January 27th

So, today I went ahead and went on rounds with Solomon. We
started out in the pediatric ward and took care of them fairly
quickly. There was a lady with two children (twins) one was a boy
and the other was a girl. They were only nine days old and the boy
was literally almost twice the size of the girl. The girl was so small
but very cute. They referred them to the Alpha unit which is a
ward in the hospital that deals with malnutrition. The woman had
twins but only had the tool to feed one (if you catch my drift) and
so Solomon decided they should get some help with that. After
finishing up with the pediatric ward we moved on to the men’s
ward. I like this ward but I think that could be that I’m most
familiar with it and some of the patients who have been there
longer are quite friendly to me (and most of the ones who are new
cases are usually pretty friendly too). The cases are always
different. Even the people with malaria almost never present the
same way. It takes quite a familiarity with all the possible
presentations of malaria to be able to say (without a malaria test)
that a patient has malaria. My favorite part about helping in the
hospital is looking at the patients, their symptoms and trying to
come up with the possible ailment. I think the medical field
could be for me. Don’t quote me on that one but you never know.
After we finished up rounds I headed back up to the house. I
checked on my spliced together plant, all the leaf/branch things
are dying but there is a little new growth on the top so I’m hoping
it’s going to work. I also spent some time writing some of my past
blogs, I got a little behind (surprise surprise), until Tom came up at
a little after 12. By time we got done with lunch it was 1ish and so I
decided to relax for a little bit. I have an easy teaching day on
Thursdays, three periods with the SS 1s. Unfortunately there was a
small complication today, I had a migraine. Teaching went ok but I
had to keep on my sunglasses and continually ask the kids to try
and keep the noise down. I taught them bio for a period, then they
have a period in between my bio class and my chem class (they are
supposed to have physics but the teacher doesn’t come) so I
decided that I will try my best to help them with physics during
that period since I don’t have anything to do that period anyway.
We worked on the metric system and converting distances today. I
think we made good progress, but I need to check them when I see
them tomorrow. Then we had chemistry and by the end they were
pretty restless (I think just about anyone would be after 135
minutes of listening to me drone on about biology, chemistry and
physics). After class I called Solomon to see if we could practice on
the Honda some and he said he would have to check and call me
back. Which pretty much means no if I don’t call him myself so when
Tom asked if I wanted to go on a walk I said sure. We took some
petrol cans with us since we needed some and would be passing a
fuel station on the way to where we were going. We walked down to
one of the low areas near Kamakwie where they actually used to
mine diamonds. Now they gather sand there and use it to make
concrete blocks. It’s actually quite a laborious process. The sand is
actually dug out of an embankment into some water. One guy does
this and then once he has enough in his water pit he spends about an
hour stomping around in the pit to separate the dirt from the sand
(the dirt enters the water in suspension while the sand stays settled
out). Once he’s done with that the same guy uses a shovel to toss the
sand up onto the embankment (which is higher than his head so not
an easy task). Then some younger kids fill bags and big bowls with
sand and carry it on their heads up a little ways to a place where they
make the concrete blocks. They leave the sand there and someone
else mixes the sand with some cement to form the concrete, place it
into a mold and then set them up to dry. Once they dry the Sierra
Leoneans will come and take two blocks and carry them on their head
to wherever they are doing a building project. I haven’t picked one up
but I cannot imagine that they are even remotely light in any sense of
the word other than that they are a pale grey almost white. I plan on
going back once I’ve got my camera to take some pictures because
it’s absolutely fascinating and the place where they are cutting the
sand out of is actually quite beautiful in a way. After we got back we
finished watering some of the plants in the yard. Once we had
finished with that Tom and I decided to walk downtown to pick up
some bread for dinner. It was only a little after 7 but that’s already
dark. After dinner I spent some time looking at a map of Sierra Leone.
It’s got quite a variety of geological features. There are numerous
national forests, a few mountains (some exceeding a mile in height,
I’ve been up to 12500 feet (more than two miles) but that’s starting
from a higher height as well. These mountains come up from land not
too high about sea level. I think it would be amazing to go climb them.
After I got bore with that I decided that I should finish my other
blogs and write this one. But now that I’ve finished I’m heading for
bed, good night everyone.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

