February 11th and 12th

I set out this morning with Steven for Freetown
at about 8am. I’m pretty sure I state this every
time I make a trip to Freetown, but I’m going to
reiterate it anyway, I hate the road from here to
Makeni. It makes me so sick it’s just not fun.
Anyway, that part aside the journey went pretty
well. We made record time getting to Makeni,
only 2.5 hours. The trip to Freetown from there
flew by and we were there by 2pm. Our first
stop was a road called Ecowas, there they have
all sorts of hardware and plumbing stores. I was
trying to find a new bathroom sink for the
plumbing renovation Tom and Karen want to do,
I did not succeed, they wanted one without the
holes drilled for the faucet and they were all
already drilled. So from there we headed to the
supermarket and picked up some groceries.
After that we went to go get some food at a
place called Basha’s Bakery. They serve really
good chicken, along with fried rice. I think if I get
to go again however I’m gonna order a pizza. It’s
been so long since I’ve had a real pizza. Anyway,
from there we proceeded down to the docks
arriving a little after 5. Since the medical student,
Sarah, was even landing till 7:45 I decided to
explore a little bit. Right near the dock is a place
called the “big market” and they have all manner
of things there. Carving, dyed fabrics, traditional
clothes, etc… I just wanted to look but they were
closing. I did manage to get to see a few people’s
shops but even though I told them that I wasn’t
interested in buying anything they still offered to
show me their shops, then just short of
demanded that I buy something, which really
annoyed me but I should have expected that. The
Sierra Leoneans don’t really understand browsing,
they just go, buy, return home. Anyway, after I
toured there I went down to the dock to sit at a
table and read, which I didn’t get to do any of, no
sooner did I sit down then I got mobbed by guys
selling DVDs. I was nice and looked, but got
annoyed when two different guys started fighting
over showing me their DVDs. No sooner than I was
finally done with that did another guy come sit
with me to talk, which was ok, then another guy
joined the table and started begging, which
started a whole “discussion” of begging and some
other things. It was kind of fun to be honest. Anyway,
me and the first guy were trying to persuade the
second guy that begging was a poor way to live and
that he needed to find a job. He didn’t disagree but
I don’t think he agreed, begging doesn’t pay super
well but it is an easy job I guess. Anyway, he used
everything he could think of, from promising Allah
would bless me (…) to he was sick and needed to go
to the hospital (which would have been more
believable if it hadn’t been a resort strategy after
other attempts). I did give him a little because we
had given him a hard time about it. Not in a bad
way, but the first guy was knew him pretty well and
another guy had come along and was teasing him
too. After the second guy finally left I spent some
time getting to know the first guy, whose name was
Jimmy. We talked all the way up to the time that
Sarah arrived, so for about 5 hours or so. Once Sarah
arrived we packed her in and after saying a quick
goodbye to Jimmy we set off for the Compañero. I
gave Jimmy my number and he said he’d call me
once he got a new phone. We got to the Compañero
where Emanuel got us settled in and then we talked
for a little while before Sarah went to bed. He and I
sat for a bit and talked, I was tired but I won’t get to
see Emanuel for a while so I wanted to talk some.
However, before long I had to go to bed because I
was just too tired. I got up at about 7:30; Emanuel
was already up so I talked to him for a while before
Sarah joined us at 8 for breakfast. We chatted with a
guy from the UK (can’t remember his name now)
about healthcare, politics and a few other things, all in
all not the most exciting topics but interesting
nonetheless. Steven showed up at about 9:15, he was a
little late because he said there was an accident on the
way out of Freetown that slowed traffic down. We set
out from there and headed back to Kamakwie. We
stopped for lunch in Makeni, then went to the grocery
store to get some things for Sarah. When we finished I
went to call Steven only to notice that my phone
wasn’t working. So I borrowed a phone from one of the
guys at the store and called him. I offered to pay him
for the phone call but he said I shamed him. I felt bad
and apologized and thanked him for allowing me to call.
We sat outside and waited for Steven to arrive, all the
while the beggars who hang around St. Mary’s
supermarket watched us waiting. Steven arrived after a
little bit and we set out on the final part of our journey
to Kamakwie. We managed to arrive in Kamakwie at
around 3 or so. Once we got Sarah settled in there
wasn’t a whole lot more to do. That trip is exhausting so
I don’t feel like doing anything either, so that’s about all
for now.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

February 10th

Another exciting day in Africa. I went on rounds with Laura again
this morning. There is nothing like firsthand experience. I’m still
not 100% certain, and probably won’t be until I actually do it, but
I think medicine could be for me. I really like it, and I love getting
to know I’m helping someone. I love to serve and help people but
I have trouble seeing the big picture and like to know right away
what I’ve accomplished, instant gratification if you will. While
medicine isn’t always simple instant results, it can often be.
Rounds went pretty well this morning, nothing really new. After
finishing up rounds, I followed Tom and the medical students to
one of the procedure rooms where they were going to look at
some ulcers on a diabetic ladies feet (sparing the gross details)
and they confirmed that they will have to do some amputation as
long as the woman consents, if she doesn’t she’s gonna lose a lot
more than part of her foot because from what they said it’s
getting worse fast. After that we headed up to the house to await
lunch, not a pleasant prospect following what I just experienced.
After lunch I headed off to school for a few periods with my favorite
students, the SS 1s. I drew some pictures on the board of a butterfly,
caterpillar and a pupa. By no means are they works of art but I was
proud of them nonetheless. The kids were worried I was going to ask
them to draw them on a test, they all think that they have horrible
drawing skills and while in some cases I’m inclined to agree, they
could be worse. After classes I headed back to the hospital. My task
for this afternoon was to assemble two of the bike from my church,
which just meant put the handle bars back on. They’ve been around
for a while but you can’t imagine how hard it is to get the
handlebars and the rest of the bikes together when they are stored
separately. There is always just so much going on we never got
around to it. It would have probably been a while longer if not for
the fact that the medical students want to ride them. So I got the
handlebars on (one was missing the bolt so I had to find a substitute)
and aired up the tires. They are fit for riding, but they need adjusted
for size, which I’m not going to be able to do for Saturday which is
when they wanted to go riding. I’ll explain in a second so as not to
further disturb the chronology of events as I already do badly enough.
After I got that done I had to go to the market to pick up some beer
for beer battered fish. Karen has a guy who she provided fishing lures
for and so he occasionally brings her fish (monstrous fish) and she
likes to prepare them that way. Reverend Usman came for dinner
this evening, he didn’t stay too long after dinner, but it was
interesting to see him outside of a formal setting. After dinner I
decided to read some more. Tomorrow I have to go to Freetown to
pick up an incoming medical student. Karen just found out tonight
that she comes in tomorrow, until tonight she thought the student
was coming Monday, good thing she double checked tonight. We
almost stranded the poor girl. I will be back Saturday, but that will
be too late to prepare the bikes for Laura and Emily (see, I explained
why I can’t do the bikes without interrupting the chronology).
Anyway, that’s about it for tonight, I hope everyone has a great
evening and a great Friday.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

