A Hospital... In Africa

The EWH Summer Institute is split into two separate months. The first month, we lived in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and took classes Monday through Thursday. Now, we have arrived at the second month, in which all of the teams will travel to their respective cities across Rwanda to work in a hospital. I am and a team with two other girls and we were assigned to Musanze (formerly known as Ruhengeri), which is in the northern province of Rwanda.

A traffic jam... In Africa.

It was a two-hour drive outside of Kigali up a winding road through some of the thousands of hills in Rwanda. Our EWH coordinator, Ben, drove us and the group of boys who were going to Gisenyi, which is in the western province of Rwanda but only an hour away from us. Once we arrived in Musanze, it was as if the volcanoes magically appeared right before us.

Volcanoes... In Africa.

There are five volcanoes in Musanze but only one of them is active. Musanze is known for both its volcanoes and its gorillas. There are only a few places in the world where you can still see mountain gorillas in their natural habitat: the Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda. Because the Congo is hard to travel to and the gorillas in Uganda are difficult to track, Rwanda is the best place to see them. There are 10 different gorilla families living in the mountains of Musanze. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to see them since it costs more than $500 to hike up the mountain and obtain a permit (c’est très cher!).

I was nervous for the second month because of all the responsibility that was going to be placed on us. Do they really expect me, a 22-year-old undergraduate student, to be able to repair medical equipment? Each Friday during the first month was dedicated to working in the main hospital in Kigali, CHUK (Central Hospital University of Kigali).

Americans... In Africa.

This was to prepare us for the work we would encounter during the second month. In those three hospital visits, I was only able to semi-fix one IV pump. I admit it wasn’t a simple fix. The problem was electrical and the manufacturer manual was not very helpful. The other student and I who were working on it spent a long time (longer than I’d like to admit) looking for a resistor on the board that was part of the circuit that was malfunctioning.

Troubleshooting... In Africa.

Soldering... In Africa.

We finally found it, on a separate board on the front cover of the pump. After figuring this out, we were able to surpass the original error message and managed to obtain a new one. At least now we are able to program device settings and we are pretty sure that all we have to do is reset it.

A (semi)working IV pump... In Africa.

Most of the problems that we’ve seen could be easily fixed by just taking components apart and putting them back together. All it requires is a magic touch and then suddenly the device works again. According to our lab manuals, most medical device malfunctions are due to user error. I hoped most the problems we would encounter could be easily fixed; however I would soon find that this would not be the case…

Moving into our new house felt like the first day of college all over again. All of the guys helped unload our stuff and then left us alone in our new home and that was that. We were free to explore the streets of Musanze. Thankfully we have our Rwandan friend, Alex, who grew up in Musanze, to help us get around. We made a quick Walmart run, I mean, market run to get food and other essentials.

Shopping... In Africa.

We also have a house-girl who is going to start cooking dinner for us, so essentially, it is just like college. Back at Purdue, I’ve had someone to cook and clean for me for the past few years (thank you sorority life) and all I have to worry about is school, which in this case, is work.

Our house... In Africa.

Our first day of work was overwhelming to say the least. We walked in and found our workshop for the next month, which is four-car garage filled with junk. It is straight out of an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive.

Hoarding... In Africa.

Once we got over our initial shock and disturbance, our BMET (biomedical engineering technician), Jean-Claude, gave us a tour of the hospital. We visited each department and in each one there was a doctor, nurse, or medical staff member who wanted us to fix something urgently. We were asked to fix an autoclave, a CT machine, a dental chair, an anesthesia machine, incubators, and oxygen concentrators, just to name a few. They are also installing new equipment including a new CT machine and a new washer that they want us to help with as well. On top of this, we need to take inventory for 14 different clinics around Musanze and update the inventory of the hospital in the next two weeks. Finally, our last priority is to help organize the BMET workshop, which is a month-long task in itself.

Our workshop... In Africa.

I’m excited that we will be busy, but I’m even more excited to see how much of an impact we will make in just one short month.