Muraho! Greeting from Rwamagana, Rwanda.
Claire’s and my first week here has been an adventure. Each
week I hope to share a small update, a highlight, a challenge, and something
comical that has happened from our experience here.
We arrived Thursday night and spent the weekend in Kigali
with my sister Emily, her finacé Shami, Noel, and Mama Nyanja and Babu (our
friends with whom we stay while in the city). We were able to adjust to the
time change quickly (really no jet lag at all- we are becoming experts at this!) and we enjoyed adventures around the city to exchange our money
into Rwandan francs and go to the outdoor market to buy vegetables and fruit.
I was also so excited to go back to Emily’s church which I very much enjoyed
while visiting in December.
On Monday we were ready to go the Rwamagana Hospital (about
an hour from Kigali) for our first day to become orientated and see where we
would be doing our rotations. This is a government hospital and it has an ER, a
pharmacy, a mental health ward, an outpatient ward, a physical therapy
ward, a surgical ward, an internal medicine ward, a maternity ward, and a
pediatric ward.
Although they mostly speak Kinyarwanda and French, the doctors and medical students know enough English to communicate and they are very
welcoming. We learned that this is one of the four teaching hospitals in
Rwanda, and we are thankful to be in this learning environment where the nurses
and doctors want to help us learn and achieve our goals.
Update: This first
week we have been working alongside three Rwandan nursing/ medical students who
are on rotations in the pediatric ward with us, and they speak English very
well. They taught us how they fill out the nursing care plan for each patient
on a daily basis, how to take vital signs, and we learned what it sounds like
through a stethoscope when a patient has pneumonia or asthma. We also learned
how to read an x-ray to check if a patient has tuberculosis.
The most common illnesses that the pediatric patients
present here is malaria, malnutrition, and pneumonia. Cases of cleft lip and
palate are also present.
Highlights of the week:
Rwamagana is beautiful! It is also very safe so we can walk around the town
without needing a Rwandan to accompany us, even after dark. We both agreed that
we could live in a place like this.
The people here are very friendly and we are
enjoying learning how hospitals are operated in countries of limited resources.
The staff are very welcoming and we are learning a lot about the common
diseases found in in children here and the proper treatments.
Challenge of the week:
Both Claire and I have new Dansko shoes for nursing, and we are currently
breaking them in (we will be ready to start clinicals at school in the fall!) but because we
leave to walk to the hospital at 7:45am and get back for lunch at 12:45pm, then go back from 1:45pm to 5:00pm. This many hours of standing and walking for multiple days in a row is making for very hurting feet! Claire also has problems with her left foot and right knee,
and I have problems with my lower back, so we are in much pain while getting
accustomed to standing for so many hours at a time.
Humor of the week:
on our first day of work, I poured salt instead of sugar into my coffee! I
missed out on a great cup of coffee (and caffeine). The next day I skipped
attempting to put sugar in altogether.
Also the toilet clogged this day, and by the time we
acquired a toilet plunger, it was after dark and the electricity had also gone
out! How Claire and I have both gone our whole lives without having to plunge a
toilet, I don’t know, but it would be a first for both of us, and somehow I was
elected to do it. Thankfully Claire brought her headlamp (so glad I gave that
to her for her birthday a couple years ago—it certainly comes in handy so often
for us!) so headlamp on head and plunger in hand I went into the dark bathroom
without a clue as to what I was doing. But whatever I did worked! On my first
try, I successfully plunged a toilet (and good thing, because clogged toilets are becoming a daily theme). As I washed my hands afterwards, the sink started to
leak. Nothing the bathroom floor rag can’t clean up for now.
Another funny was that Claire and I have started a small
running club… here in Rwamagana the neighborhood dirt roads are great for running, but every
day after coming home from the hospital when we go out for a jog, the
neighborhood kids think it’s a great idea to join us so as we go, we collect a
small pack of kids jogging behind us, and they think it’s hilarious!
the road outside Mama's house in Kigali
Africa Bite! Lunch with Shami and Babu for authentic Rwandan food in Kigali
Spending time with Emily and Shami before leaving for Rwamagana for the week
At Mama's house before leaving for our first day at the hospital
Rain clouds coming over the beautiful hills on the way from Kigali to Rwamagana
African tea with ginger.. a favorite
toilet plunging
