Rwanda Vision Trip: Day 7

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AAAUUUMMMMMMMM…
So today was supposed to start early, we were supposed to have breakfast at 7:15 and then leave the guest house at 7:40 to get to the “Dream Center” to meet with Pastor Charles from Africa New Life Ministries. Well we had morning worship and that did not end until close to 7:40 and then we had breakfast. We did not leave until after 8:00 (?8:30) and did not get to the Dream Center until almost 9:00. Pastor Charles accused us Muzungus of being on African time. The meeting was very informative on many fronts.

Of course, as keeping with the theme of this trip, I found out that there are more hoops to jump through to get approval to practice medicine in this country. You medical types, I will get in touch with you to discuss what we need to do. This process can take several months (3-4) so we need to get cracking on this. The good news is that since we are here less than 30 days we do NOT have to pay the $300 fee to get approved. One thing that you can all start working on is a Police report - go to your local police department and ask for one. This is one of the requirements. The other good news is that the ministry of medicine covers us and we do NOT need to purchase malpractice insurance.
We then toured the campus of Africa New Life Ministries, and went to the Ministry of Health office. That is when I got some of the above info.

After that we took a 1-1/2 hour trip out to Kayonza where ANL has a school and houses orphans. The orphans are housed 16 to a house (6 per room) with a house mom. There are over 1300 students, all sponsored, about 800 attend the ANL school and the rest are schooled elsewhere. They only have 109 orphans living in the homes. They are also building a home for the street kids. Pastor Simon was very excited to see this school and hopes to one day. When we met in the morning, ANL had some great information for Simon as well.

Next was the same 1-1/2 hour drive back to the guest house. We had dinner and then discussed our experiences as a group and now I am typing my daily notes.
We are going to have to set up a blog account for the trip in June so that we can do this more efficiently than sending out emails. We can also post pictures on the blog.
I think that is about all I have to say for today - VERY long day, but not much to write about. You would not want to know all the thoughts I had today as I kept seeing more and more hoops to jump through, but the Lord will provide.

Tomorrow is a down day for me, although I am meeting with the head of the residency program at Kigali to talk about how we might be able to help by giving some lectures for the residents. I do not know if that is going to be a real possibility with time and transportation constraints, but I wanted to meet with every possible person since I was going to the trouble to fly over hear. If there is anything exciting I learn from speaking with him that applies to the group, I will let you know. I may or may not send another email tomorrow.

Sunday I will attend church at the ANL chapel and then I am on my way home.

Doc Jim signing out from Kigali, Rwanda

P.S. - the “aum” at the beginning of this email is my way of avoiding screaming. (It hurts to be stretched this much, but as Kay Warren would say - this is the “gloriously ruined” state)

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