Weekends... In Africa

Looking back, I really should have started a blog during my six-month co-op in L.A. when I had so many exciting things to write about. Each weekend I was doing something different and taking full advantage of everything that L.A. had to offer. Everyone writes a blog about L.A., though, but not everyone has a blog… in Africa.

Much like my weekends in L.A., my weekends in Africa are spent doing something new. Our first weekend after we arrived in Kigali on Sunday was spent on the Millennium Village tour, which I already wrote about in a previous entry (scroll down).

Embarrassing myself... in Africa.

Our second weekend was spent in the Nyungwe rainforest. Nyungwe is in the western province of Rwanda and it took us about five hours to get there by bus. I love road trips, especially ones through scenic routes. They call Rwanda the land of a thousand hills, but I’m convinced that there are way more than that because I am fairly certain we drove through a thousand hills just to get to Nyungwe.

One of the 1,000 hills... in Africa.

In the park, there are several different hikes to choose from ranging from a couple of hours to a whole day. As a group, we decided to do the canopy walk, which would require a 40-minute hike just to get to the canopies. I can say with conviction that hiking through a rainforest was one of the most amazing things I will ever experience in my life. It was so serene, especially when we broke off from the main group and took a quieter path through the bottom of the forest. The creek trickling beneath us added to the tranquil ambiance.

Trail name... in Africa.

Hiking... in Africa.

Dr. Cote being pensive... in Africa.

Up in the canopy, we were able to see some of the most spectacular views of the forest. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

1,000 hills... in Africa.

Rainforest... in Africa.

ME... in Africa!

Even though I am afraid of heights, I wasn’t afraid to walk across the canopy. I think I knew subconsciously that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I wasn’t going to let my fear hinder me.

Canopy walk... in Africa.

Getting over my fear... in Africa.

It was somewhat disappointing that we were unable to see any wildlife in the forest, but we would get our fill of African animal sightings the following weekend…

Our third weekend in Rwanda was spent on the opposite side of the country, in the eastern province. Akagera was only a two-hour drive away from us, but we had to get up even earlier than we did for Nyungwe since you can only see safari animals early in the morning. Yes, I said SAFARI. When in Africa, you HAVE to go on a safari. They should make it mandatory because you won’t be able to do it anywhere else in the world.

We left at 5am and ironically my roommates and I got locked IN our house. We finally escaped through the back door, but we ran to catch the jeeps just before 5am in fear of them leaving us behind. There was no way I was going to miss this experience!

A sunrise... in Africa.

The jeeps we rode in were monstrous. The roof opened up so we could stand up and get better views of our surroundings. We saw so many different animals including zebras, impalas, hippos, and so many different species of birds. The only animal that we didn’t see was the African elephant. We drove past where they are usually seen but all we could find were the large gaps in the trees where they had been and piles of their poop.

Our transportation... in Africa.

Akagera... in Africa.

Riding in the back of the jeep... in Africa.

Zebras... in Africa.

Impalas... in Africa.

A bald eagle... in Africa.

Pretty bird... in Africa.

Hippos... in Africa.

Baboons... in Africa.

There are no lions in Rwanda but next year they are introducing four of them into the wild. I guess I’ll have to come back next year!

Group photo... in Africa (photo courtesy of Mason Cote).

For our fourth weekend in Rwanda, we just stayed in Kigali. We did different activities that made me forget that I was in Africa for a change. Friday after working in the hospital, we all went to see the new superman movie, Man of Steel, in mu mugi (in town). On Saturday, we went to Mille Collines, which is the hotel that Hotel Rwanda is based off of. I enjoyed a nice drink by the pool and then claimed a hammock to lie on in the sun. It was so relaxing and it wasn’t until we walked to catch a bus that I realized I wasn’t in America.

A movie theater... in Africa.

Relaxing... in Africa.

Our fifth weekend, our rather last weekend, was our first weekend in Musanze. We spent it getting settled into our new home with the help of our BMET (biomedical engineering technician), Jean-Claude, and our Rwandan friend, Alex. Jean-Claude took us out to a bar in town one night and we enjoyed some beer, brochettes (kabobs), and roasted potatoes. On Sunday, Alex introduced us to his ginormous family. We first met his uncle, who is a Catholic priest and a headmaster at a grade school.

After mass, we drove to Alex’s house to have a family lunch. There were met his father, his mother, his brothers, his nieces and nephews, his cousins, and his best friend and his family. Like I said, his family is HUGE.

My family.. in Africa.

Lunch was fantastic and it was so nice to see his family. It made me nostalgic of my own home, having a home-cooked meal and enjoying it with family and friends. Have I mentioned that I miss home? I miss my family, which is weird since I should be used to not seeing them while I’m at Purdue. I think it’s the fact that I am halfway across the world from them that just makes me sad. My mother already promised to bring a cheesecake to the airport for me when she picks me up because it’s the one food that I’ve been craving the most! It’s going to make the wait so much sweeter!

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.

