February 21st – March 4th



Wow, I’ve really gotten behind. As I write this it is March 4th. These last two weeks were long weeks largely in part due to the lack of classes to teach
due to the sporting events that take place on the 4th and the 5th (today and tomorrow). It wasn’t a bad week, just slower. We had three German
engineers come in on Monday. They are Johannes, Sebastian and Jacob. They’ve come to work on the SVoc center, the Sella Vocational center. They are
installing solar panels into the center in order to supply power for an internet café. Things are moving at a pretty fast rate here in Kamakwie all
things considered. The hospital is constantly trying to grow and improve, the town always has something new going on and now the town vocational center has undergone a big upgrade. They installed 20 solar panels on the roof and huge
batteries to store their power. They have also come to teach classes on electricity and computers (very basic ones of course) and they are meeting
with much of the same frustrations I have. Lack of knowledge in general added to poor problem solving and critical thinking skills as well as abysmal
math skills just to name a few of their biggest frustrations. Anyway, I’m sure you’ve heard enough of those complaints from me that you don’t want
to hear more of them from their perspective. I got to observe another C-section, but that’s not really new news either. As for teaching, like I said I haven’t
had a whole lot in that department. I spent so much time ranting to other people about my unhappiness with the situation that I forgot to write it here.
Monday last week they decided that they were going to cancel school for two weeks so that the students could practice for the upcoming games, which made
me very unhappy to say the least, so I decided I was going to try and arrange some classes myself with my students. That didn’t go terribly well. I arranged
for my SS 3s to meet with me on Tuesday, one came. Then I made arrangements for my SS 1s to meet with me on Wednesday, 4 out of 30 kids turned up so I just did a review with them. I thought about teaching them but I knew that I would end
up just having to re-explain everything again, and decided a review would be most beneficial to the few who came. Thursday was supposed to be my
SS 2s, but 3 of 23 showed up for that. Friday I had class with my SS 3s again, one showed, a different one but only one nonetheless. This week I tried to
have class with the SS 2s on Monday and no one came, so I gave up on them for this week and just focused on the SS 3s, who need it more anyway. I managed to get 4 to come around this time. We worked on some problems of the type they will
have to face on the WASSCE. This past Saturday the engineers, the med students and I went to the game park. They wanted to go and Tom wasn’t feeling up to it so I escorted them and made sure they got where they were supposed to be and all
that jazz. It was ok, I waited around for two hours by myself while they were out on the river to see the hippos. I explored a little bit and sat playing
solitaire for a little while, nothing too exciting. After they returned we had lunch. While we were eating we decided to go on the elephant safari
they have. You have to cross the river and then you walk around the countryside and finally going up on a hilltop. We were not fortunate enough to see elephants however, but the countryside was quite beautiful (if dried and shriveled). I don’t
know if I’ve mentioned it lately but it hasn’t rained since mid-December, it’s getting quite dry here. The vegetation around here is really hardy though,
it has to be really, because some of the trees and other plants are still going strong and green. I’m hoping we’ll return to school on Monday, I’ve seen
some of my students and made comments about having class on Monday and the responses I’ve gotten haven’t been the most reassuring. I can imagine that even if they do have classes attendance will not be exactly stellar. Karen left this Monday to Freetown for a day to pick up three new medical students, Katy, Courtney and
Aileen. While Karen was gone I did the cooking for lunch and dinner, which I find quite enjoyable. Cooking is a fine leisure activity as far as I’m concerned and I know I don’t cook as much as I would like to even at home, but that will change
if I ever get my own place, we’ll see how that goes, one step at a time. During this time I baked some bread that, everyone loved I might add. I was even
impressed with the result, and those of you who know me very well know that that sometimes I can be very hard on the outcomes of things I do, thinking that I should have done better, and this is especially true when I cook. But in this case I think
I could hardly have done better (minus the small addition of some bugs in the flour, oh the luxury of buying bags of flour at a supermarket). With the addition of these new students that makes 6 medical students here. Sadly, Laura, Emily and Sara
are leaving in 5 days. I still don’t like that about being here, getting to meet all manner of people and just getting to know them only to have them leave. I get attached too easily I know, but knowing that doesn’t make it any easier. Things here are more complicated than I could ever want in my life. I can make it 12 more weeks here but this is not something I could see myself doing long term. I was doing really good after the first two months, then time started flying by almost too fast, but now it’s seemed to slow since I passed month four or so. On top of that the frustrations seem to just build up, people wanting things, wanting you to do things, always placing expectations on us (anyone who has come here to help really).
I’ve been working on getting the Kakamba church project going, they have made 800+ of the 1500 bricks they decided they needed for the church. Hopefully tomorrow they will do some or all of the rest. There has been some political nonsense going
on around this project. It’s a youth project, they came up with it and have done almost all of the legwork involved in getting the foot in the door, starting having church services there even without a church and everything else involved. However,
a particular member of the church leadership has been trying to edge in and take the project out of their hands and getting it into his. He’s got an unfortunate need to receive credit. The Asher’s have received some instruments to be donated
to the Katherie church. However this person has two problems, one there is no drums, and he almost demanded that they get some, which is outrageous considering what they’ve already given. Also, one of the instruments is with someone else because they are the only one who can use it and he pretty much demanded that he be given possession of it. So it’s causing some problems right now but hopefully the
church will handle it. The Asher’s and I have already talked to some other church leadership about it. Unfortunately it’s an attitude that’s not restricted to just a few members of the church, or even people not in the church. The desire to
lay claim to anything and everything they can. Sorry, I’ve gone griping again… I don’t mean to. My frustration level is just a little high with this
whole sports thing. Anyway, things are going ok beyond that I think, I’ve spent these last two weeks playing plumber, electrician, chef, baker, teacher, bike mechanic and probably a few other things as well. There’s always something to do,
never a dull moment.

“We can do no great things, only small things with
great love”
-Mother Teresa

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks