Yeah, gyms are currently down. But now is your time to find some new pokemon to join you, evolution them up, and get ready to bring some pain!!!
Also you can try finding more players of your faction via facebook, reddit, or google+ just to name a few. A lot of times if you create a group for your area you get people trickling in, there may be more than you think.
If you have any Go questions feel free to fire them out whenever, I really do enjoy augmented reality game and love helping other people enjoy it too.