keep serving and
reaching out to the people here. Some new strangers came
tonight for the celebration; there are a few more coming still.
Then the people who went out to the clinic got back, it rained
again and it kept them from showing the Jesus film sadly, but
they got to see over 140 people, so they now know if they
need to seek medical treatment and or to get glasses, which
will hopefully be ready by December. Karen finally got her
machine (the last one she got was broken) that measures the
glasses strength and we got about 70 pairs measured today. I
had to chase some kids away from the house the team is
staying because they were trying to lift some of the smaller
bits of the wood, I was afraid that if they thought they could
get away with smaller bits that they might get the idea to try
and get some of the bigger bits. Oh, I worked on one of the
bunk beds with Bud and several of the kids, which was an
interesting experience since the kids were having trouble
understanding what to do. Hopefully there will be school
tomorrow, though the school lost their football game today,
they might decide to take a day off for “mourning” haha.
Anyway, have a great night everyone!
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Sorry this is out of order but i didn't get a message from Ryan before I went to bed yesterday and so I read the 9th before the 8th :)
November 8th
So today was pretty much a normal day. I started out not feeling
well but that passed after I got to school and started teaching. I
haven’t had class since last Tuesday so I think that I had let myself
get all anxious about teaching again. It’s crazy with all the guests
here, especially the work team, because now we have all the
normal responsibilities plus having to make sure they have
everything they need so that they can do the work they came to
do. I still haven’t had my SS1 students, today was some sort of
orientation day, but really the students just sat in a classroom
chatting about whatever and whenever a teacher felt like talking
with them they went in and talked to them. I went in and
introduced myself to them, and I told them I have great
expectations, I told them I expect them to attend every day, to
study outside of class and to be ready to work hard and if they
weren’t willing then they should go to commercial instead of
science. I hate to be that way but the kids don’t know enough and
unless they are really dedicated to learning then they are just
doing themselves a disservice by trying to do science. They really
need people in the sciences here but I would rather see them
succeed at commercial than fail at science. Anyway, after classes I
took Rebecca to get a watch as hers had died and then went over
to the place the work team is staying and talked with them till
dinner. Then this evening Dr. Princel(sp?) arrived, he is 88 years
old, he came with his 62 year old son. He was here years ago when
the hospital was founded. No classes tomorrow, they are having
“games” tomorrow and so no classes, I’ve been here month and
still haven’t had a full week of class. But yeah that’s about all for
today; I did a bunch of things but pretty mundane tasks. Thanks to
all who continue to write and share with me about how things are
at home, I was told someone that people aren’t writing me for fear
of making me homesick but I really enjoy hearing about what’s
going on at home, then I don’t feel so much like I’m missing things.
Blessings from Sierra Leone
Ryan Brooks
November 8th
So today was pretty much a normal day. I started out not feeling
well but that passed after I got to school and started teaching. I
haven’t had class since last Tuesday so I think that I had let myself
get all anxious about teaching again. It’s crazy with all the guests
here, especially the work team, because now we have all the
normal responsibilities plus having to make sure they have
everything they need so that they can do the work they came to
do. I still haven’t had my SS1 students, today was some sort of
orientation day, but really the students just sat in a classroom
chatting about whatever and whenever a teacher felt like talking
with them they went in and talked to them. I went in and
introduced myself to them, and I told them I have great
expectations, I told them I expect them to attend every day, to
study outside of class and to be ready to work hard and if they
weren’t willing then they should go to commercial instead of
science. I hate to be that way but the kids don’t know enough and
unless they are really dedicated to learning then they are just
doing themselves a disservice by trying to do science. They really
need people in the sciences here but I would rather see them
succeed at commercial than fail at science. Anyway, after classes I
took Rebecca to get a watch as hers had died and then went over
to the place the work team is staying and talked with them till
dinner. Then this evening Dr. Princel(sp?) arrived, he is 88 years
old, he came with his 62 year old son. He was here years ago when
the hospital was founded. No classes tomorrow, they are having
“games” tomorrow and so no classes, I’ve been here month and
still haven’t had a full week of class. But yeah that’s about all for
today; I did a bunch of things but pretty mundane tasks. Thanks to
all who continue to write and share with me about how things are
at home, I was told someone that people aren’t writing me for fear
of making me homesick but I really enjoy hearing about what’s
going on at home, then I don’t feel so much like I’m missing things.
Blessings from Sierra Leone
Ryan Brooks
November 9th
So today was an interesting day, I spent half the morning running
all over making sure things were going properly with the
generator, Karen’s phone, the visitors project, etc… But at least it
was a little breezy today, enough to take a little bit of an edge off
of the heat, not enough to keep me from sweating profusely. I
spent the other half of the morning reading because I was just
bored having gotten everything settled and class was canceled
today. Lunch was interesting, the last two days we’ve had rice and
“soup” African style, the soup consists of some limp greens, fish
bits, chicken, palm oil and a few other tidbits. It does not too bad
taste but it just turns my stomach looking at it so I’ve just been
eating the rice plain, which is really good anyway. Eating at a table
with 14 people is kind of nice; you get to hear all kinds of stories
and tales about the past, other mission trips they’ve taken, etc.
After lunch I read again for a while, I’m not a big fan of this whole
canceling class thing, partly because I am annoyed that I came to
teach and partly because when I don’t have anything to do I get
homesick. You’d think after a month that I’d be getting over that
but I just think It’s because all of you back home mean so very
much to me. Anyway, I don’t mean to be a downer, because I am
really enjoying the experiences I am having here, and I love getting
to hang out with the friends I’m making. One thing that I haven’t
shared but that is really annoying me about their school system is
that if a kid comes to school late, they get sent home, or if they
come with an improper uniform, they get sent home, if they don’t
come with the right materials, they get sent home. You get the
picture? One of their forms of “punishment” is sending kids home
anyone else see the flaw in that? It’s bad enough they cancel
school at least once a week. /end rant. Moving on, at about 3
Daniel Turay came by and brought me two pictures that were
taken at the celebration. Then we went down to the market and
walked all over to look for Thermos, the things break so easily, I
was going to bring some home because they are great at keeping
things hot but they are way too fragile. Anyway, we finally found
one and brought it home to Karen, on the way up we came across
a group of guys who had managed to catch a kingfisher, a beautiful
blue and black bird with a red beak. They tried to sell it to me, but
when I refused to pay anything they gave it to me. I set it free, but
not before getting pictures and naming it Markus, unfortunately
Abu managed to somehow wipe all the pictures I took today off
my camera and so I don’t have them… which makes me sad.
Anyway, we went to a soccer game between the Kamakwie
Wesleyan School and one of the Islamic schools. Before the
game Daniel showed me a guest house (sort of like a hotel)
that is supposed to be a reproduction of the White House, in
small scale of course. At least these pictures can be retaken.
The game ended 0-0 so it wasn’t very exciting but I saw several
of my friends which was good. When we came back Markus
(the kingfisher) was still around and I took some more pictures
(which are also gone) and then took him to see Lynda who loves
birds before letting him go further away from the huts or he
would end up as stew. Well, that’s about all I have for today.
Thinking about you all and praying that life is going well back home.
Greetings and Blessings from Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital
Ryan Brooks
So today was an interesting day, I spent half the morning running
all over making sure things were going properly with the
generator, Karen’s phone, the visitors project, etc… But at least it
was a little breezy today, enough to take a little bit of an edge off
of the heat, not enough to keep me from sweating profusely. I
spent the other half of the morning reading because I was just
bored having gotten everything settled and class was canceled
today. Lunch was interesting, the last two days we’ve had rice and
“soup” African style, the soup consists of some limp greens, fish
bits, chicken, palm oil and a few other tidbits. It does not too bad
taste but it just turns my stomach looking at it so I’ve just been
eating the rice plain, which is really good anyway. Eating at a table
with 14 people is kind of nice; you get to hear all kinds of stories
and tales about the past, other mission trips they’ve taken, etc.
After lunch I read again for a while, I’m not a big fan of this whole
canceling class thing, partly because I am annoyed that I came to
teach and partly because when I don’t have anything to do I get
homesick. You’d think after a month that I’d be getting over that
but I just think It’s because all of you back home mean so very
much to me. Anyway, I don’t mean to be a downer, because I am
really enjoying the experiences I am having here, and I love getting
to hang out with the friends I’m making. One thing that I haven’t
shared but that is really annoying me about their school system is
that if a kid comes to school late, they get sent home, or if they
come with an improper uniform, they get sent home, if they don’t
come with the right materials, they get sent home. You get the
picture? One of their forms of “punishment” is sending kids home
anyone else see the flaw in that? It’s bad enough they cancel
school at least once a week. /end rant. Moving on, at about 3
Daniel Turay came by and brought me two pictures that were
taken at the celebration. Then we went down to the market and
walked all over to look for Thermos, the things break so easily, I
was going to bring some home because they are great at keeping
things hot but they are way too fragile. Anyway, we finally found
one and brought it home to Karen, on the way up we came across
a group of guys who had managed to catch a kingfisher, a beautiful
blue and black bird with a red beak. They tried to sell it to me, but
when I refused to pay anything they gave it to me. I set it free, but
not before getting pictures and naming it Markus, unfortunately
Abu managed to somehow wipe all the pictures I took today off
my camera and so I don’t have them… which makes me sad.
Anyway, we went to a soccer game between the Kamakwie
Wesleyan School and one of the Islamic schools. Before the
game Daniel showed me a guest house (sort of like a hotel)
that is supposed to be a reproduction of the White House, in
small scale of course. At least these pictures can be retaken.
The game ended 0-0 so it wasn’t very exciting but I saw several
of my friends which was good. When we came back Markus
(the kingfisher) was still around and I took some more pictures
(which are also gone) and then took him to see Lynda who loves
birds before letting him go further away from the huts or he
would end up as stew. Well, that’s about all I have for today.
Thinking about you all and praying that life is going well back home.
Greetings and Blessings from Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital
Ryan Brooks
Sunday, November 7, 2010
November 7th
So, I had an interesting day. Church went pretty well and I enjoyed
it for the most part. I went to the Katherie church today, Karen had
me lead the group to the church, which I did not do so well, I had
only been there once and it was my second day in Kamakwie and
here I am a month in. However we got a girl to help us get there
and I had actually been on the right path, just going the long way.
It was a much better experience this go around since I wasn’t
sulking in self-pity the whole time. They had like five offerings
today, they collect a general one, one for the parsonage they are
trying to build, they had a kids choir, a youth choir and a young
adult choir all sing and each time they collected an offering for the
youth for some retreat I think. The sermon was over 2 Timothy
3:1-4, though it was in Krio so I didn’t actually understand it really.
They sing a lot of songs, some English some Krio, but I can’t
understand either. However, they also sing some hymns at the
church, which is good because they have some hymnals and I can
actually participate. Today they sung two hymns that were really
appropriate, Are You Washed in the Blood, and ‘Tis So Sweet to
Trust in Jesus. Both of them were really good reminders that I
really need to trust in Jesus. I had never heard the first one but I
knew the second one. Anyway, after church we headed home,
unfortunately it was around this time that I began to develop a
migraine, which is still troubling me almost 12 hours later. I took
some Excedrin but that really only curbed it some, so I spent a lot
of time inside relaxing. The problem with that is that in this heat
you can’t ever really properly relax because you still sweat sitting
around. I had to go to town to get some bread and a new plug for
a fan we have here that wasn’t working, and still isn’t despite the
new plug. Osman saw me and walked along down with me and we
talked a bit about his being Muslim. However his responses
confused me, he says he’s Muslim, but believes Jesus is God’s son
and God as a man. Which I thought is the big point of contention,
that the Muslims believe Jesus was no more than another prophet.
Today was actually a pretty slow day relatively, I did a lot of things
and was fairly busy but it was all pretty mundane. Oh, Tom tried to
put in the new faucet that they brought from Freetown and it
broke. The stuff here is so low quality it’s often frustrating. Today
was a good day as a whole, ignoring the headache, I mean
considering it’s only my second migraine, and second real
headache, since I’ve been here so I’m not complaining, I usually
have headaches quite frequently at home. Anyway, I am doing
well and I love being here, but I hate missing you all. I look
forward to the day I return home so I can see you all again. But
until then, I pray that God blesses you all and keeps you all safe,
and that I can accomplish what He has planned for me here.
God’s blessing be upon you,
Ryan Brooks
So, I had an interesting day. Church went pretty well and I enjoyed
it for the most part. I went to the Katherie church today, Karen had
me lead the group to the church, which I did not do so well, I had
only been there once and it was my second day in Kamakwie and
here I am a month in. However we got a girl to help us get there
and I had actually been on the right path, just going the long way.
It was a much better experience this go around since I wasn’t
sulking in self-pity the whole time. They had like five offerings
today, they collect a general one, one for the parsonage they are
trying to build, they had a kids choir, a youth choir and a young
adult choir all sing and each time they collected an offering for the
youth for some retreat I think. The sermon was over 2 Timothy
3:1-4, though it was in Krio so I didn’t actually understand it really.
They sing a lot of songs, some English some Krio, but I can’t
understand either. However, they also sing some hymns at the
church, which is good because they have some hymnals and I can
actually participate. Today they sung two hymns that were really
appropriate, Are You Washed in the Blood, and ‘Tis So Sweet to
Trust in Jesus. Both of them were really good reminders that I
really need to trust in Jesus. I had never heard the first one but I
knew the second one. Anyway, after church we headed home,
unfortunately it was around this time that I began to develop a
migraine, which is still troubling me almost 12 hours later. I took
some Excedrin but that really only curbed it some, so I spent a lot
of time inside relaxing. The problem with that is that in this heat
you can’t ever really properly relax because you still sweat sitting
around. I had to go to town to get some bread and a new plug for
a fan we have here that wasn’t working, and still isn’t despite the
new plug. Osman saw me and walked along down with me and we
talked a bit about his being Muslim. However his responses
confused me, he says he’s Muslim, but believes Jesus is God’s son
and God as a man. Which I thought is the big point of contention,
that the Muslims believe Jesus was no more than another prophet.
Today was actually a pretty slow day relatively, I did a lot of things
and was fairly busy but it was all pretty mundane. Oh, Tom tried to
put in the new faucet that they brought from Freetown and it
broke. The stuff here is so low quality it’s often frustrating. Today
was a good day as a whole, ignoring the headache, I mean
considering it’s only my second migraine, and second real
headache, since I’ve been here so I’m not complaining, I usually
have headaches quite frequently at home. Anyway, I am doing
well and I love being here, but I hate missing you all. I look
forward to the day I return home so I can see you all again. But
until then, I pray that God blesses you all and keeps you all safe,
and that I can accomplish what He has planned for me here.
God’s blessing be upon you,
Ryan Brooks
Saturday, November 6, 2010
November 6th
So, today had an interesting start. Since Karen was gone getting
Tom and the other strangers Rebecca and I had to fend for
ourselves for breakfast. After eating I was doing the dishes and
had just finished up and went to rinse out the sink, I grabbed the
little knob that you turn and I hadn’t even applied enough
pressure for it to turn and it came off in my hand and water
started spewing out of the now broken faucet. I stood stunned for
a few second as the water got all over, and then I remembered the
shut off valve just outside the window so I ran and turned it off. I
went to find Samuel, who is an accountant, though he seems to
handle managing the employees and making sure a lot of the work
gets done around the hospital. He arranged to have the plumber
come by later so I went for a bit of a walk because it was nice and
cool this morning, part of the way downtown Samuel came by on
his motor bike and asked me if I wanted a ride, not that it was very
far or anything. I almost said no, the roads are pretty iffy and I was
afraid that if I got on one we would wreck and having no helmets I
figured it would be safer not to ride. But then I decided to suck it
up and ride, I spend so much time being afraid and worrying that I
decided I was sick of it and I just got on. It was fun, though we only
went a few hundred yards. I wandered the market a bit trying to
get over being annoyed about the whole faucet thing. I found a
nice dress shirt which was good, the two I have just weren’t
enough with how hot it is. Anyway, I was just grabbing some bread
for Rebecca and I to have for lunch when Samuel showed back up
and gave me a ride up to my house because he said the plumber
was there and needed in. It was fun but a little nerve-wracking in
places where the road has ruts the whole way across, but I
obviously made it safely. It was fun; I actually look forward to
getting to ride again. Abdul says he wants to teach me to drive
one, and Tom says he’s going to teach me to drive standard
because all the cars here are standard. After that I spent a few
hours working on school stuff, grading a quiz I gave and some
math assignments. While I was doing this Osman came by and
wanted me to play with him and his friends. He also brought me
four or five limes. I told him I had work to do so he left, but not
for long, about an hour later he was back and sat there with me
while I finished grading. After completing that Osman and I went
for a walk. I met his mother, Marion, his elder sister and saw his
younger sister who was apparently terrified of me because she did
not want to come near, speaking of terrifying, when I was at the
market earlier this little kid came up to me and asked “Matthew?”
I said, no, Ryan. And he immediately began bawling and ran to
hide behind his mom. Apparently there is a little kid who was
terrified of Matthew, who was 6’2” and before he left the kid
started warming up to him, but apparently a new white man was
too much for him. Haha. I felt bad that he was crying but I hadn’t
really done anything. Anyway, Osman’s mother is a nurse and is
trying to transfer from where she works in Freetown to here in
Kamakwie so she can be with her kids. She also had pretty grand
plans to build a house, but it’s going to cost a lot of money.
Anyway, from there Osman and I went to Pa Kanu’s to get a cold
Vimto, though cold doesn’t strictly apply in this case, it’s more of a
not warm. After that I sent Osman on his way and headed home,
where Saidu was waiting for me, he told me he would be there at
four to take me down to the field where they play soccer and he
was. So Rebecca, Saidu and I all went down there, I didn’t play
but I would like to sometime, though I will be absolutely awful
compared to them, since they play ALL the time. Rebecca and I
came back up to the house at about 5:30 to await the arrival of
Karen, Tom and the guests. We waited till nearly 7 and decided to
call, which was good, Karen gave us instructions to prepare food
since they wouldn’t be in until half nine as Rebecca would say
(9:30, it’s apparently a British thing). I always though half
*whatever number*, say 5, meant that it was half of five as in 4:30
but I was mistaken. It was fun getting to meet the work team who
have come to build bunk bed., Jeannine, Jessica, Bud, Judy, Carol,
Don and Jim were all over for dinner, apparently there is a man
named Todd but he wasn’t up for dinner. Anyway, that’s about it
for today’s adventures I hope things are going well for you all.
Greetings from Kamakwie,
Ryan
So, today had an interesting start. Since Karen was gone getting
Tom and the other strangers Rebecca and I had to fend for
ourselves for breakfast. After eating I was doing the dishes and
had just finished up and went to rinse out the sink, I grabbed the
little knob that you turn and I hadn’t even applied enough
pressure for it to turn and it came off in my hand and water
started spewing out of the now broken faucet. I stood stunned for
a few second as the water got all over, and then I remembered the
shut off valve just outside the window so I ran and turned it off. I
went to find Samuel, who is an accountant, though he seems to
handle managing the employees and making sure a lot of the work
gets done around the hospital. He arranged to have the plumber
come by later so I went for a bit of a walk because it was nice and
cool this morning, part of the way downtown Samuel came by on
his motor bike and asked me if I wanted a ride, not that it was very
far or anything. I almost said no, the roads are pretty iffy and I was
afraid that if I got on one we would wreck and having no helmets I
figured it would be safer not to ride. But then I decided to suck it
up and ride, I spend so much time being afraid and worrying that I
decided I was sick of it and I just got on. It was fun, though we only
went a few hundred yards. I wandered the market a bit trying to
get over being annoyed about the whole faucet thing. I found a
nice dress shirt which was good, the two I have just weren’t
enough with how hot it is. Anyway, I was just grabbing some bread
for Rebecca and I to have for lunch when Samuel showed back up
and gave me a ride up to my house because he said the plumber
was there and needed in. It was fun but a little nerve-wracking in
places where the road has ruts the whole way across, but I
obviously made it safely. It was fun; I actually look forward to
getting to ride again. Abdul says he wants to teach me to drive
one, and Tom says he’s going to teach me to drive standard
because all the cars here are standard. After that I spent a few
hours working on school stuff, grading a quiz I gave and some
math assignments. While I was doing this Osman came by and
wanted me to play with him and his friends. He also brought me
four or five limes. I told him I had work to do so he left, but not
for long, about an hour later he was back and sat there with me
while I finished grading. After completing that Osman and I went
for a walk. I met his mother, Marion, his elder sister and saw his
younger sister who was apparently terrified of me because she did
not want to come near, speaking of terrifying, when I was at the
market earlier this little kid came up to me and asked “Matthew?”
