Rwanda 2011 - Day 7-8

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Blog Day 7-8

Okay, let's see if I can put "pen to paper" quickly since I am exhausted.

Sunday we had the usual breakfast, and then Simon picked us up at 9:30 to go to church.  The service was very nice with lots of singing before and after the preaching.  The service started at 10 am, and ended around 12:30 or so.  This type of service would not go over in America!  Christina Audi were asked to speak at the beginning of the service.  I was not prepared for this, but I should have been and I was not really surprised by this in retrospect.

We went back to the hotel for lunch and then had time to do some studying.  Christina had emails from her teachers with assignments and she has an online math text book, so she is able to keep up in some of her classes.  Jim did some medical reading in a journal.  We were picked up at 4:45 for another concert at Simon's church.  This was much more lively than the previous concerts, but a little loud for Jim's taste.  We got back to the hotel around 8:15-8:30.  Then Jim started to panic about what he would be teaching and decided to do some research on the Internet to make sure that he had all the latest information.
Got to bed a little later an usual, around 10:45 (you might be thinking, "why didn't Jim study this in the afternoon, instead of reading his medical journal." That is a really good question without a really good answer!

Monday started with a larger than usual breakfast.  We needed to provide our own lunch for the week, so Jim decided we could take 2 of the 4 slices of breads, some of the cheese and some of the eggs and make a sandwich.  We did this, an put that with a small, sweet banana in our contraband ziplock plastic bags.
Simon arrived promptly at 8 am.   Went stopped on the way to the clinic to pick up Dr. Ben.  Once we arrived at the clinic Dr. Ben had a meeting with Simon and myself.  Christina came along for the ride.  Dr. Ben wanted to express his "difficulty" with the current clinic in that he did not have an operating theater and presented me with his opinion on how this issue could be solved.  This was a little awkward, but passed.  Then we stared clinic. The organization was a little less than I was hoping for, and it seemed that the expectations of the Rwandese nunrses and doctors were a little different than I had tried to make clear in emails.  The day got off to a slow start, but God gave me more patience than usual, and slowly we worked into a flow that work well.  I performed several ultrasounds (not my strength or area of expertise, but an area where they are very interested in teaching) incluiding a few OB ultrasound (which I am much more comfortable with), we did 2 cervical cancer screenings, and saw a variety of other patients.
At the end of the day, I did a brief talk assisted with a video on IUD insertion.  They are still hoping to be able to buy some IUDs this week, so that I can do the IUD teaching (skills learning).  We also decided to set Wednesday aside for cervical cancer screening teaching.  Th big question. Remaining is the vacuum teaching.  I have a large suitcase full of vacuums, but will not leave them if I cannot do the teaching.  The other difficulty here is that they are not currently doing deliveries at the clinic.  One could argue, what good is teaching if they are not doing deliveries, and how long will it be before they start doing deliveries and will they remember the teaching?  All good questions which I will have to pray about over the rest of the week.  Please pray that I will have wisdom, but also show God's love and grace!!!

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