Joy in Africa!

This picture is explained below.

Everyone here is thrilled about Barack Obama's victory!!! There is joy in Africa. Our house gathered together for a celebratory dinner. The two gentlemen on the left are Kenyan nurses and delighted with the news. Marete, on the left, told us the felt this was a profound change for the world like the fall of the Berlin wall. He believes this is sign that racism is on the way out and there is the dawning of a new era where we work together. Let's hope so.

The other young women are Belgian occupational therapy students who are volunteering for 3 months in Rwanda. They are 20 and 24 and extremely brave. There is only one occupational therapist now in Rwanda ( 9 million people). These women travel to visit children with cerebral palsy and to try to help the mothers find better ways to care for these children. Sadly, the incidence of cerebral palsy is very high.

We spent our first day at the public hospital (CHK). It is a study of contrasts. Some areas, such as the new maternity unit, are beautiful of a very high standard. There is a lot of construction going on and they are building six new operating rooms. Right now surgery is squeezed into a very small space. Genevieve is showing the male change room. The female change room is behind the sheet. (sorry, I can't figure out how to move the picture here)

I'm signing off now. There's lots more to tell but we are putting in crazy long days and not getting enough sleep. We leave for Butare tomorrow and may not be back to Kigali till Sunday so you may have a bit of reprive from my constant blogging.

scene of power point preparations

why aren't you girls voting?

Today we were mistaken for Americans but what the people wondered was why we weren't in the US voting for Obama. Believe me, we would if we could!

Today was our first day in the OR at the private hospital. It is quite well equiped and the staff are great. Still, there are lots of frustrations. Today we did two beautiful spinals but there was no effect whatsoever. The bupivacaine was not expired but must have been bad. How frustrating is that? We had to convert to general twice in one day for spinals that went in easily.

This is so amazing. There are a huge number of nurses and doctors here who are volunteers from Cuba. Cuba pays their salaries and Rwanda provides them with accomodation and a small food allowance. They volunteer for two years. If Cuba can be this generous we should be able to do more.

A few other things. The neonatal ICU is excellently equiped and run; it could easily have been in North America. We met fantastic nurse anesthetist, Janviere, who is as sharp as they come. We also found that orthopedic surgeons are the same everywhere.

We have been overwhelmed at people's gratitude for our teaching. They are so incredibly welcoming and warm.

We have spent the past four hours sitting out on our deck, listening to the birds, burning mosquito coils and working like fiends to prepare our power point presentations for tomorrow. It's great to be on line in paradise.

meeting the residents

It has been great to hear from some of you and if we don't reply to all the e-mails we are still very glad to get your messages. Thanks a lot.

We had a full day today of meeting the director of CHK (Kigali Hospital), a journey to the other end of Kigali to the Rwanda Medical Council, and meeting the chief of anesthesia and CHK as well as many of the residents.

We have found everyone to be gentle, warm and very welcoming. The residents had some excellent ideas as to how they would like to see the teaching done and we now have a program for the month.

There were some other exciting moments today, like when I couldn't find my passport. We looked everywhere and had a very frustrating visit to the Canadian Embassy. We did have to go there to register, which was fine, but replacing a passport is not easy. I would have to get a police report but neither of the staff members there could tell me where the police station was, what it was called or how to find it. They thought it might be near some other building of nebulous description at the edge of town. The whole discussion took so long we had to move on to our next appointment. Fortunately, the passport did turn up at the only other place where it could be - the tourism office where we picked up our gorilla permits yesterday. I was so ecstatic to receive it - mainly because the burocratic nightmare to replace it would be unthinkable.

So, here's the good things I love about Rwanda: gentle, delightful people; slow pace, no hurry; quiet city - a million people but few private cars, lots of people still on foot; mangos, passion fruit; lush vegetation and flowers everywhere; surprisingly few mosquitos; absolutely perfect air temperature; so much beauty.

These things are not so good: toilets!!!; the showers - you can take a cold shower, with low water pressure, or a hot shower but you have to hold the hand piece AND the switch for the shower at the same time as you squat because there is no where to hang the shower head; beds that are more like hammocks; prices that seem way higher than they should be considering the salaries of people here; things that just don't get fixed.

Genevieve and I are trying to laugh about the plumbing issues because we are very happy to be here and especially to meet the wonderful members of the anesthesia department. They are great folks.

Just last night we were talking to a housemate who will be getting married in four weeks. He invited us to the wedding and told us his family would put us up. They will have 500 guests, which is rather small in Africa as 2,000 would not be usual. This invitation was after knowing Haron for one day! We will be back in Canada by then....

I should add, and it must be obvious, that you cannot go anywhere near a TV or newspaper without seeing Barack Obama. They can hardly wait!!

Hotel des Mille Collines

Genevieve by the pool. They are building a nightclub, hense the construction.

first day in Kigali

This is the view from my balcony at the guesthouse. I woke up to the sound of many birds and otherwise quiet. Genevieve and I spent the day walking around Kigali to get oriented. We walked to the hospital where we will be working tomorrow and downtown. We had lunch at the famous Hotel des Mille Collines. It was so strange to be there, knowing the tragic history.

I am finding it slow to upload photos but will try a few more.

Arrival in Kigali

Genevieve and I have finally arrived in Kigali after what seems an eternity on airplanes. We had a 10 hour layover in London, but took a day room so managed a nap, swim and shower. The 6 hour layover in Nairobi airport was less luxurious but we immediately noticed how much slower the pace is. We spent an interesting hour chatting with a British gentleman who is a retired engineer working for Oxfam. He has been everywhere in Africa and just returned from Somalia where he was assessing a water program. The city he departed was bombed the next day. He was in charge of 350,000 refugees in Tanzania just after the Rwandan genocide. He's a wonderful man and was full of good advice and also praise for Rwanda.

Would it be a cliche to say that from the airplane Rwanda is green and hilly? The customs officer was without doubt the most friendly I've encountered. He was beaming as he welcomed us to Rwanda.

We are now getting settled into the guesthouse and I am far too tired to write anything more. I'm also in need of resucitation as my heart rate is 110 and my oxygen sat is 94.

xxoo Patty