November 20th
So, this morning I spent some time writing some contemplating
that came to mind this morning. Then Saidu came over and we
talked for a while. I got bored sitting in the house so we went to
the market to pick up some bread for lunch. Returning to the
house I spent a while trying to get a DVD to play in my computer
but I couldn’t, so I tried to get some other video programs from
one of the Asher’s computers but that didn’t work either. Osman
and his mom came up while I was doing that. It was kind of hard
because I didn’t really know what to talk about. She didn’t stay
long so I wondered if she wanted something because she came
quite a distance just to visit for a few minutes. But I don’t think she
did, because anyone else who needs something hasn’t been afraid
to ask thus far. After that I went down to the hospital to see if
Rebecca was almost done with rounds at the hospital. Saidu and I
then watched an episode of CSI on one of the Asher’s computers
until Rebecca got done. Abu came by to get math help but we had
just sat down to lunch so Saidu helped him. Unfortunately I did
something I feel kind of bad but I don’t know if it was wrong or
not. Abu picked up Rebecca’s phone and started playing with it.
She lost her regular charger and the universal charger is not very
good so she tried to take her phone from him so he didn’t waste
any of the battery. He however didn’t feel like handing it over and
I was forced to intervene to retrieve it from him. He asked why I
had grabbed his hand because he’s not a baby. I proceeded to
explain that he should have given Rebecca her phone when she
tried to request it let alone when she tried to take it from him. I
told him he shouldn’t pick up other peoples things and just start
playing with them because he isn’t careful about what he does like
when he used my camera and managed to erase my pictures. He
said “so?” and I got really mad at him and sent him out telling him
not to come back until the Ashers come back because he has no
reason to be here since they are gone anyway. I didn’t mean to get
so mad but he has no concept of guilt over anything. If it’s not his
he doesn’t care if it gets broken because it doesn’t hurt him. The
Ashers told me he’s broken numerous things of theirs since they
started letting him eat with them. I am just at a loss of how to deal
with him and I just figured it would be better to just keep him out
of the house. He takes no personal responsibility and when the
Ashers or anyone else tries to discipline him he gets indignant and
mad and just plain pouty like he’s being mistreated. I just don’t
know what to do. Anyway, drama aside, Saidu left and I spent some
time by myself since I hadn’t been alone since 8:30ish this morning.
After that I went down to Rebecca’s house to get here, where we
talked to Amy and Emma a bit. Amy is a lady with an Australian
group who do technical work, they helped install some of the solar
in the area and work on the computers at the Wesleyan Secondary
School. Emma is a midwife from England, also Zoey’s friend, and has
come to help with the hospital here for a few weeks. Then Rebecca
and I went on a walk for a while around the area. I showed her the
Secondary School and the Primary School. It was a good walk. We got
back to the hospital at about 6 and met up with Emma and Samuel
(the accountant) and we went downtown to Pa Kanu’s for a drink,
before going down to a place to get rice and soup (soup being a
sauce you put over rice consisting of a lot of mystery ingredients and
fish, it’s also very spicy) but they only had one bowl left and since I
was the first one there I got it. When I got it I didn’t realize they were
out so I felt kind of bad. But then Rebecca and Emma got some food
from one of the places that serves meat, Mr. Ba was out when we got
there. It was a great time and I really enjoyed it. I kind of like having
the freedom to do whatever whenever with whoever at nights. Not
that I mind having dinner provided but it was really fun. Now it’s time
for bed.

Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks

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

November 18th

Like I said yesterday, today is my last blog for a few days till Tom
gets back on Monday. Karen is staying in Makeni for a conference
but she has said she will send the internet modem back to
Kamakwie with Tom. I went to the market today to get onions,
cucumbers and bread. I only managed to find onions, there were
no cucumbers and the only bread available was pretty stale so I
decided it would be better to wait and get it later. Back at the
house I helped Karen scan some more glasses. The official count is
493 pairs of scanned glasses in the inventory. After we finished up
the glasses we had lunch and after that I had to go off to school.
On the way I saw this lady who in the United States whould be in a
wheel chair. The poor woman was literally walking on the top of
her foot. Her foot was bent backwards at the ankle. We exchanged
the common pleasantries including asking “how’s the body”. I had
expected a fine or something like that. But instead she said “tell
God thanks” (in Krio of course) which is the best response to
asking how someone is. Don’t get me wrong, I do thank God for
everything I’ve gone through (both good and bad) that has shaped
me into who I am, but I don’t think that if my ankle was bent like
that so I had to stoop over and walk on the top of my foot that I
would be saying thank God for. I have asked Karen in the past if
this is a society where no one really says anything but fine or says
thank God even if they really aren’t ok. But she made a good point,
every day they wake up again is a good day. Class went pretty
good with my SS 1 kids today. I had them for both chemistry and
biology. I had two really hard concepts to try and explain to them
today. The taxonomy classification system in biology, how do you
explain phylum and the other levels to people who don’t even
necessarily understand the words that regularly come out of my
mouth? Then in chemistry I was trying to explain atomic structure,
shells and orbitals. That was a task and a half considering it’s such
an abstract concept. Anyway, then two of my SS3s came down and
told me that they were the only two there and didn’t want to have
class because they were tired and were leaving. Since I could really
stop them I went ahead and went home. We had cherry
cheesecake soup for dessert tonight. Karen tried to make
cheesecake but didn’t set up despite over an hour in the freezer.
After that I got my first haircut in Africa, Karen did it. It’s not quite
as short as I would like but it’s a lot better than it was. On a great
note, I heard today that there is this village where the elders are
muslim and most of the people are as well. They planted a church
there and last week they held a clinic there and this past Sunday
they had 30 people attend the service. Some of the people went
up to Albert, who is kind of in charge, and told him they were going
to be coming in the future. So praise the Lord for that. Anyway, I
think that’s about all I have for this evening. I’ll be compiling one
big blog post to put up Monday evening, or Wednesday if Karen
doesn’t remember to send me the internet stick on Monday. So if
you don’t hear from me till then don’t be worried. This is going to
be a test because it will be the longest time where I can’t send or
receive messages. Thankfully I’m supposed to receive a call from
my mom at some point and I’ve arranged to call one of my friends
on Sunday. I might get some more units to make more calls if I find
myself desperate for some communication. I’m doing a lot better
about being homesick, but some days are not as good as others,
and without Karen or Tom around for such a length of time might
be hard. Anyway, thanks for your patronage.

Greetings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

November 17th

I didn’t really do anything remarkable today, besides being in
Africa of course, haha. I helped Karen do some more glasses, this
time tagging them and putting them into labeled bags. If I never
see another pair of glasses again it will be too soon, shoot, there is
a pair on my face… Haha. Anyway, that being done, I went to
school and taught for four periods today, a mix of biology and
chemistry. I’m definitely getting more comfortable with teaching,
but I wish we would stop missing school because then I don’t want
to start teaching again because the same insecurities start to creep
up with the down time. Not that down time is really very “down” I
feel like I haven’t stopped running around and doing things around
the house in days. Which is nice, and I’m helping the hospital out
in general by making things easier for the Ashers, but it’s not what
I came here for, but like Tom Garber, one of the guests last week,
said a big part of being a missionary is being flexible because you
often won’t be doing what you thought you would be. Anyway,
tangent aside, the classes went well, I’ve started actually teaching
chemistry rather than just the math I was teaching before, I still
haven’t even begun to think about doing labs. I figure they need
some more information before they are ready for that. Anyway,
we had the Emmits and the Mahrs over for dinner this evening. It
was going well when Karen got a call that there had been a
motorbike collision and there were several trauma cases to take
care of. Half the people here being doctors the place cleared out
pretty quick. I kind of wish that I were medical personnel because
everyone left and I’m quite bored now. I got to talk to one of my
best friends on facebook this evening which was good. Just a
heads up, Tom and Karen are leaving Friday morning to go to
Freetown and they won’t be back till Monday, so I will have a blog
tomorrow but then you won’t have anything to read after that
until Monday, I’m sure you’ll wait with bated breath until then.
Until tomorrow then, have a great day!


Walie Masala (Thank the Lord, in Limba)
Ryan Brooks

November 16th
Today was a pretty uninteresting day as a whole. I got up and went
to visit the Emmits after breakfast. I ended up speaking with Mrs.
Emmit for about an hour or so, then I went to the market to get
her some things don’t know if I told you but the Emmits are an
elderly couple in their 80s who previously served in Sierra Leone
and are continually serving wherever the Leads them, that often
including Haiti. They amaze me with their willingness to serve at
age where I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to get out of bed in the
morning. On the way to the market I saw Abu and invited him to
come along though I didn’t particularly want to. It’s such a struggle
to deal with him. I am the first person who should be showing up
to show him grace. The friends I made at Mount brought such
change to my life; they showed me grace so often when I don’t
think I could have. They taught me how to love and what it means
to be loved when I didn’t think I was worth loving. Without them I
have no idea where I would be at right now, certainly not here in
Africa. Anyway, having experienced such grace in those
relationships I feel that I need to show the same to him but he
makes it so hard. I’m not going to go into details but he has the
Asher’s so close to turning him out as he’s a constant source of
frustration for them, and between them. As much as I would hate
to see that in the short time I’ve been here I can see why they
might want to. Pray that God would use me to touch his life,
because if he doesn’t change I can’t imagine he will make it very
far. We couldn’t get anything we wanted from the market but
bread because ¾ of the shops in town were closed when we went
because of a Muslim holiday, I think it has a name but even the
Muslims just called today “pray day” I prayed alright, that God
would lead them to see Christ as more than just a prophet, but as
savior. Returning to the house I helped Karen straighten things up
a bit in the living room where they store a lot of their food and
some other stuff. Karen is doing much better, moving around
pretty well with minimal pain. I wouldn’t believe a knee injury that
kept her from standing that first day would heal this fast, but I
think it’s one part sheer willpower and one part prayer, because
it’s amazing how well she’s doing. After that I went for a walk to
try and find a nice quiet place to do devotions but there are
Africans everywhere. I ran into a group resting by the roadside,
they needed me to help them lift these huge bags of Cassava up
onto their heads. I can’t believe the weight they carry on their
heads, I think it would break my neck. I never did find a place.
After that I pretty much spent the rest of the day cleaning glasses
and helping Karen get some progress made on the project she has
going, which is trying to prepare glasses and get them to the
people who need them. We just stopped a little bit ago (it’s after
12am now) and we still have a good number more to do. We’ve
scanned almost three hundred pairs so far, they were told they
need at least a thousand to have a good chance of matching the
needs of any possible person. Anyway, I’m tired so this is where
it ends. Have a great morning/day/night.

Greetings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

November 15th
So today was a long day. I went to bed early last night but that
didn’t do me much good, I woke up many times in the middle of
the night, then I had dream about something that happened in the
US, and it was about the time that it really happened, and it’s not
good, praying for a friend who is very special to me. Getting up I
got ready to go for a walk because I was feeling very down this
morning because I couldn’t be there for my friend. I think that will
be one of the hardest things here. Not being able to be there the
people I love, but I always want to know if something is going on
because then I can at least pray for you. Anyway, a walk always
helps me; it’s a little personal time with the Father. I feel I connect
better then than any other time on an individual basis.
Unfortunately just as I was leaving I was asked to track down
Abdul because one of the Africans had gifted the Ashers a chicken
and they needed him to kill it for them. I decided to watch, which
was probably not the best idea. I won’t go into detail but I didn’t
stay for the whole process. I only watched out of morbid curiosity.
I spent the rest of the morning helping Karen sort out the living
room because it was full of junk and she can’t really get around. I
helped sort all the baby clothes they have up here. The hospital
provides baby layettes for all new born babies and Karen makes
sure they are all assembled and ready up here. For example, one
church sent a bunch of them but didn’t include blankets in them,
which are important because the babies need to be kept warm.
We spent a few hours doing that, had lunch, and then I went off to
school. I have 5 periods today, all biology, which is good because
biology is so much easier to teach than chemistry. Classes went
well. I had a pleasant surprise when I had my SS1s today. I taught
two of them one day last week, but I figured I would just have to
go back over the same material with the rest of them today. I
began to teach and I was asking what is biology and what are some
fields of biology not really expecting to get much. However, I
started getting responses and I was like, ok whats going on. I asked
them how they knew the information and they told me they had
copied the notes from the other two kids. There were 12 kids in
class which means 10 kids took their own initiative to copy the
notes from the other kids. I was shocked, for a moment I didn’t
know what to do. Then I decided we would just move on to the
next information. It was a good day of classes which was good
after this morning. I promise I really do like being here, and I really
like a lot of the people I’ve met. It’s just very hard for me to stop
missing everyone at home. It’s getting better over time, but I feel
like by time I’m really settled here I’ll be on the plane home and
spend the next month missing everyone here. I don’t want to be here
grudgingly, I’m grateful for this opportunity, but I want to be serving
the Lord gladly. Pray that I can, not forget the people at home, but to
let them go for now realizing that I only have a little time here and
that I will have so much time once I leave here and I don’t want to
spend the whole time I’m here wishing I was home and then return
home regretting that I wasted such an awesome opportunity. Thanks
for all of your continued prayers, thoughts, and messages.

Blessings from Sella Limba Chiefdom
Ryan Brooks

November 14th
This morning started out very poorly, I was very down and missing
people and feeling like I wanted to come home. I had ascribed it to
the fact that the work team was leaving today, they were only
here about a week but I loved having them here and I knew I was
going to miss them (and they were going home to the US where I
know that I would like to be). However it was the worst I had been
feeling in over a week and I just really didn’t want to do anything. I
really didn’t feel like going to church since I knew it would be at
least a two and a half hour service, I don’t understand much of
what goes on, etc… I did end up going and I’m so glad I went. The
first thing they do in the service is sing a worship song, at first I
was very much frustrated with being there because I couldn’t
understand, but it wasn’t long into the song that I just had this
feeling, it was like someone was there, and then there was this
thought that entered my mind. It’s hard to explain, but it was
something akin to “Ryan, the ache you feel for the love ones you
miss is nothing compared to the ache you felt for 20 years when
you felt unwanted and unloved.” It wasn’t really that clear but it
was the impression I was left with. I was moved to tears and it was
like this weight was lifted from me. It was an awesome experience
but I am at a loss to explain it. Since then I’ve been in a great mood
all day, minus the crying when the guests left. I spent most of the
afternoon helping the group get ready to go, they left at about 3 in
the afternoon. Then I was with Foday and Saidu from 3 until about
6. We went to Daniels house to try and take him some batteries
from his calculator but he wasn’t there, and then Saidu said he
could find me better sandals, since the ones I bought like a week
and a half ago were falling apart already… We went into the
market and we found a really nice pair, the guy wanted 35000 for
them and Saidu managed to haggle him down to 20000, which was
really nice. Saidu is quite the haggler, if I have to get anything else
I’m gonna make sure I have him with me. He then took me over to
this guy who works on shoes to have him stitch them around the
edge to help make them stronger. He promised me that they
should hold together for pretty much the rest of the time I’m here.
Then we ran into Saidu’s martial arts teacher Alie, I said that I
wanted to participate, but I have to figure out how to have time
since the class has to be at 5 or 6 pm. 5 pm is during class some
days of the week and 6 is dinner time. So we’ll have to see how
that goes. We seem to be having a power shortage this evening,
the generator came on at 7 like it was supposed to, went out at
7:40, came back on 7:50 and went out a few minutes later. Now
it’s 8:30 and there’s no power.

Hoping all is well,
Ryan Brooks

One last note, Karen is still in pain
but she is managing and is feeling a lot better emotionally I think.
She would benefit from continued prayers. Thanks.