Well, it’s been a busy week in Lake Kivu district! Cal spent most of the week on the road visiting three rural district hospitals where we are training Family and Community Medicine doctors. One of them has a long-term doctor who is taking charge of the training, but the other two require regular visits. A typical day includes arriving about 9:30 AM after a 1.5 – 2 hour drive, following one or more of the resident doctors through their rounds in the hospital ward they are overseeing (which alternates between Ob, Medicine, Surgery, and Pediatrics), and then having more extended discussions or short teaching sessions with the group of residents in the afternoon. The cases are fascinating – most are severely ill with long-standing illness such as liver failure, kidney failure, chronic osteomyelitis (infection in the bone), heart valve disease with heart failure, or chronic malnutrition. Interestingly, there are almost no cases of malaria in any of the hospitals, which is a marked change from only 2 years ago when almost 30% of all patients were ill with malaria. Many think that this is due to the widespread free distribution of insecticide-treated bednets and the widespread use of a new anti-malarial drug for those infected, which more effectively kills the parasite.
Mimi has been thoroughly enjoying herself making our house a home. We were blessed with a visit from John and Kathi Pitzer, neighbors from Denver and long-time friends, for the first two weeks of January, who helped immeasurably with the initial organization, curtains, and moving things around. They also spent a week teaching at a School for Deaf Children run by a group of nuns, introducing classes in sewing and carpentry.
One major goal of the Pitzers was to help us unpack our shipping container which had been sent in early September, the container had not arrived in Rwanda by the time they had to leave. It did arrive last week however, and two days ago, on a Friday afternoon, a truck pulled up to the house with the largest Christmas event ever! We now have a refrigerator, freezer, washer and dryer, gas stove, and box after box of items we had totally forgotten about! God still provided assistance however – we are hosting three men from Denver who came to participate in a Church meeting in Rwanda and then move on to Uganda to check some projects in which they are involved there. They had two free days to help us unpack, and they worked steadily with us to distribute the goodness in the boxes.
We currently have two visiting doctors with us (a husband-wife team) from the University of Colorado, one of whom is teaching birth control to Ob and Family Medicine residents, and the other who is working with the clinical instructors at the main teaching hospital to help develop their teaching skills. They are both avid cyclists, and last weekend took a 180 km. trip with a staff member of the Rwnadan Cycling Team. One of the memorable moments with them came from a planning session with the Head of the Ob/Gyn Dept, who attempted to moderate their ambitious teaching plans with the statement, "You Americans wear the timepiece, but we Rwandans have the time!"
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