January 26th

This morning I went ahead and did rounds with Solomon even though it
was Wednesday and they are supposed to go “ground rounds” which is
when Tom, Solomon and the other most senior medical staff member,
LA, go around seeing each ward one at a time. Tom said he had other
things to do and didn’t have time to go through each ward which takes
about four hours depending on patient population. When we finished I
headed up to the house. When I got there I noticed that one of the
young papaya trees in the front had been snapped off at the middle. I
asked Pa what happened but he didn’t know. So I took some splints,
tape and a knife and I tried to splice it back together, I don’t know if it
will work but I think I did it the way you are supposed to. It’s been a
long time since Junior year of high school and that’s when I remember
reading about grafting and such things. That finished, I decided to
walk over to the tailor’s and I even I managed to get there in about
15 minutes. Normally it takes 25 to 30 but I was hurrying so I didn’t
waste a whole hour. I got there only to be told that his daughter had
left 30 minutes before meaning that if I had just been a little patient
she would have turned up. I went ahead and paid him and set out for
the house. I almost immediately called Tom and he told me that the girl
had just arrived. She would… Anyway, I walked back to the house as fast
as I could (making it in about 10 minutes) so that I could check and
make sure everything was there since I was the one who had taken all
the stuff for the three of us (Tom, Karen and I). Once I’d done that I set
about preparing lunch and Tom arrived not long after. Following lunch I
laid down for a little bit thinking I had until 1:50 to be at school, but at
about 1:25 I got a call from one of my SS 1s asking if we were having
class, I forgot that class today starts at 1:05 and it’s tomorrow where I
don’t have class until 1:50. Oops, haha. Anyway it ended up being ok
because they have a free period after our two periods so I just kept
teaching, which I will probably keep doing. My SS 1s are my favorites, I
may not know all of their names because there are so many (29 now)
but they pay attention the best, listen when I tell them to stop talking,
and they are the most forward about asking questions for clarification.
It’s easier teaching them as a whole because of their willingness to ask
questions. It makes explaining the material easier because I don’t have
to think of everything I think they need to know. After them comes my
SS 3s, of which I had one today. They are my least favorite to teach for a
few reasons. It’s not that I don’t like them but I think being their friends
inhibits my ability to teach them because they don’t respect me as much
as an authority figure. Also, they just plain are very good students. They
don’t pay attention very well, usually zoning out and they almost never
ask questions so I have no idea what they are and aren’t understanding.
When I think they should know something and so I don’t bother to
explain it they don’t ask if they don’t know. It’s just hard to teach that
way. After my one student left my SS 2s came. They are my middle
grade and are the middle of my scale of who I like teaching most. They
are more respectful but are frequently disruptive in class because they
have a problem with arguing with one another. But they are pretty good
students and ask some questions. But like I said, my SS 1s are my
favorites. After school I was supposed to get to do some Honda practice
but my phone had died on me and by time I got to the house, dropped
my stuff off and walked down to Solomon’s it was already 5:40or so and
at that point there wasn’t a whole lot of point in trying to start a lesson
that I would have to stop in 20 minutes to be back home. When I got to
the house Tom asked if I’d seen Abdul and I told him no, that he hadn’t
been at school so we decided to walk to his house to find out if he was
there and see if he was coming for dinner. We found him there and he
told us he hadn’t been at school because he had to go back to his
mother’s village to take the news that one of his uncles had died in
Freetown (his mother’s brother). He gets sent to the village pretty
regularly by his mother and when he does he pretty much never makes
it back for school. You’d think that the parent’s here would want to
keep from interfering in their kid’s education but here kids do a lot of
the work (which in turn their kids will do it when they have some). The
only problem with that is it often interferes with their studies which
they need as much of as they can do. We told him to come up for dinner
and he said he would. Tom and I walked back up to the house and
decided to water some of the papaya and pineapple trees in the yard
while we waited for Abdul to get here. It was a good thing we decided
to because he took over half an hour to arrive. His mother had asked
him to do something before coming up. After dinner Alusine turned up
to borrow my camera, and Saidu stopped by while he was here. We
talked for a little bit but then they left and I decided to read for a little
while. While I was reading I thought about something. I like it here. I
love to serve and have many different opportunities to serve here. I do
my teaching, but I can also help at the hospital. I can help in so many
ways here. I know from past experience from doing service in boy
scouts, with my fraternity in college, and with Campus Crusade for
Christ that I can do the worst of jobs and be happy doing them for
nothing as long as I know I’m in some way serving someone. But when
it comes to working for a paycheck I haven’t done anything that I don’t
dislike. I even got to work in a research lab and I didn’t enjoy it. I know
in a way I was helping people working there but I feel fulfilled when I’ve
done something I can see. I don’t like working to get money. It seems
like such a pointless pursuit. The money always goes and you have to
keep doing it again and again. Having only my needs met and serving
people is worth so much more to me than having a lot of things. I don’t
know if this is something I could do with my life though. I miss my family,
and many of my friends from college some of whom are like family to
me. It’s hard being away from them. That being said, I’ve been told
countless times that nothing worth doing is ever easy. I’m willing to
serve God wherever he sends me, but I can hope that in the future it’s
a little closer to my loved ones right? Anyway, before I babble on any
more I think I better put a halt to my meandering thoughts.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