I said, no, Ryan. And he immediately began bawling and ran to
hide behind his mom. Apparently there is a little kid who was
terrified of Matthew, who was 6’2” and before he left the kid
started warming up to him, but apparently a new white man was
too much for him. Haha. I felt bad that he was crying but I hadn’t
really done anything. Anyway, Osman’s mother is a nurse and is
trying to transfer from where she works in Freetown to here in
Kamakwie so she can be with her kids. She also had pretty grand
plans to build a house, but it’s going to cost a lot of money.
Anyway, from there Osman and I went to Pa Kanu’s to get a cold
Vimto, though cold doesn’t strictly apply in this case, it’s more of a
not warm. After that I sent Osman on his way and headed home,
where Saidu was waiting for me, he told me he would be there at
four to take me down to the field where they play soccer and he
was. So Rebecca, Saidu and I all went down there, I didn’t play
but I would like to sometime, though I will be absolutely awful
compared to them, since they play ALL the time. Rebecca and I
came back up to the house at about 5:30 to await the arrival of
Karen, Tom and the guests. We waited till nearly 7 and decided to
call, which was good, Karen gave us instructions to prepare food
since they wouldn’t be in until half nine as Rebecca would say
(9:30, it’s apparently a British thing). I always though half
*whatever number*, say 5, meant that it was half of five as in 4:30
but I was mistaken. It was fun getting to meet the work team who
have come to build bunk bed., Jeannine, Jessica, Bud, Judy, Carol,
Don and Jim were all over for dinner, apparently there is a man
named Todd but he wasn’t up for dinner. Anyway, that’s about it
for today’s adventures I hope things are going well for you all.
Greetings from Kamakwie,
Ryan
November 5th
This is going to be a bit of a long one, lots happened today. So I
might as well start here, this morning I inadvertently referred to
Karen as old… though she didn’t make comment on it. I had been
explaining that Patches (cat) had killed a praying mantis (didn’t
even know they had them here) and was being very defensive,
growling if you even came near her. Karen said it was ok because
they aren’t endangered here, but when I said that it still made me
sad because I think they are really cool. Karen proceeded to tell
me that she hated them because when she was young she made a
bug collection for a project and hadn’t known they were
endangered. The teacher told her she should have known and
gave her a zero on the project. I proceeded to shove my foot in my
mouth, I said “praying mantises were endangered back when you
went to school” making it sound like it was a really long time ago…
so yeah… Anyway, yesterday after the march pass I was told I
should go to the school this morning at 8am because they were
going to have speakers and stuff for the celebration, so I went over
to the school to see random students milling around in plain
clothes. I was quite confused especially since I was already late
and there were only a few teachers there. I talked to Abdul and he
told me that the speeches and stuff were later in the day after
lunch and that being there at 8am was just to get the rice for the
meal they have to cook. The school provided all the rice that they
needed but they were responsible for everything else. These
teachers here keep telling me all kinds of things, it’s like they don’t
even communicate with each other on stuff. Whatever, anyway it
was ok because I just headed out from the school with them and
wandered around with them as they were completing some tasks
to get ready for the meal later. I spent about two hours with them
before coming back up to the hospital at 10 to run the Asher’s
generator for 2 hours. I’m the power master since she hates the
generator sound and Tom is busy most of the time at the hospital.
My students (both classes) have invited me to eat with them, but
the 3s asked first and I had already agreed, I didn’t feel like I
should go back on my word. If they had asked simultaneously I’m
not sure which group I would have chosen, because they are all
great kids. Ha, kids, listen to me, they are not that much younger
than me, about 5 or 6 years I suppose. I’m sad I can’t share this
with you today because it was a great experience, but what’s one
day matter. I went to the school around 1pm, with my students. I
ran into Daniel Bangura (I’m going to use last names in the case of
the Daniels, since there are two of them), he said he had been
looking for me, apparently we are going to be friends now even
though we just met yesterday, though who am I to comment on
that, one of my best friends is someone I’ve only know for like 8
weeks or something, haha. So he came to eat with me and my
students. As for the food, they made me a special dish (by they I
mean Saidu’s mom, who cooked all their food), why I’m not sure
because the only thing I told them was that I was not big on fish
and it still had fish in it. Anyway, it was pretty good, but like most
African food it had peppers in it, so it was hot and I don’t deal
with spicy well. I ate what I could but I could feel it was already
not sitting well. But we had crackers, bananas and popcorn which
really helped take away they burning sensation. After eating
some of them started telling stories about how certain things came
to be, like creation fables, most of the time I couldn’t follow very
well though. After story telling Daniel Turay (an SS 3 commercial
student though he‘s apparently good friends with my threes
because he helped them plan the meal, get the ingredients and ate
with us) said he wanted to go for a walk about the school and show
me around. We saw the field where the games will be early next
week, Tuesday I think, they have a basketball “court” which was half
paved and the other half was pitted grass and the pole had no hoop
on it. Then I saw the school chapel which needs some serious work,
it is in very poor condition. We wandered back into the school from
there to wait for the speaking to begin. We didn’t wait long, and
then Daniel Turay led me over to the table where the JSS and SSS
principals were sitting, and told me to sit… I was like WHAT?!?! I had
to sit in the middle of the area in front of many hundreds of the
students. (JSS has 700 and the SSS is at least 300) granted they
probably weren’t all there but I think we were pretty close to that.
