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