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