So I was pretty stressed, considering how bad they’ve been about
springing things on me I was terrified they were going to make me say
something. I may have shared my testimony in front of 300 people but
that was hard enough knowing it was coming. But the JSS principal HB
assuaged my fears by telling me they just had me sit there because
most of the guests they’d invited didn’t turn up. I was still pretty
uncomfortable but manageably so. It was really cool, they had speakers
and a couple of groups of students sing few songs, then we saw a
traditional dance called the Samba, it was very… interesting. Daniel
Turay spoke and talked about the schools past and the principals, it was
a good history lesson, and he said he likes to call the Ashers the blessed
ones, because of everything they’ve done here. And the JSS principal
commented on how much the Ashers have helped. I wish they could
have been there to hear the praise, because they really deserve it,
it’s God’s work and His plan, but the fact that they are so open and
willing to follow Him is inspirational. The celebration ended not long
after the JSS principal spoke and I finally returned home at about
4:30ish and then had to take care of some things. I got a call from
Karen telling me they had some trouble getting the vehicles across to
the airport via the ferry, namely because of unforeseen circumstances
cost them and hour and a half in Makeni and only one vehicle made it
onto the ferry, one vehicle to pick up 9 people and their luggage…
they needed vehicles because it’s about a 15 minute drive from the
airport to the ferry, I couldn’t imagine walking the distance with luggage
after a 24 hour trip, I know I was exhausted. So I had to let the Mahrs
know just in case Tom called them for some reason. At about 6:15
Rebecca and I went down to meet Zoey and Isha (a lady Zoey works
with at Health Poverty Action) to go eat at a place in town since
Karen and Tom are both gone. We had some grilled meat, presumably
beef from the flavor but I’m not going to put too much thought into
that subject. We got bread with mayonnaise and made sandwiches
which were good and then we had something akin to peanut brittle,
but not hard and not as sweet, and it was really good! We walked down
this store where they sell cold drinks after we finished eating, and had
my first experience with cider, which is apparently not the same in
England (and therefore here). I had thought of apple cider, but it’s
actually a fermented apple drink with low alcohol content, again not
what I really expected. It was ok but not particularly good. I’d much
rather have apple cider. On the way from the place we got food to
the place we got drinks I picked up a tag-a-long. This little kid named
Osman (pronounce oos-man) seems to find me everywhere, he was
with me at the celebration today and then found me tonight. We
talked a lot, he attends one of the Muslim primary schools.
but next year he moves up to secondary level and he wants to
go to the Wesleyan school, which made me happy, because it’s
a good place to get a strong Christian influence. He likes me a
lot apparently and I’m hoping I will be able to make a positive
impact on his life. His father was a soldier and died in the war,
and one of his mothers brothers was killed by the rebels during the
war. I can’t even imagine what that would be like and he said it
like it was just a fact of life, which made me sad. To think of a ten
year old who didn’t even appear the least bit phased talking about the
death of his father and uncle, but life is hard here for many people,
they grow up or they don’t make it I suppose. He told me his mom
wants to get him a bike because he travels a bit of a way to get to
school, but they don’t have enough money. He said a bike is about
100,000 Leones, or 25 dollars. I know there are many needs here,
and one kid getting a bike isn’t all that impactful, but I’m
contemplating doing something about it, but I don’t know if it would
be fair, because I can’t help them all, how can I just choose one or even
a few to help to the exclusion of others? I just feel this need to love on
this kid, I can’t explain it because I’ve met many kids and I haven’t felt
like this with any of the others. I just asked nonchalantly, so it’s not
like I have any sort of obligation. I have to pray about it. I don’t want
to be known for giving things away because I already draw crowds of
children just because I’m white. I already helped out my 3s with 20,000
Leones to help them pay for the food they prepared today. I brought some
personal cash but I’m only a month into my stay and I don’t want to
end up without any personal funds in a couple of months, because
who knows what’s going to happen. Anyway, after we got back to the
house I waited for Daniel Turay to come by, he was taking me down
to a dance at the community center; they have dances pretty often
there but tonight was supposed to be a special one as part of the
school celebration. You can hear the music up here at the house and
it’s about a 7 to 10 minute walk if that tells you anything about how
loud the music was. We got there about 9:30 and a bunch of people
were milling about outside. We went inside where there were only
a few people dancing, I asked him why (at a very loud shout) and he
explained that most people wouldn’t come till after 11pm and then
they would dance until daybreak at about 6am. We sat inside for a
little while but it was too loud to talk. So loud I couldn’t understand
the words, not because they were in Krio because I’m pretty sure
they were English songs, but because the sound was so distorted.
Not that their sound system was all that good anyway, it was a
bunch of mismatched speakers piled precariously high wrapped
in white Christmas lights that probably served a dual purpose, the
first being light and the second holding the stack of speakers
together. It was kind of cool sitting at the back of the room with
the light on the other side of the kids dancing from me; it was like
watching a dance of shadows. I’m pretty sure many of you know,
but I hate loud noise (it was noise more than music) and I hate big
crowds. I went to get the experience and to see what kind of go
people I was ready to go by about 10pm because I was quickly
getting a headache. Well, that pretty much wraps up my Friday.
I keep wondering that if I keep telling you everything that happens
what will I have to share when I get back, but if I don’t share it
as it happens so much will get lost over the time that I’m here,
because even if I journal there’s no possible way I could share
this all with someone when I get back, would take days. So I’m
going to keep writing even if everyone stops reading, because
this is like a journal I can’t lose. Anyway, I wish you all the best
as I continue my time over here. I can’t believe a month has
passed already, coming home is still far off but time is moving
pretty quickly. I miss you all and think of you all constantly, you’re
all in my thoughts, prayers and occasionally dreams, haha.
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
This is going to be a bit of a long one, lots happened today. So I
might as well start here, this morning I inadvertently referred to
Karen as old… though she didn’t make comment on it. I had been
explaining that Patches (cat) had killed a praying mantis (didn’t
even know they had them here) and was being very defensive,
growling if you even came near her. Karen said it was ok because
they aren’t endangered here, but when I said that it still made me
sad because I think they are really cool. Karen proceeded to tell
me that she hated them because when she was young she made a
bug collection for a project and hadn’t known they were
endangered. The teacher told her she should have known and
gave her a zero on the project. I proceeded to shove my foot in my
mouth, I said “praying mantises were endangered back when you
went to school” making it sound like it was a really long time ago…
so yeah… Anyway, yesterday after the march pass I was told I
should go to the school this morning at 8am because they were
going to have speakers and stuff for the celebration, so I went over
to the school to see random students milling around in plain
clothes. I was quite confused especially since I was already late
and there were only a few teachers there. I talked to Abdul and he
told me that the speeches and stuff were later in the day after
lunch and that being there at 8am was just to get the rice for the
meal they have to cook. The school provided all the rice that they
needed but they were responsible for everything else. These
teachers here keep telling me all kinds of things, it’s like they don’t
even communicate with each other on stuff. Whatever, anyway it
was ok because I just headed out from the school with them and
wandered around with them as they were completing some tasks
to get ready for the meal later. I spent about two hours with them
before coming back up to the hospital at 10 to run the Asher’s
generator for 2 hours. I’m the power master since she hates the
generator sound and Tom is busy most of the time at the hospital.
My students (both classes) have invited me to eat with them, but
the 3s asked first and I had already agreed, I didn’t feel like I
should go back on my word. If they had asked simultaneously I’m
not sure which group I would have chosen, because they are all
great kids. Ha, kids, listen to me, they are not that much younger
than me, about 5 or 6 years I suppose. I’m sad I can’t share this
with you today because it was a great experience, but what’s one
day matter. I went to the school around 1pm, with my students. I
ran into Daniel Bangura (I’m going to use last names in the case of
the Daniels, since there are two of them), he said he had been
looking for me, apparently we are going to be friends now even
though we just met yesterday, though who am I to comment on
that, one of my best friends is someone I’ve only know for like 8
weeks or something, haha. So he came to eat with me and my
students. As for the food, they made me a special dish (by they I
mean Saidu’s mom, who cooked all their food), why I’m not sure
because the only thing I told them was that I was not big on fish
and it still had fish in it. Anyway, it was pretty good, but like most
African food it had peppers in it, so it was hot and I don’t deal
with spicy well. I ate what I could but I could feel it was already
not sitting well. But we had crackers, bananas and popcorn which
really helped take away they burning sensation. After eating
some of them started telling stories about how certain things came
to be, like creation fables, most of the time I couldn’t follow very
well though. After story telling Daniel Turay (an SS 3 commercial
student though he‘s apparently good friends with my threes
because he helped them plan the meal, get the ingredients and ate
with us) said he wanted to go for a walk about the school and show
me around. We saw the field where the games will be early next
week, Tuesday I think, they have a basketball “court” which was half
paved and the other half was pitted grass and the pole had no hoop
on it. Then I saw the school chapel which needs some serious work,
it is in very poor condition. We wandered back into the school from
there to wait for the speaking to begin. We didn’t wait long, and
then Daniel Turay led me over to the table where the JSS and SSS
principals were sitting, and told me to sit… I was like WHAT?!?! I had
to sit in the middle of the area in front of many hundreds of the
students. (JSS has 700 and the SSS is at least 300) granted they
probably weren’t all there but I think we were pretty close to that.
