February 5th

So, today was a pretty fun day. I went for a little walk this
morning around 10:30, not very far because then I thought
maybe Laura and Emily might like to go since they haven’t
really gotten off hospital grounds since they arrived. But I
got back to find that they were doing some things at the
hospital and couldn’t go. So Tom and I went downtown in
the car to try and find some tomatoes at the market and to
get some bread. We were unable to get any tomatoes, all
they had were these little ones that look like cherry
tomatoes but are very sour, not very good. So we grabbed
some bread and headed up to the house. Around the time
we got back to the house a van came up to the house. It
was Kim from the Women’s Hope group. With her were
two of her kids, Tiana and Jeremiah as well as Kelsey.
Kelsey helps her with the program in some way, I’m afraid
I’ve forgotten what she does exactly. I met her once before
but I don’t remember if I wrote about it. That was back in
October. Anyway, Kim was coming to have a small operation
done. We had to arrange lunch while Tom and Karen were
the procedure which was interesting. We made some of the
Kraft macaroni and cheese the medical students brought
which was wonderful. It’s been so long since I’ve had
macaroni and cheese like that, since before I left for here I
know for sure. After lunch I took Kelsey and the two kids
downtown to see Kamakwie since they had never been
here. We stopped at Pa Kanu’s and one of the guys working
referred to me as Jeremiah’s father. They are pretty quick
to make assumptions. When they see me with a girl near my
age she must be my wife. An older woman or man must be
my father or mother and a kid must be my kid. Oh well.
Jeremiah wasn’t too happy about it but I just laughed. We
got some drinks and after we finished them I showed them
a little more of Kamakwie and then we headed up to the
house. We got back a little before four, when we were
supposed to meet Emily and Laura and then go on another
walk. We saw them there and they said they had stuff to
do at the hospital so they couldn’t go, which was ok since
I was tired. So I spent some time talking to Kelsey. About
five or so she and I took her stuff down to their room where
they were going to be staying only to find out we had been
given the wrong key. So we called for the right one and just
sat waiting for it to come talking, about life, music,
anything really. About 20 minutes later the lady came with
the key so we had to go in only to find out that the second
bed supposed to be in the room had been moved. So we
had the second bed from one of the other rooms back to
where it belonged. It was quite an adventure trying to
maneuver it through all the doorways, the bedroom door,
the outside door, into the other room and finally into the
other room’s bedroom. Once we got that done we got
everything moved in and got the fold out beds set up for
the two kids. By time we got everything done and set up it
was dinner time so we headed up to the house. After
dinner I talked with Kelsey a bit more before we headed
into the living room where a game of four-way monkey in
the middle ensued. Those two kids had way too much
energy but it was really fun. We played for probably about
an hour. But at about 8:30 they had to head down to their
place to get ready for bed. After they left I talked with Tom
and Karen for a bit before heading over to the team house
to get the internet stick so I could send this blog out
tonight, on time for once, since Karen leaves in the morning
for a few days. I got over there and had to wait while they
finished up a few things and while I waited Gary showed me
a few videos on his computer. One was hilarious it was a
rabbit attacking and chasing a snake off. It was great! Once
they were done I walked home only to be asked to carry
some suitcases over to the team house. After I finished that
I sat down to write this blog, so that’s about it. I hope you
are all ok. I’m going to try and stay on top of my blogs so
you don’t have to wait so much anymore. I’m sorry I’ve
been so bad about it. Have a great week. I’ll write again
when Karen gets back.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks