A Typical Day... in Africa

6:45am: We wake up and eat breakfast. For breakfast, we eat a banana and a piece of bread with Nutella, peanut butter, or jam. We drink a cup of coffee and then get ready for work.

7:30am: We leave the house and walk to the hospital.

7:55am: We arrive at Ruhengeri Hospital and head straight to the workshop.

Our work area... in Africa.

8:00am: Jean-Claude is nowhere to be found so we use this time to jump on the Internet and check our emails.

8:30-9:00am: Jean-Claude appears and either A) tells us which department needs PPM (planned preventative maintenance) or B) tells us which health centers we are traveling to so that we can take inventory.

9:00am-12:00pm: PPM consists of us cleaning different medical devices and doctors/staff members will usually bring out broken one every now and then for us to fix. We’ve cleaned infant incubators, infant warmers, oxygen concentrators, aspirators, and anesthesia machines just to name a few. For some of these devices, it’s critical to perform PPM. For example, oxygen concentrators have filters that need to be changed often and their usage needs to be monitored because over 20,000 hours the oxygen concentration output may not be sufficient. The grossest thing I’ve had to clean was an infant incubator, which had baby poop and/or throw up caked onto the bottom. Sanitation standards are not the same in developing hospitals.

PPM! in Africa.

Installing a newly repaired infant incubator... in Africa.

This past week, we have been traveling to different health centers around Musanze to take inventory. It has been nice getting out of the hospital and seeing the different clinics. They are usually off the beaten path and concealed on a mountain or hidden in a valley. They are all set up similarly and the only medical devices they use can be found in the laboratory or in the maternity ward.

A health clinic... in the middle of nowhere... in Africa.

Triage... in Africa.

A health clinic hidden on a mountain overlooking a lake... in Africa.

12:00-2:00pm: We have a two hour lunch break. Yes. Two hours. People back in the states will think this is ludicrous, but they do not understand Rwandan time. Rwandan time is much, much slower. We’ve come to learn that when Jean-Claude says he will be back in an hour, it really means two. One drink after work takes three hours. After you place your food order, you can expect the food to arrive an hour later. Then when you’re done eating, you can expect the check to come another 30 minutes later. This is why we need two hours for lunch. We always go to the same place for lunch. It’s a small bakery/restaurant called La Paillote or known locally as, “the Muzungu restaurant” because locals think it’s too expensive and because they serve American food (pizza, sandwiches, and fries). It’s actually not that expensive (in terms of American money) and my meal usually costs $3-4 USD. I like their vegetable toast, which is like a panini, with chips (a.k.a. French fries). I order a Fanta Citron to drink, which tastes like Sprite but better. All drinks in Rwanda come in a glass bottle and even in America I think soft drinks taste better in a glass bottle. They also use real sugar, which makes it even better.

2:00-5:00pm: We return to the workshop and repair any broken equipment that we come across. We’ve been able to fix an X-ray machine, several oxygen concentrators and blood pressure devices, an infant incubator and warmer, a microscope, and an electro-surgery unit just to name a few. The feeling I get after we fix something is indescribable. It’s a mixture of elation and disbelief. After we fixed the X-ray machine I wanted to cry from happiness and every piece of equipment we fix helps in an enormous way. The X-ray machine had been broken for four months. Patients were deferred to a nearby clinic for simple X-rays and after we fixed it we couldn’t even check up on it because there were so many patients using it throughout the day. I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am finally being able to use my skills to help people in need. It is for this exact reason why I wanted to become a biomedical engineer.

Fixing an X-ray machine's power supply... in Africa.

5:00pm: We walk home after a long day of work.

5:30pm: We stop at the store down the road from our house to buy some more bread and water (if we need it) before heading home.

5:45pm: We buy a roasted corn from the lady right outside our house for 50 francs ($0.08 USD).

5:50pm: We arrive home and greet our night guard, Jean-Paul. Jean-Paul is a student during the day and our guard at night. He sits in front of our house from 6pm to 6am to make sure we are safe. He also has a machete. Needless to say, he is a great guy.

6:00pm: I take my Malarone (anti-malaria) pill.

6:00-7:00pm: We read, take showers, make phone calls, and just relax before…

7:00pm: … our power usually goes out.

7:05pm: Jean-Claude will text one of us to see if we want to meet up for a beer in town.

7:10pm: We determine if we are too tired or not to go out with him because we know we won’t be coming home until 10pm at the earliest if we do go out. Jean-Claude is an exuberant, little man. He goes out almost every night after work and stays out until who knows when. We usually leave him around 10pm but sometimes, especially on the weekends, he will go to another bar and go dancing. He is an excellent dancer by the way.

Dancing with Jean-Claude... in Africa.

7:15pm: We leave our house to meet Jean-Claude or I stay in and just read if I’m too tired.

7:30pm: If we do go out, our favorite bar to go to is Skylight. I’ll order a Skol, which is a lighter beer and Jean-Claude will order us food. Skylight has the best goat brochettes and potatoes in town. I don’t know what they do to their potatoes, but they are the best potatoes I have ever eaten. Not only are the potatoes fresh, we think they bake them and then fry them before slathering on salt, rosemary, and some special sauce that we haven’t quite figured out yet. It is delicious. Also, is it weird that I like goat meat? It’s really tasty but a little chewy. I hope my family and friends don’t find that too exotic/gross…

Dinner... in Africa.

10:00pm: After convincing Jean-Claude that one beer is quite enough (a bottle of bear in Rwanda is more like one-and-a-half in America), we leave the bar and head home.

A beer bottle... in Africa.

10:15pm: We get back home and get ready for bed.

10:30pm: We tuck in our mosquito nets and go to sleep. If I can’t sleep I usually read a book on my iPhone. We’ve had a lot of downtime and I’ve been able to read several books. I’ve finished The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, which is now my favorite book, and I’m currently reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Thank goodness for iBooks and its free downloads.

6:45am: Wake up and repeat!