Inema, Volcanoes, and a Little Leopard

Get ready to read about another action-packed week in Rwanda! Without further ado....drum roll, please....here's what has happened since the last time you heard from me:

• On Tuesday, we went to the Inema Arts Center. We were invited by our friend Emmanuel, who founded the center with his brother, Innocent. Inema doubles as A) a studio for up and coming Rwandan artists to hone their artistic skills and B) an after-school activity center for Rwandan orphans. Check out their website: Click here! It is an incredible place. They are doing big things for the people of Rwanda. Here are a few pictures from our visit.

• This past weekend we traveled to Volcanoes National Park, the ONLY area in the world where mountain gorillas exist in the wild (FYI, the park where you can see gorillas in Uganda is part of the same area, located just across the Rwanda-Uganda border). For the semi-unreasonable price of a $750 permit, you can hike (with an armed battalion) into the park and see the gorillas. As much as I would’ve liked to do it, the price was a little too high for me.

• Still, we heard the area was nice, so we decided to check it out. The first day we hired a Land Cruiser to take us up to an area overlooking the Twin Lakes. The view was incredible. Easily one of the top 10 views I’ve had in my life. Beautiful blue lakes to our right and left. Volcanoes behind us. Green hill after green hill extending as far as the eye could see on either side. The pictures just don’t do it justice. Here are a few to give you an idea of what it was like, though.

 

• After a staying the night at a hostel in a tiny town called Kinigi (located close to the volcanoes), Dibya, Valentina, and I went to a little “cultural village" just outside the park. Think, “Rwandan Williamsburg.” It was a little touristy (whatever that means in Rwanda), but definitely a good time. We got to watch a traditional healer mix medicinal herbs, help a blacksmith pump his bellows, shoot a bow and arrow, stone grind sorghum into flour, witness a customary marriage processional, and dress up as a tribal king/queen. Don’t tell PETA, but I think I look pretty debonair in leopard.

 

• So, as hard as this is to believe considering my incessant gallivanting, I actually do get some work done occasionally. In fact, this week was the busiest yet in the research department. After dozens of emails, well over 10,000 lines of Excel data (not kidding or exaggerating on that number), and a few Skype conferences, I finally completed and submitted my abstract to research conferences!!! I should hear back in August or September. And now that my abstract is finished, I can begin my paper! Here’s a little appetizer for you. It looks like real science, huh? I can hardly believe it. I almost feel like a real scientist! haha:

 

• Alright, people. That does it for this week. Thanks for tuning in!

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.