So I was pretty stressed, considering how bad they’ve been about
springing things on me I was terrified they were going to make me say
something. I may have shared my testimony in front of 300 people but
that was hard enough knowing it was coming. But the JSS principal HB
assuaged my fears by telling me they just had me sit there because
most of the guests they’d invited didn’t turn up. I was still pretty
uncomfortable but manageably so. It was really cool, they had speakers
and a couple of groups of students sing few songs, then we saw a
traditional dance called the Samba, it was very… interesting. Daniel
Turay spoke and talked about the schools past and the principals, it was
a good history lesson, and he said he likes to call the Ashers the blessed
ones, because of everything they’ve done here. And the JSS principal
commented on how much the Ashers have helped. I wish they could
have been there to hear the praise, because they really deserve it,
it’s God’s work and His plan, but the fact that they are so open and
willing to follow Him is inspirational. The celebration ended not long
after the JSS principal spoke and I finally returned home at about
4:30ish and then had to take care of some things. I got a call from
Karen telling me they had some trouble getting the vehicles across to
the airport via the ferry, namely because of unforeseen circumstances
cost them and hour and a half in Makeni and only one vehicle made it
onto the ferry, one vehicle to pick up 9 people and their luggage…
they needed vehicles because it’s about a 15 minute drive from the
airport to the ferry, I couldn’t imagine walking the distance with luggage
after a 24 hour trip, I know I was exhausted. So I had to let the Mahrs
know just in case Tom called them for some reason. At about 6:15
Rebecca and I went down to meet Zoey and Isha (a lady Zoey works
with at Health Poverty Action) to go eat at a place in town since
Karen and Tom are both gone. We had some grilled meat, presumably
beef from the flavor but I’m not going to put too much thought into
that subject. We got bread with mayonnaise and made sandwiches
which were good and then we had something akin to peanut brittle,
but not hard and not as sweet, and it was really good! We walked down
this store where they sell cold drinks after we finished eating, and had
my first experience with cider, which is apparently not the same in
England (and therefore here). I had thought of apple cider, but it’s
actually a fermented apple drink with low alcohol content, again not
what I really expected. It was ok but not particularly good. I’d much
rather have apple cider. On the way from the place we got food to
the place we got drinks I picked up a tag-a-long. This little kid named
Osman (pronounce oos-man) seems to find me everywhere, he was
with me at the celebration today and then found me tonight. We
talked a lot, he attends one of the Muslim primary schools.
but next year he moves up to secondary level and he wants to
go to the Wesleyan school, which made me happy, because it’s
a good place to get a strong Christian influence. He likes me a
lot apparently and I’m hoping I will be able to make a positive
impact on his life. His father was a soldier and died in the war,
and one of his mothers brothers was killed by the rebels during the
war. I can’t even imagine what that would be like and he said it
like it was just a fact of life, which made me sad. To think of a ten
year old who didn’t even appear the least bit phased talking about the
death of his father and uncle, but life is hard here for many people,
they grow up or they don’t make it I suppose. He told me his mom
wants to get him a bike because he travels a bit of a way to get to
school, but they don’t have enough money. He said a bike is about
100,000 Leones, or 25 dollars. I know there are many needs here,
and one kid getting a bike isn’t all that impactful, but I’m
contemplating doing something about it, but I don’t know if it would
be fair, because I can’t help them all, how can I just choose one or even
a few to help to the exclusion of others? I just feel this need to love on
this kid, I can’t explain it because I’ve met many kids and I haven’t felt
like this with any of the others. I just asked nonchalantly, so it’s not
like I have any sort of obligation. I have to pray about it. I don’t want
to be known for giving things away because I already draw crowds of
children just because I’m white. I already helped out my 3s with 20,000
Leones to help them pay for the food they prepared today. I brought some
personal cash but I’m only a month into my stay and I don’t want to
end up without any personal funds in a couple of months, because
who knows what’s going to happen. Anyway, after we got back to the
house I waited for Daniel Turay to come by, he was taking me down
to a dance at the community center; they have dances pretty often
there but tonight was supposed to be a special one as part of the
school celebration. You can hear the music up here at the house and
it’s about a 7 to 10 minute walk if that tells you anything about how
loud the music was. We got there about 9:30 and a bunch of people
were milling about outside. We went inside where there were only
a few people dancing, I asked him why (at a very loud shout) and he
explained that most people wouldn’t come till after 11pm and then
they would dance until daybreak at about 6am. We sat inside for a
little while but it was too loud to talk. So loud I couldn’t understand
the words, not because they were in Krio because I’m pretty sure
they were English songs, but because the sound was so distorted.
Not that their sound system was all that good anyway, it was a
bunch of mismatched speakers piled precariously high wrapped
in white Christmas lights that probably served a dual purpose, the
first being light and the second holding the stack of speakers
together. It was kind of cool sitting at the back of the room with
the light on the other side of the kids dancing from me; it was like
watching a dance of shadows. I’m pretty sure many of you know,
but I hate loud noise (it was noise more than music) and I hate big
crowds. I went to get the experience and to see what kind of go
people I was ready to go by about 10pm because I was quickly
getting a headache. Well, that pretty much wraps up my Friday.
I keep wondering that if I keep telling you everything that happens
what will I have to share when I get back, but if I don’t share it
as it happens so much will get lost over the time that I’m here,
because even if I journal there’s no possible way I could share
this all with someone when I get back, would take days. So I’m
going to keep writing even if everyone stops reading, because
this is like a journal I can’t lose. Anyway, I wish you all the best
as I continue my time over here. I can’t believe a month has
passed already, coming home is still far off but time is moving
pretty quickly. I miss you all and think of you all constantly, you’re
all in my thoughts, prayers and occasionally dreams, haha.
Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks
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