Hippos & Giraffes & Zebras, Oh My.

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Last week was bizee bizee. Here are a few things that went down:

• Dr. Calland was here for the week. It was great having him here! He's so insightful/fun/generous/inspiring. I'm lucky to have him as a mentor. We got a lot of work done on my project! We finished processing all the data from the survey, and, this week, I'll be writing abstracts to send to various research symposiums happening this fall. The current list of potential locales includes North Carolina, Florida, AND Trinidad & Tobago. I'm crossing my fingers that someone accepts my abstract. I'm looking at you, Trinidad-&-Tobago-research-symposium-abstract-screening people.

• A few days ago, Oscar (one of the newly-graduated Rwandan medical students) took us to a market so we could buy fruit. Turns out $10 will buy you about 30 lbs. of avacados, sugar cane, bananas, mangos, and passion fruit in Rwanda. I might never leave.

• All of my credit cards and internet accounts think that my identity has been stolen. Apparently, it's weird for people to buy something in America one day and something in Sub-Saharan Africa the next. Google is especially worried about me. Thanks for caring, Google.

• One of my favorite parts about this summer is the time we spend at CHUK (Central Hospital du University du Kigali), the flagship hospital in Rwanda. Healthcare in the U.S. and in Rwanda are soooooooo different. In the mornings I go to the surgery department's morning report to hear the attendings and residents discuss current surgical cases. In the afternoons, I work on research, meet with my collaborators, and/or attend seminars. 

• On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to sit in on mock oral boards for the surgical residents. Dr. Richard, the surgeon giving the mock orals, is a visiting attending from the Harvard-affiliated Mass. Gen. Hospital. She definitely knows her stuff. Dr. Richard appointed me to be the timekeeper while the residents answered questions about hypothetical surgical cases. 

• At one point, there was some confusion about a case. Dr. Richard asked all the residents what the best way to differentiate an upper GI bleed from a lower GI bleed is. None of them knew. Then she turned to me and asked me if I knew. Although I thought I knew the correct answer, turns out, I actually didn't. So much for my moment of glory. FYI, my answer: color of the stool sample. Correct answer: retro-suction with a naso-gastric tube. She smiled and said, "Nice try." haha Thanks. Doubt my future patients will say that. Guess I still have stuff I need to learn.

• This weekend, Dibya, Valentina, Yi, and I decided to take a quick trip to Akagera. For those of you who don't know (as in, 98% of you), Akagera is a national park in eastern Rwanda. It's the only safari park in Rwanda and, even though it doesn't have as many types of animals (i.e. no lions, cheetahs, rhinos etc.) as the bigger parks in east Africa, there is still a lot to see. Highlights included: driving around the savannah in our safari car, staying in a nice little lodge that had baboons walking around the grounds, eating mango and juice and pastries for breakfast, and, most of all, getting a ton of great pictures of the animals. Shout out to mama bear for letting me use her zoom lens.

 

A Visit to the Genocide Memorial

This week was a little lest touristy, a little more researchy. Accordingly, I don’t have as many crazy stories to tell or cool pictures to show. Still, a few interesting things happened:

• I finally got my suitcase back!!!! 8 days after I flew into Kigali. 8 days. EIGHTDAYZ. That’s a lot of days to be living out of a hastily packed carryon. Too many, if you ask me. Apparently, a Rwandan guy named Jean Dedieu Nshimiyimanana (I’m not making his name up. That’s what the airport told me.) accidentally nabbed my suitcase, thinking it was his. He then traveled home to southern Rwanda and, for reasons unbeknownst to me, didn’t call the airport and didn’t bring my suitcase back to Kigali for an entire week. Yeah, I know. It seems weird to me, too. The whole situation has been incredibly frustrating, but, hey, at least I have my suitcase back.

• On Thursday, Ginni, Dahea, and I went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the biggest genocide museum in Rwanda. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the Rwandan genocide occurred over a 90-day period during the summer of 1994. Nearly one million Tutsis (the ethnic minority in Rwanda) were killed, and much of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed.  Despite knowledge of the situation, Western powers failed to intervene. It is a tragedy on many levels. As you might imagine, visiting the museum was an incredibly sad experience. Unbelievably tragic.

• The museum is built adjacent to a mass grave where over a quarter million bodies were dumped by the genocidaires near the end of the genocide. The grounds include breathtaking gardens and fountains dedicated to the victims. Inside, the museum guides you through the history of the events leading up to the genocide, the genocide itself, and the aftermath of the genocide. 

• Unfortunately, there was no happy ending to the genocide. No silver lining. At least nothing that begins to approach to the significance of the lives that were lost. The only thing to do now is to remember the victims and strive to not repeat such events. The thought that kept coming back to me over and over again was that something so horrific and so pervasive didn’t occur overnight or out of the blue. This resulted from the cumulation of millions and millions of bad decisions. It was a reminder to me that we need to stand up for what we believe is right both when the stakes are high and even when they are low.

• Whew. Sorry. That was heavy. But the genocide is the defining moment of Rwandan history, and I knew I would have to write about it at some point. For anyone looking for more info on the genocide, I'd highly recommend the book, "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We will be Killed with our Families." It's well-researched and balanced:

• In lighter news, we finally got moved into our hostel! Here’s a picture. It’s pretty basic, but it works. Every time I walk to the community showers in my flip-flops, I feel like I’m a 13 year old at Boy Scout camp again. It’s semi-fun.  Other highlights include complementary mosquito nets, low maintenance concrete floors, a chic brick wall on one side of the room, and a tribe of geckos that are semi-terrifying and semi-cute. Plus, it’s next to a large Catholic church. People are constantly singing. It’s breathtaking. Rwandans have the voices of angels. Yesterday, I awoke to Handel’s Messiah coming through my window. Overall, I’m pleased with our accommodations. 

• On Sunday, Dahea and I somehow managed to locate one of the LDS churches in Kigali. Given the directions we had, it was nothing short of a miracle (click picture to enlarge):

• Turns out "Cobblestone Rd" is actually a cobblestone road (rather than a road named "Cobblestone Rd"), and also turns out that the cobblestone road had been dug up during a recent construction project. Dahea and I knew none of this when we were searching for the church, but, after prowling around the parliament building for a few minutes, we ran into a Rwandan guy carrying a Book of Mormon and followed him to the church.

• Apparently there are three LDS congregations in Kigali now, and they are all growing quickly. As soon as the church gains legal status, they'll be able to build an official chapel with a sign. Till then, though, they have to meet in this dump:

•  With this terrible view:

• So tragic. haha Dahea and I loved going to church! We will be traveling to different cities and countries most weekends, but Dahea and I both hope we get to go back before we leave Rwanda. For the record, Rwandan Mormons are pretty much like other Mormons, except they smile more and have cuter babies. Both good things. Well, that's about it. Till next week!