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