January 25th

I went down to the hospital and did rounds this morning with
Tom. We ended up going around the whole hospital and seeing
every ward and almost every patient. I like seeing the pediatric
ward because that’s where all the little kids are and I love kids.
But it’s also a hard ward to do because it’s hard to see the little
kids sick, especially as sick as some of them are. But the kids
there today are all pretty healthy. They are all old cases who
are just waiting till they are well enough to go home. After we
finished rounds it was time for lunch so Tom and I headed up to
the house. Classes went ok, nothing really notable about them.
We are slowly but surely making progress in all areas. After
classes I met up with Solomon around 5:20 or so to take the
Honda over to see the tailor to pick up the stuff we had asked
him to make. I drove and it was an interesting experience. It
wasn’t too bad but I had to learn how to go up a hill, because I
stalled the bike going up my first hill. I didn’t know I needed to
lower the gears to get up a hill, and Solomon kept saying “raise
it” by which he meant accelerate and I thought he meant the
gears, so I raised the gear, and proceeded to stall. Then we had
a little conversation to sort out what he meant by the things he
was saying. Once we got that all sorted out things went fine.
We made it to the tailor’s but he wasn’t there and his kids
couldn’t find him so his daughter said if he came back she
would bring the stuff to the house. Since we had no more
reason to be there we headed back up to the house. I made it
successfully to the hospital which involved climbing two hills
and I managed both without stalling. Solomon said I did a good
job, which means he thinks I did a good job because if he
thought I did badly he would have definitely let me know. After
dinner Tom and I decided a movie would be good. So we
watched National Treasure 2. I love them so I’m glad they at
least have the second one here. Tom went to bed shortly after
the movie and I think I’m just about to do the same. Good night all.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

