back from Butare

We returned last night from our final stay in Butare, where we teach every two weeks. Butare is about three hours south west of Kigali and is a much quieter town where the National University of Rwanda is located. The trip there and back is an opportunity to see the beautiful Rwandan countryside and yesterday afternoon it was at its best. The sun was shining on the terraced hills, rice fields and banana groves making everything a brilliant green. The houses are all brick, stone or clay and reddish brown. And everywhere, along the road, are people - women with bright yellow dresses, a baby on the back and a huge load of potatoes on her head; men cycling with just about anything you can name (yes, we've seen two mattresses on the back of a bike, a dresser, a dozen stacked chairs and, of course, a family); children as young as 4 or 5 with heavy jugs of water. No one is Rwanda is obese! Still, they appear to be healthy and reasonably well nourished. In the country the way of life cannot have changed much.

As a backdrop to this landscape there are the hills that fad in layers into the distance. The country is absolutely beautiful.

In Butare our time was well spent with teaching two of the first year residents. There are only nine residents in Rwanda and they are all our friends! They are bright, hard working people who struggle to do their best in horrific circumstances. They are without the most basic equipment - oxygen saturation monitors are hard to find, carbon dioxide monitors are nonexistant and even a blood pressure cuff may not be available. The anesthesia machines often us a working bit of one with a working bit of another. The residents know they need better equipment but still have to do their best in this situation.

We continue to find that people are very receptive and encouraging with whatever we suggest. It is so easy to set up meetings and there is wonderful receptivity and communication. It feels as though Rwanda is very open and has few obstacles. It is the opposite of all the burocracy and red tape we experience in North America. We had dinner with an brilliant Ugandan surgeon, Dr. Patrick, who is now chief of surgery and acting dean of post-graduate education at NUR ( National University of Rwanda). Dr. Patrick has experience with partnerships between universities in Canada and Africa. He helped set up one between McMaster and the university in Mbarara, Uganda. We told him we would be very keen to see something develop between Dalhousie and NUR. We also spent an hour with the Dean of Medicine at NUR, Dr. Herbert. He is an insightful man and was very encouraging.

Genevieve and I have found our thinking has shifted in the past few days. Instead of thinking we have ample time in Rwanda, we now realize we are in the home stretch. We leave on November 28. We both feel strongly that we need and want to come back. It seems we have barely begun.

Our driver to and from Butare, Terry, is a wonderful young man who was only 15 when he lost his father, aunt, uncle and brothers in the genocide. I felt like I had been stabbed in the heart when we drove by the graveyard where they are all buried. Everyday there are reminders of this tragedy and we have found people to be very open in discussing it. Today Terry is going to take us to one of the genocide memorials.

We are still shocked that this devastating event could have happened in a country where we find the people to be so warm and gentle.

Love, Patty