December 18th – 22nd

I don’t know how often I’ll write daily blog posts anymore, I
struggle to find the energy and motivation anymore. Things are
pretty set for now and I doubt you all want to hear about the
daily grind every day. If anything special goes on I’ll be sure to
let you know but for the most part I get up and either do stuff
around the house or go to the hospital and help with rounds.
Have lunch, go teach till almost dinner time. Come home and
have dinner, then maybe do something with either Solomon or
some other friends. I still find it a pretty unique experience but
in writing without every minute detail of the things that
occurred throughout the day the days are going to seem pretty
similar. The lady I donated blood to on Sunday got another unit
of blood, this time from Tom. That’s her fourth unit of white
man blood and we were teasing one of the midwives, Mari,
that if the lady started turning white that it was ok because
she’s half white man now anyway. She got a kick out of that.
On Tuesday I got to do some more Honda practice. Solomon
let me drive from the house to the school and back around a
couple of times by myself. I’m hoping that we can start to go
farther soon. Until last night I hadn’t seen Alusine very much
during the week. He has class in the morning, I teach in the
afternoon and then he has class at night so it’s hard to interact
during the week. The Africans I met at the two beaches are still
getting me to call them pretty regularly. (they flash me and I
call them since they don’t have the money to call me).
Thursday night I went down to Pa Kanu’s with Solomon and
Samuel for the first time since Emma left. I feel bad because I
mostly hang out with Solomon and not much with Samuel
since when Rebecca and Emma were here we always hung out
with both of them. So I was glad for the chance. I got to watch
another c-section this week. The lady had twins (both boys but
not identical). Anyway, I think that’s about it. Karen leaves
tomorrow for Freetown for several days, then I’ll post again.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

January 17th

Today was an ok day. I woke up feeling worse than yesterday,
but not as bad as Thursday, so I’m ok with that I suppose. I was
still so exhausted this morning that after breakfast I went back
to sleep for a little while. I had school today, I made it all the
way through all five periods but it was a struggle at the end.
The first period didn’t start well. I didn’t have any students. By
time I found them almost 30 of the 45 minute period was gone.
In their previous class their teacher kept them over until they
finished copying his notes. So I had a talk with him about not
writing more notes than the kids can take in one class period
because now I had lost 2/3 of my class period. I didn’t say it but
being geography and my kids being science students his class is
less important so it really annoyed me. They make these kids
take too many subjects. They let them choose a path but then
make them study parts from all over the place. It would be so
much better if they just gave them 6 to 7 subjects rather than
10 with 3 or 4 that they don’t even need. The next periods
went better, I had most of the kids and I got a good amount
done. I’m pretty happy with that. Anyway, that’s about all I
have for today, so I wish you all well and a good night’s sleep.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

January 16th

So this morning I was feeling pretty good. I was all ready for
church when Karen asked me to go donate blood. There was a
lady in the OB ward who was not doing very well. She had
already lost her baby and was very near dying herself. I of
course agreed, I didn’t point out that I was sick since Tom and
Karen knew I was sick and asked me anyway, I figured it must
be alright. I headed down to the hospital and got a whole
battery of tests (Hep B and C, HIV and Syphilis) as well as
checking to make sure that I am indeed O+ like I said. I am
happy to report negatives in all areas (well, except blood type).
So they took me over to the OR and took out 450g of my blood.
It was a little less comforting than my usual donating but it
went well and I didn’t pass out or anything. I went over to OB
and watched them giving the lady my blood (it was kind of cool
seeing right where my blood was going rather than wondering
if anyone ever got my blood at all). On that front, she’s still
pretty ill and will likely need more blood but she’s improving
we think. My unit of blood was her 5th unit, one from each of
the medical students, two from their small supply, and then
mine. After giving blood I wasn’t in much of a mood to do
anything but Alusine had told me earlier that morning that he
was hurting (he fell out of a tree when he was young and he
said it hurts from time to time) so I went to pay him a
sympathy visit. When I got there he seemed to be doing ok, he
was walking with a little limp but not too noticeable. He had to
go to an afternoon class not long after I got there so I ended up
hanging out with Kabba (one of the other kids there) while he
did his laundry. I don’t know why but watching them do laundry
is always interesting because no two people I’ve seen do it the
same way. All methods involved lots of wear on the clothing
though. After he finished we walked over to the school where
Alusine was just finishing class and walked up to the house. We
sat for a little on the front porch but they were going off to
some other class so they had to leave. Between all of their
classes and me teaching I don’t think I’ll be able to see them
much except on the weekends. Speaking of all the classes they
take, they should be geniuses. They go to school in the morning,
then have afternoon classes and then night classes. Something
is wrong somewhere, with that much class they should be doing
much better, I don’t understand. Anyway, not to get back on
that old argument, I didn’t do much else this evening, feeling
pretty tired, so I’m gonna hit the hay. Good night all.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

January 13th - 15th

I finally made it back to Kamakwie and expected to go teach,
however my body felt differently. I woke up in the morning
feeling not well at all. I got up long enough to eat breakfast and
then laid back down. I spent the whole day in bed going back
and forth between being cold and hot. I was too weak to do
much of anything else. I haven’t been that sick in a while. Tom
says it’s because I stayed up too late Monday night and the
Sierra Leonean’s say it’s because it is so cold. I don’t think it’s
either (especially considering that it barely drops below 70 at
the coolest. Regardless of what it’s cause may have been (I
think one of the nursing students must have brought it over
and was so ever kind enough to share it) I was down for the
count. Friday was a little better, I tried to go to school and
teach but after one period I was so exhausted I just couldn’t
handle any more so I went home and laid down. I was pretty
much not feeling very well Saturday either so I didn’t do much
of anything. Thursday, Friday and Saturday night I had some
visitors and we watched movies each night I did go Saturday
afternoon to the orphanage and tried to play football. I needed
to do something active since I was spending so much time
doing so little, but I didn’t do very good on account of the fact
that I couldn’t breathe very well being still sick. That was
mostly what I was able to do following my break. Not overall
my best three days here.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

January 12th

We set out from the Compañero at about 8am for Makeni. We
arrived in Makeni at just after 10 and while Tom and Karen
went meet with Reverend Usman at the Wesleyan office I went
off to explore Makeni for a little bit until just after 11. We went
out to lunch at the Wusum hotel at 12 and returned to the
office for the Healthcare Board Meeting at 2. Since I was again
not involved I went with Steven to go change some money. I
was only changing $1000 dollars but I had $2600 on hand so I
felt pretty uncomfortable. That’s the most money I’ve ever held
in my hands at once. Before that it was $2000. We got it
changed successfully and I sent Steven back to the office with
all the money while I wandered around the area. There are so
many little shops with all kinds of books, shoes, music, etc…
Some places there are so many little shops set up you can’t get
through. I wasn’t looking for anything, I just wanted to look
around since I’d never had the chance. I figured that it wouldn’t
be as bad in Makeni because the number of non-nationals
around is much higher there than here in Kamakwie, but not
really. They still hounded me relentlessly, asking what I needed,
what I wanted. I spent around three hours wandering around,
it’s a big place, and I still hadn’t been all over and that’s just
one part of the town. Granted that is the largest market district
as far as I know. I got back to the office a little after 5 hoping
that they would be done. No such luck. Since I was standing
around bored I decided to go walk over to the nearby water
pump and make friends with some of the people there. It
worked. It’s pretty easy when it comes to making friends here.
Just about everyone wants to be your friend. I talked a lot to
this guy who goes by Jah Prist, his real name is Alhassan. He
showed me his house which has 9 rooms and none less than
three people sleep in. It look like a big house but when you
have more 30 people in it you can fill up space pretty fast. As I
was leaving I saw Steven waving me over, they were finally
done. We got into the car to head back to Kamakwie and that’s
when I really realized that I was getting ill. I had been feeling a
bit stuffy but I had put that to being out in the dry heat, sadly
not so. The ride back to Kamakwie was quite miserable, it’s not
a fun road and being sick does not improve the experience no
matter how I wish it otherwise. Anyway, I’m exhausted and
ready for bed, so I wish you all well.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

Post Trip Assessment
I have to say that I was feeling really guilty coming into this
trip I figured it would be all sunshine and beaches and I felt
like it wasn’t really appropriate, but Tom and Karen said that
sometimes you just have to get out in order to not explode or
some worse fate. (exaggeration of course) but meeting so
many kids and seeing so many needs and being able to help
with some showed me that even a break can have a purpose.
On this three day excursion to Freetown I’ve seen so much
need that it breaks my heart, kids who don’t have money to
eat, kids who don’t have money for school. Things you would
almost never see in America come to you in the form of tens
of children coming to you asking you for help, asking you for
money or food or books. But one thing that I’ve learned and
take from this trip is hope. Let me explain. I met a boy named
Tamba at the beach with some of his friends. They were
shoveling sand into bags for one of the boy’s families. They
were doing so with no real expectation of getting anything for
it. I imagine they were hoping that by helping they might get
some food or money for food. Working with no promise of
anything is not something many people will do, and when
they do it’s after they’ve done their regular work for money.
These kids could chose to not do it and try to find some work
to do that promised them money but because it was for a
friend’s family they choose to do it anyway. My friend George
who I met at the Hard Rock had worked there from the time
he was 6 and didn’t start getting paid until three years ago,
he is now 17. He did the work he had to in the hopes that one
day they would pay him. I would call that working sacrificially.
He didn’t have much choice, his father died when he was
young, his mother ran off and he lived alone with his
grandmother (whose husband ran off). She couldn’t support
him alone. While he does get paid now he gets paid 20,000
Leones for two weeks. That’s less than 50 cents a day. 50 cents
would buy him two pieces of bread (not exactly big pieces) or
a cup of rice some pepper and a flavoring called Maggie (similar
to Ramen flavoring). Could you imagine living on that? He
fishes in the ocean and he likes to fish, which is good because
that’s his only other source of food, and often he sells the fish
to earn more money. He can get 500 Leones (12.5 cents) for
two fish. He said often he gets few fish, sometimes even none.
On top of providing for himself he has to provide for his
grandmother who is too old to work. Emmanuel, the owner
of the Compañero is a Sierra Leonean who lived in America for
11 years, he could easily have stayed there and continued to
work for more and live a more comfortable life in America
but he felt compelled to return to his country of birth to put
in his efforts here. There are so many people without enough
here. But there are people like Tamba and his friends who are
willing to work for each other. There are people like George
who have such enormous potential and such an outstanding
work ethic but don’t have the resources to capitalize on it.
There are people like Emmanuel who have advantages and
could use them elsewhere and instead come back here and
stay in Sierra Leone. His hotel may not be practical for many
Sierra Leoneans, but it draws the foreign nationals and their
money provides jobs for Sierra Leoneans. There is such abject
poverty here, and great suffering, but there is true potential
in the people of Sierra Leone. With the proper education and
given the right assistance the people of this country could do
great things.

January 11th
Morning came really quick today (guess that’s what happens
when you stay up till 4 am). I got up at 7 because I wanted to
be able to spend some more time with George. He had to
clean the place first so I waited and then it was time for
breakfast so I had to wait till that was over. We talked for a little
bit but we didn’t have a whole lot of time because we had to
leave by 10:30 to get the group to the marina in time for them
to make their boat. We traded phone numbers (though I think
considering his financial situation that I’ll be doing the calling)
and then he helped me carry my stuff to the car to load it in. I
learned to be prepared as a boy scout but not to pack efficiently
so I can never pack lightly. Rueben came along as well. I’m
gonna miss him too, he’s a good kid and I hope that things get
better for him but I don’t know how likely that is. We left just
before 10:30 and as we were pulling out we drove past a man
we had been waiting for (he was bringing one of the guests
some soccer jerseys). As we were driving by we recognized him
and all started almost yelling at our driver, Sheku, to stop the
car. We got the jerseys and then continued on our way. It was a
good thing we left early (they didn’t have to be at the dock until
1) because we sat forever in traffic that wound off into the
distance in front and behind us. It was ok though because I
wasn’t quite ready for them to leave. The nurses already left
and I was quite sad about that because they were very nice.
While we were in the car we had a little impromptu worship
session. One of them was talking about the Newsboys song He
Reigns but they could remember the words so I pulled out my
computer and played it for them, and then proceeded to play
everyone’s favorite worship songs (the ones I had at least). We
did manage to arrive at the dock at about 12:30 so we actually
managed to make pretty good time considering the length of
time spent sitting in traffic. If we had been a little later it would
have been ok because though they were supposed to be there
by 1 that’s an hour before the boat leaves they just want them
there early. We got our last photos and said our goodbyes
before Tom, Karen, Steven and I set off to go do some errands.
We spent the afternoon weaving through traffic to various
grocery stores trying to replenish the foods that we had gone
through feeding 24 people for almost two weeks. It took quite a
while we set out at 1:30 and weren’t done until a little after 5.
We didn’t spend much time in the stores; the traffic in the city
is just bad. One thing I took note of is that when I get home it
will be strange not seeing mobile junk piles on the streets. Some
of the cars people drive here would have been made into scrap
at least a good 10 years ago. I know I’ve been in Freetown but I
never really thought about that. I think with all the people
leaving it kind of made me think about America. Not that I want
to go home any time soon, I love the people here and the place
itself isn’t too bad either. After we finished out shopping (and
got some more glasses from an English eye doctor who
practices here) we set out for a hotel outside Freetown called
the Compañero Hotel which is located in a place called Rokel.
Karen said they had never been there before. In fact it’s not
even all finished but they’ve started taking guests. That’s one
thing about projects here, they don’t get the money and build,
they build as they get the money. I met the owner, his name is
Emmanuel Sesay. He was a really nice guy and I spent several
hours talking with him about the hotel and his time in America
and other things. He went to America with most of his family
when he was 10 or 11. He attended school there and worked
there for some years until he was about 23, then 5 years ago
he returned to Sierra Leone since his father was here and he
felt that he wanted to do some part to help his own country.
When I asked why his father had stayed here he told me it was
because he was a policeman, in fact he’s the third highest
ranked police officer in the country. He started the hotel when
he got here 5 years ago and has been building it as he has had
the money. Last year in the fall (not really any fall here but fall
time at home) he had a group of engineers come and he had 30
people stay at his hotel for 3 months straight. He has used that
money to complete a good portion of his hotel. He almost has
three stories finished and once that’s done he plans on adding
one more floor with a meeting room and some other things.
But it’s getting pretty late, and I’ve babbled on for long enough
so I’m going to call it a night.

Blessings from Rokel
Ryan Brooks