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