January 24th

Poor Tom was up till 3 am last night doing a C – section. I spent
the morning preparing for classes so it wasn’t the most exciting
morning. I forgot to share a fun little occurrence. Karen has the
cook, Kadiatu prepare foods for dinner and one day she made a
chicken pot pie sort of thing and she left it in the oven since you
can’t store it hot in the fridge or it eats up the power in the
batteries trying to cool it. So later that night when it was time
for dinner we heated it up and were getting ready to eat it
when we discovered something that made us try not to look to
closely at the food we were eating. The ants had invaded the
oven and gotten in the food and were roasted when it was
heated back up. Not to waste anything we enjoyed the pot pie
while trying to ignore the extra protein bits. I don’t think,
scratch that, I would not have, before coming here, ever have
done that. It would have been dumped into the garbage faster
than you could blink. The things you just deal with in Africa.
Anyway, she made it again this morning so we took a big
laundry bowl, put some water in it and placed the dish in it to
create a sort of water moat that the ants can’t and don’t cross
and so we enjoyed some ant free pot pie for lunch and dinner.
Teaching went ok today, though I gave a quiz today and the
results were less than desirable… The SS 1s told me that they
tried to study but couldn’t understand so we went back over
the material we’ve done this term so hopefully they’ll have a
better understanding. The SS 2s didn’t offer an excuse, they
just did poorly and I don’t know why. I don’t think my questions
were very hard, I just don’t think they study enough. They
apparently only really study right before a test (or in my classes
a quiz since they don’t have quizzes in any other classes) and
several of them said they weren’t aware that we were having a
quiz. Oh well, if they don’t pay attention I’m not going to take
pity on them. Anyway, after classes I came back to the house
for dinner around six. After dinner I spent a little bit reading
then Saidu showed up. We walked over to the school because
Saidu wanted to go for a walk. I saw Kabba there, he was there
for night classes along with many other students, at least 100
and definitely more. It was good to see them dedicated to their
studies even if they still know very little. I don’t know how they
know so little with the number of extra classes they take and the
studying they supposedly do. Anyway, after that we came back
to the house and then Saidu went off to go do some studying
and I read some. But now it’s time for me to get to sleep.

Good night and God bless,
Ryan Brooks

January 23rd

Karen, Ryan and Gretchen (the two medical students we’ve had
for the last for weeks) set out for Freetown at a little after 9 this
morning. The medical students are spending a few days in and
around Freetown before they return to the United States on
Thursday. Then Karen will return Thursday evening with two
new medical students who I don’t know. After they left Tom
and I got ready and went to the Katherie church this morning.
It’s definitely my favorite church, small and no loud speakers to
make my poor ears hurt during worship. A little kid named
Jessie sat with me through the service, I’ve met him before but
I don’t know when but apparently he likes me because he came
right over to me and sat next to me (which required me to
move over as there was no space). The biggest drawback to the
service is that the message is in Krio and Limba, and I just don’t
know Krio well enough. I’m still working on that but it’s hard.
After church Tom and I wandered around the market. He
hadn’t gone down there in a while and he was looking at the
fabric available because he wants to maybe make some ties for
gifts. The medical students had some made and it gave him the
idea. I was also looking for some fabric for a dress for Karen
that matched some fabric she already had picked for it. What
made her trust me with that I have no idea, I didn’t even know
that pink and red shouldn’t go together (long story short a prom
date in HS was going to wear pink and I suggested a red dress
shirt and almost got attacked by the lady at the tux place she
responded no so forcefully). Tom and I spent the afternoon
inside resting out of the heat. It’s starting to get hot again in
the afternoons (not that it wasn’t before, I guess I should say
hotter). The “cool” time of the year has lasted less than a
month, I imagine it’ll be gone before the end of the first week
in February. The nights are starting to warm back up as well.
Anyway, around 4 or so Tom and I walked over to the tailor to
deliver the fabric I had found for Karen’s dress. I took a little
creative liberty so I hope she likes it. I think it will be nice but
like I said… After that we spent until 6 walking around exploring.
After dinner when the power came on we watched a movie
called Letter to Juliet. It was a pretty good movie, a good deal
of humor but not a comedy, my favorite type of humor I don’t
like most pure comedies. Anyway, that’s about all for today,
have a great night.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks

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