February 9th

I went down to the hospital this morning about 8 or so to join
Laura on rounds. Emily does the pediatric ward, so I’m not really
chomping at the bit to go on rounds with her considering my
love/hate relationship with that ward. Rounds went pretty good
albeit a little slow, the medical students are very thorough, which
is good, but when trying to see over 40 patients that means it
takes a while. We made it to men’s ward and saw most of the
cases before I had to leave to get ready for school. Since they
hadn’t even gone back over the wards with Tom and Karen was
still down at the hospital I just grabbed a couple of snacks for
lunch. Classes went ok. I’m still struggling with the SS 3s, they are
the ones who need the most work and the ones seemed the least
interested in learning. Part of their problem is their study habits,
staying up all night and then only sleeping maybe a few hours a
day so when they come to me at or near the end of the day they
are too mentally fatigued to do anything. I’ve tried and tried to
convince them that this won’t work, to no avail. The others are
doing better at least. We are still making progress a little bit at a
time. After I got home from classes I got to listen to Emily and
Laura go over some of the common intestinal parasites here,
going over transmission, symptoms and treatment. It was
interesting to hear but before Tom allowed me to listen he made
me promise one thing, that I wouldn’t immediately decide that I
had any or all of them, haha. I told him that I am the type of person
who watches a drug commercial and after hearing the symptoms
thinks I have what it treats. A bit silly, I know and I don’t really think
I have it, just a first thought before I discount it. After that I spent
most of the evening relaxing. The weather here is killing me. Not
that it’s really that hot, but the temperature will drop (relatively)
low and then spike back up and I guess it’s not making my body very
happy because I haven’t had much energy lately. On the bright side
I am getting a lot of reading done, which I love so it’s not too
horrible. Nothing else much is really going on.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

February 8th


This morning the girls decided to go ahead and eat with us. Tom made
pancakes, they were really good. After we finished eating, Emily, Laura
and I all headed down to the hospital. This morning I rounded on the
women’s ward and then men’s ward with Laura. It was quite a good
experience. She’s going to be a good doctor and it also helped me get
a little more input into the situations. The morning went pretty smoothly
I think. Not too bad overall. I had to leave before we finished rounding on
men’s ward to go get ready for school and to grab something to eat. While
I was going to the restroom I noticed in the mirror that they had missed
some hair around the crown of my skull, and it was sticking straight up…
So I took the clippers and trimmed it down myself. It wasn’t very hard, I
could probably give myself a haircut if I cared to try, which I don’t mind you.
School was again not too exciting. With the SS 3s I did some practical stuff,
identifying chemicals by the way they react to other chemicals, doing serial
dilutions and a couple other things. Then I had the SS 2s for biology. I gave
them their test and then just finished out the period teaching. When I got
back home Tom wasn’t here. So I headed down to the hospital and found
Tom there with Laura and Emily finishing up the clinic. After they finished
up there we headed over to the wards and found things weren’t quite all in
order. So we spent (we being they with me watching) a little over an hour
sorting things out. By the time it was all done with and everything was
sorted out we had set up a patient with meds that desperately needed
them but didn’t have them (the surgery case I observed on the 6th),
ordered some tests on a man likely to die very soon (we don’t know what
he has and they suspect that even if we figure it out his chances aren’t good,
another case of waiting too long) and a little girl with meningitis was gone,
taken home by her parent’s and is pretty much guaranteed to die now. We
have no idea why they left. They were just simply gone. So it was overall
not a very good evening. We all headed down to Pa Kanu’s for a soft drink.
I love Fanta, I was never partial to it at home but it’s such a wonderful
treat here that I think it’s amazing. After that we headed home, prepared
dinner and waited for Karen to arrive. It was nice to see her again (and of
course regain access to the internet, haha). After dinner I went down to
the hospital with the medical students to check on two cases and make
sure they were doing as well as possible, things were ok so we headed back
up and that puts me here, so with that I’ll wrap this up. Have a great evening.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

February 7th


This morning it was just Tom and I for breakfast. The medical students
decided to go down to the hospital and skip breakfast to start on
preliminary rounds. They wanted to have a chance to have more input
on the patients and if Tom is there it would be harder. Anyway, after
finishing breakfast, I headed down to the hospital because I didn’t want
to miss too much of the preliminary rounds because once Tom goes
back around to see the patients that the medical students have already
reviewed I would miss my favorite part, the diagnosing. I love to hear
the symptoms, see how the patient looks and do my best to try and
figure out what’s going on. Not that I can do a whole lot considering I
have no medical training but I have seen many cases and so I try. I think
I may over voice my opinion, I haven’t really asked, but Laura and Emily
say that they think I have a good thought process for medicine, that I ask
good questions. So that makes me feel good. I went with Tom and Emily
to review the Pediatric and OB wards. That went ok then we moved
onto women’s ward where it was the three of us and Laura was leading
through the patients. We got through women’s and moved onto men’s,
we finished men’s medical side and then I had to head up to the house to
make lunch. I also did some prep work for classes today. After lunch I
headed off to school. School went well, except that I forgot it was the first
Monday of the month and so they have their chapel session and the first
two classes of the day are essentially canceled. I only miss one period
since I don’t start till the second period but I was mildly annoyed
(couldn’t be too upset, I did forget) because I was planning on giving the
SS 2s a test but that had to be put off until tomorrow. The SS 3s and 1s
got their tests today. Other than that classes went fine today, still making
small progress. After classes I headed back up to the house to prepare
dinner. I had offered to do so since they would be in the hospital all day
and teaching isn’t all that stressful. I made a new dish this evening; it was
called Impossible Cheeseburger Pie. It came out real good but the whole
time I was cooking it stressed me out because things were just not going
as they were supposed to. But the end result was good so I’m happy. After
dinner I had Emily and Laura take a stab at cutting my hair. They just used
an electric trimmer so it wasn’t exactly complicated. They did a pretty good
job. Emily did the rough job cutting off most of the hair then Laura did the
fine trimming and such. They had fun doing it interestingly enough. I’m glad
it came out ok but I didn’t care that much, I just wanted the hair gone; it’s too
hot for long hair (not that it was really that long, probably just over an inch).
And that brings me to where I
sit, writing this entry, so I guess that’s all. Have a great evening.

Blessings from Kamakwie
Ryan Brooks

February 6th


Today was a nice day, in a way. We had breakfast at about 7:15ish
(normally we do it later on the weekend but the engineers were
leaving this morning). After they finished up and headed out I gave
Kelsey, Kim, and her sons a tour of the team house and the hospital
before seeing them off. After they left I did the breakfast dishes
then moved the fold out beds from the house where Kim and the
others stayed. Tom, Emily and Laura were too busy at the hospital
to go to church. Later, I decided to read my bible, while I was
reading my bible I accidently fell asleep for a little over an hour and
only woke up when Emily and Laura got to the house for lunch. So I
had to get up and get lunch made really quickly. I just made some
chicken soup and threw in a can of mixed vegetables, it was actually
really good. After lunch we went down to the hospital because there
was a man who had symptoms suggesting a possible bowel
perforation. So Tom was going to do an exploratory laparotomy
(sorry to the squeamish) which is where they cut into the abdomen
and “explore” the abdominal region to determine the source of
abdominal problems. I got to observe and it was absolutely
fascinating. I had less trouble watching this procedure than
watching a c-section. I won’t give the details for the sake of all of
you who don’t want to know, but I really enjoyed it (as morbid as
that might be). He did have a hole in his intestine. I just hope now
that he makes it alright after having to go through the operation,
but that’s to be seen. The procedure finished around 5:30 so after
getting him all settled in the men’s ward we headed back to the
house. I made dinner for us tonight. I made chicken chili, I think
it’s really good and everyone told me that they enjoyed it. After we
ate we spent a while just sitting around the table talking. At about
8 or so we headed down to the hospital to see the man and check
on how he is doing. Not much change since earlier other than that
he had woken up and was aware. They checked on a couple other
patients while we were down there. We stopped in the pediatric
ward. Still not a ward I like very much, there is a little girl with
malaria and meningitis and not doing very well, that always make
me sad. I know, I’m a glutton for punishment, going there knowing
how it makes me feel, but it’s also too interesting to avoid. After
that we headed back up to the house where Tom and I spent a
while talking. Then we realized we’d forgotten to clean the water
filter and so we took care of that. That’s about all for my day today;
it was pretty interesting but not too busy. Have a great night!

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

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