Rwanda Vision Trip: Day 5

---

Today started MUCH better:
I slept in until about 6 am. Then after resting a while longer I pulled out my laptop and did some journaling. By the way, these blogs seem to be getting longer - just fair warning!

Then I took a shower. Today was a hot bucket shower. Caritas (Simon's wife) had mixed the water for me and had given me much more hot water than I would have taken and more water in total than I used yesterday. I even was able to use the left over water to shave with so I had warm shaving/rinsing water.
I practiced what I thought was the right phrase to say “good morning, I am thirsty, I would like some tea, please” but evidently I had some of the words wrong. - Oh well - we all had a good laugh!

Today was the day I pulled out the suit and tie. The plan was to meet with the local “medical assistant” and the doctors at the district hospital. Initially I was supposed to meet with the mayor as well, but Pastor Simon had talked to the mayor ahead of time and was told that the doctors make the decisions regarding health care issues, so there was no real reason for me to meet with the mayor. After breakfast (some type of soup with beef, “cooking bananas” and some type of ?vegetable that was rubbery (egg plant)) we were off to meet people. I have found that the food here is very tasty. There is a lot of variety of vegetables, and they all taste good, some have different consistencies and in some cases - like the rubbery thing I ate this morning - it is better not ask what it is. The first night I was here I had a very delicious dinner with a chicken dish. One of the pieces of chicken was rather odd in texture, I think it was liver, but again, it is best not to ask, just eat!

We could not reach the doctor on the cell phone as we left the house so we went to the clinic of Fikili (a “medical assistant” who runs a clinic with 3 nurses and a lab tech). He was very pleasant, and had some great ideas as to how we could work together. He has a small area, and we could not fit the whole team there, but we could potentially put a nurse and a doctor there. Next we headed to the hospital. The doctor whom Pastor Simon knew answered his phone when we arrived, but then it took him a while to come out and meet us. Evidently he was searching for the medical director of the hospital only to find out that he had left last night for a meeting in Kigali. We had a brief discussion with the doctor, and then he made a phone call to the medical director. The medical director’s schedule had every possible conflict with my schedule so there was no way to set up a different time to meet him. I thought that I had an appointment for the hospital visit, but evidently "appointments" are a little different in Africa.

I talked with the medical director for a few seconds on the phone and then I was allowed to meet with the hospital administrator. We sat and talked in an office. I was coming with documents and expecting to demonstrate that we had the credentials and ask permission to work in the hospital alongside the doctors. What I was met with was a doctor and hospital administrator who had a printed list of their needs: Newborn Incubator, phototherapy lights, oxygen concentrator, laparoscopic surgical instruments, new surgical instruments of any kind, the list go on, and on, and - oh yeah - a dialysis machine. For those of you none medical type this would be hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions) of equipment that would take a cargo container to ship. The doctor said that what they really needed was a "partnership". When I asked what he meant by this, he was looking for a doctor to come and “volunteer” for a year or two to work with the doctors there.

We then started a tour of the hospital. The lab tech was very proficient in English, had a polished nature about him and gave me a presentation of all the services they provided and where the trouble spots (needs) were. The doctor showed me all the different sections of the hospital. I did not see many patients, other than from a distance. I did see two children (presumably siblings) that were in one ward being treated for malnutrition. The skin of their sides and upper legs had sloughed off due to the malnutrition. Their wounds were covered with gentian violet, a primitive antifungal agent (I am not sure if it has some antibacterial properties as well), and one of the kids was being feed through a tube since he could not eat. With that cheery thought, I left the hospital and Pastor Simon and I went for lunch.

After lunch we took a trip up this incredible dirt road, then got out and walked up the path (in my suit) to see some of the orphans that the foundation is supporting. We met Josephine and Jillian both who have HIV and are caring for 4 orphans each. One of the boys who lives with Jillian is Barack. Barack is 4 yr old and lost his eye when a tree branch was poked into it. Then he got some unknown infection that took months to get a biopsy and figure out. It is TB. Now he is on medication and has finished 2-1/2 months of the 6 month treatment. We also saw another widow whose roof fell apart and the foundation was able to raise money for a metal roof. After these visits and an interesting trip back down the hill, we came home and I am now resting. I am also trying to put together my notes about what we are allowed to do, what people would LIKE us to do, and what we are actually going to be capable of doing.

Once again let me say, “THANKS A LOT!!!” to Chris Finley and Miss Jenny - I love you guys, and I know that the Lord is really to blame (OK, Lord, please don’t strike me with lightning for saying that you are “to blame”) for this whole thing. This is just an incredible stretch for me. How do I stay gracious, NOT make promises, or say anything that could even be construed as a promise (That is one of the things that they warn against in the “how to” books for short-term medical missionaries) and not just run form the room screaming, “ CAN'T DO ANY OF THIS!!!!”

So to Dr. Chris, Miss Jenny, and my loving daughter Christina (who said, “I want to go to Africa for my mission trip) I say, Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I do NOT want to be doing any of this, but I NEED to be doing it!

Dokta Jim signing out from Gisenyi
(OK I think the Dokta is from Creole, but - well you get the drift)

P.S. I almost forgot to mention. When we got back to Pastor Simon’s house we parked in front of the house rather than inside of the gate. As I got out of the car and turned around I saw my legs were 1 inch from a tough plant with long thorns. God was watching out for me as I stepped out of the car backwards after grabbing my camera bag from the back seat. That could have been painful!
After we had been back for a while it started pouring rain. That was another blessing. I cannot imagine how muddy we would have gotten and potentially gotten stuck if it had rained this hard when we were up on the hill visiting the orphans.

---