An Acquiescence... In Africa

I've finally succumbed to one of my biggest pet peeves: study abroad blogs. I hate it when people think that just because they are studying abroad they think we at home want to read about how they went to the Louvre this weekend or what they thought of the local beer at the pub down the street. These blogs aren't unique or exciting and I, personally, could care less about why you thought the "Mona Lisa" was extremely overrated.

However, MY blog will be nothing like the rest. I feel that since I am finally done taking classes in Kinyarwanda (the local language only spoken in Rwanda), French, and medical devices, the “study abroad” part of my trip is over and I can finally begin to write about more exciting experiences, like working in a developing hospital in the northern providence of Rwanda, which is I what I'll be doing for the month of July. Also, unlike Europe or Australia, Rwanda provides a unique setting, and I want to shed light on the small African country since most people only know of Rwanda because of the brutal 1994 genocide (and not to mention the Academy Award nominated movie, Hotel Rwanda, starring Don Cheadle).

To start off, I'll give a little background on my situation. I've been in Rwanda for the past four weeks participating in a program known as the Engineering World Health (EWH) Summer Institute.  EWH strives to help improve conditions in hospitals in developing countries through donated and repaired medical equipment. The problem with these hospitals isn't the lack of donated equipment, rather, they often lack the resources to operate or to understand how to use or fix the equipment. University EWH chapters help repair broken medical equipment or work on design projects to help solve common engineering problems seen in these countries; however, students are only able to help indirectly. This is where the summer institute comes into play. The summer institute sends undergraduate students (typically in biomedical engineering) to work in a developing hospital (in Nicaragua or Tanzania) for a month to directly meet the needs of the hospital, whether it is by repairing broken equipment or by building benches for a waiting area. I, along with 12 other students, was chosen to participate in the pilot year of the summer institute in Rwanda. Because we are the first class, we've adopted the  "learn as you go" mentality, which will be duly noted throughout this blog as we struggle to form some sort of a precedence. But I believe one of the best ways to learn is through trial and error and I am excited to pave the road for future students.

For the first month, we are taking classes at IPRC Kicikuro, located in Kigali, which is the capitol of Rwanda. We are in class from 8am to about 5pm, Monday through Thursday. On Fridays we travel to the main hospital in town, CHUK (Central Hospital University of Kigali), to help fix broken medical equipment. In the second month, we will travel to different hospitals throughout Rwanda with our teammates to help repair medical equipment there. Just the other day, I found out that my two other teammates and I will be working at a hospital in Musanze, which is in the northern providence of Rwanda.

Broken anesthesia machine... In Africa.

For those curious about the title of my blog, you obviously do not follow me on Instagram or are unfortunate enough to not be on the receiving end of my Snapchats. I say this in a patronizing tone because I find my uploads extremely amusing (not to be conceited or anything). It started off one momentous day when I was able to receive WiFi in our classroom. I wanted to show my friends my everyday life via Snapchats and began with mundane pictures of my classroom, my lab assignment, and even my water bottle. To these pictures I added the caption, “My classroom… in Africa,” or, “My homework… in Africa,” etc. etc. I did this mainly to highlight the fact that I still had all these basic things found in America but the fact that I was in Africa made them more exciting. Once we began our weekend adventures to the rainforest and to the safari, my Instagrams and captions started to get more compelling, but hopefully I can keep some irony as I venture into the next leg of my journey…

My backyard... In Africa.

African dancers... In Africa.

An Boilermaker... In Africa.