Rwrappin' up Rwanda

I know you loved the post title. Don’t pretend you didn’t. Took me at least 37 seconds to come up with it, so hopefully it was worth the time investment.

I’m writing this post to you from my house in the Abingdon, Virginia. So….retroactive drum roll, please….. I’m back from Africa!! As you might imagine, things got pretty crazy there towards the end, so that’s why I’m just now getting around to writing about it.

I’ll keep it simple. My last week was wonderful. Fittingly, it was more about people than places or trips or new experiences. Valentina and I went to our final Cub Hope meeting. I played Saturday Soccer with some of my Rwandan friends.  I spent the afternoon at Lake Muhazi with Vanessa and the orphans that she has been working with the past two years. I also had dinner and went clubbin’ (if you can imagine that in Rwanda) in Kigali with all of my UVa and Yale friends.  Here are some pictures:

 

 

On the way back from Rwanda, Ginni and I took a 3 day pit stop in Istanbul, Turkey. If you haven't been to Istanbul yet, stop reading this blog right this second, go sell your kidney on the black market, and book your trip. It's that great. Tons of history. Colors around every corner. Lively at all hours of the day. Great food. Nice people. Good weather.

Here are the highlights:

Visiting beautiful mosques (the Blue Mosque was one of the prettiest buildings I've ever seen in person)

Trying street food (we gave everything a shot: grilled corn, cherries, paninis, Turkish delight, chicken kebabs, baklava, orange juice (squeezed right in front of you), ice cream, assorted nuts, oysters from the Bosporus, etc.)

Exploring a football-sized underground Roman cistern

Walking along the Bosporus at sunset

Taking a 3-hour audio tour of Hagia Sophia (my "favorite building in the entire world," circa high school world history class freshman year)

Haggling for stuff no human being would ever need at the Grand Bazaar

Running into to numerous Russian speakers. Всегда люблпю говорит по-русский! Always love using my Ruski!

Walking around Taksim Square where all the protests were a few weeks ago.

 

After an 11-hour jaunt complements of Turkish Air, I landed in DC last Thursday. It's been an incredible (albeit short) couple of months. As is usual with me and traveling, I was equal parts sad to leave Rwanda and happy to get back to Virginia. I'm extremely grateful for the things I've learned, opportunities I've encountered, and the people I've met this summer. Coming to Rwanda was a huge blessing for me. As sad as I am that it's over, at least I have my memories (and a ridiculous amount of poorly-shot 18 megapixel pictures).  It's been an adventure. Thanks for tuning in. Next chapter: Med school, Year 2.  Classes start in a week! See you then!

So. I went to Uganda.

Sorry for the late blog post.

Last weekend was all sorts of crazy, and this week has been busy busy busy with research. I can’t complain, though. I’ve been having fun and working hard.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of what’s been going on:

We went to Uganda over the weekend! 11 hour bus there. 11 hour bus back. It was worth it? Emphasis on the question mark. Kampala was not my favorite city to be honest, but I still really enjoyed my trip. Highlights included:

• Visiting the 2^nd largest mosque in Africa
• Eating the street food in Kampala (including mango, rolex (omelet+crepe), chicken gizzard, goat intestine, and, of course, sugar cane (my new guilty pleasure))
• Diving off the side of the road to narrowly avoid being hit by crazy Ugandan drivers
• Staying in a great little hostel in Jinja (a little town located on the shores of Lake Victoria, 3 hours outside of Kampala) with a beautiful view and monkeys climbing in the trees
• Not getting arrested at the Rwanda-Uganada border (always a fear of mine when traveling)
• And, most of all, white water rafting on the Nile River!!!! 

Here are a few pictures (p.s. sorry for the photo quality. Most of these pictures were taken with my terrible point and shoot):

 

I shadowed in the OR this week. It’s exactly like shadowing in America. Except it isn’t. It’s hotter and smellier and bloodier and crazier. Basically, it’s more fun. Or less fun, depending on who you ask. More fun, if you ask me. Here’s a picture of me in my scrubz:

I’ve been working on my manuscript a lot this week. I should have the first draft done in the next day or two! When I was thesaurusing a word, I came across the following:

Apparently guesstimate is a word, boys and girls. I had my doubts, but I dictionary.com confirmed it. Guesstimate is, in fact, a word. Who knew?

So, Valentina (my favorite Colombian classmate) and I are working on different projects here in Rwanda but using the same data set. We work together a lot. After a long day of research yesterday, Valentina went to the store and came back with this for me:

She was so excited. She said, “Look it doesn’t have alcohol!” She knows I don’t drink alcohol, so that’s why she got it. I loved it. So thoughtful. I’m glad I have friends who support me, even when they don’t necessarily agree with me. 

Guess what the picture below is. Not sure? I’ll give you a hint. It’s my ultra-fancy, deluxe Rwandan washing machine. I’ve been here long enough that I’ve had to do laundry multiple times. I’m much better at it now than I was at first (i.e. my clothes are actually cleaner post-washing), but it’s still A LOT of work. I can’t wait to be reunited with Charlottesville washer. We are going to have so much fun together.

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!