Adjusting to African Culture… In Africa

Language

Kinyarwanda is a difficult language to learn because it is a conversational language, meaning that there isn’t much structure or rules; rather, a lot of understanding comes from the tone and the inflection of the speaker. Rwandan people are very friendly and they will greet strangers with “mwaramutse,” “mwiriwe,” or “murabeho,” depending on the time of day. One month is a short amount of time to learn a language, so I’ve been memorizing terms and verbs that I use a lot such as, “thank you,” which is “murakoze,” and the verb, “I want,” is “ndashaka.” I haven’t really had to use Kinyarwanda a lot because my host family speaks perfect English and a lot of people here understand either French or English. I’m decent at French and fluent in English, so I can get by pretty easily. It just makes us Americans seem so unintelligent and stubborn because most of us only speak English while these people can speak three. Our Rwandan friend, Alex, said something really profound the other night about foreign languages. He studied English and probably speaks it better than I do, and actually, he definitely speaks it better than I do and I’m going to butcher his eloquent words as I paraphrase him now... He said that learning multiple languages is probably the most significant indication of intelligence. You could be the smartest doctor in the world but, at the end of the day, if you don’t know how to communicate with someone who speaks another language, then what good is your technical knowledge?

Clothing

We received a list of items to pack before we got here. It suggested for females to pack long sleeve shirts and pants or skirts. African women generally don’t expose their shoulders or their thighs. I haven’t seen any women wearing shorts, but I’ve seen some wearing tank tops. My host-mother is extremely fashionable and sported a cute halter-top dress once. Even if we were allowed to bring sleeve-less shirts I still wouldn’t wear them because I don’t feel comfortable. Rwandans already stare at me for being Asian so I don’t really need another reason for them to judge me.

Another muzungu (the Swahili term for “white person”) in Kicikuro, Katie, told us about her seamstress, Josephine, in Kimironko. All you have to do is show Josephine a picture of the dress you want and she can make it. Katie chose her own fabric and dress design off of Mod Cloth and two weeks later, she had her very own custom-made dress for under $20. One weekend all of the girls went to the market in Kimironko in search of the famous Josephine. Well, we found her and she was the sweetest lady ever. She speaks perfect English and all the muzungus go to her for their tailoring needs. Picking out a fabric was hard because the market is full of fabrics hanging on walls six feet high. I finally settled on a pretty green fabric and a classy dress design that Josephine already had and in two weeks, I will have my very own African dress (pictures will be posted soon)!

Children posing for a picture... In Africa.

Food

Rice. Beans. Potatoes. These are the main food groups in Rwanda. We pretty much eat them for lunch and dinner every day. Once and a while our house-boy will change things up and make fish, which has been my favorite meal so far, or substitute plain spaghetti noodles for rice. Breakfast has become my favorite because we usually eat bread with peanut butter or Nutella and a banana. Sometimes our house-boy will cook crepes or scrambled eggs (in a flat, crepe form) or even hard-boiled eggs if we’re lucky. For lunch we usually go home and enjoy the meal our house-boy cooks but sometimes we eat out with the rest of the group.

Dinner time... In Africa.

Fresh bananas... In Africa.

Beer... In Africa.

We have been able to find some American food restaurants. Mr. Chips is a burger place that is about a 20-minute walk from our campus. They have cheeseburgers and chips (fries) for about $4. I don’t if it was because I hadn’t had American food for a while or if it because all the vegetables are so fresh but those chips were the best fries I have ever eaten. Ever. There is also a pizza place and a burrito place farther away, about a 30-minute and an hour-long walk respectively. We actually walked a hour to get our burritos, but they were well worth it. The pizza place is called Sol e Luna and it is really good, too. It’s thin crust and the first time we went I ate an entire pizza in one sitting. It was like that “Shit Fat Girls Say” twitter account, “any pizza can be a personal pizza if you try hard and believe in yourself.” Sol e Luna has 90 different pizzas so it takes us a while to all choose.

PIZZA... in Italy... I mean Africa.

Muy bueno burrito... in Africa.

Rwandans like to take their time when eating out. Waiters won’t come by periodically to check on you. Sometimes it will be an hour after you sit down before someone will take your food order. On average, we usually spend two to three hours when we eat out. I read this about French culture, too. Other cultures actually take time to enjoy the company they are with when eating out, while Americans are more concerned with convenience.

Another big difference between cultures is that Rwandans typically eat dinner late. Our host family is very accommodating and we usually eat dinner any time between 7pm to 8pm. Other host-families will not eat until 9pm. Rwandans also eat A LOT and our host-mother, Agnes, likes to comment on how little we eat as she piles rice and beans onto her own plate.

To thank our host-family for their hospitality, we’ve cooked them several American meals. The first was spaghetti and garlic bread and the second was fried rice and hot dogs (I know this is a strange combination but our host family really likes rice and I needed to contribute my awesome Asian cooking skills).

Our attempt at American food... In Africa.

Plumbing

Before I came to Rwanda, I was picturing myself going to the bathroom in an outhouse and dumping buckets of cold water on me to bathe myself. Well, I was right about one of these and thankfully it was the latter. Our host family has a western toilet and a showerhead; however, the water doesn’t always work so we have a large bucket of water on reserve to pour on ourselves. I was able to get used to this situation fairly easily. It also helped that we would walk in the sun all day and get pretty hot so a nice cold bucket shower felt nice.

Indoor plumbing... In Africa.

Mosquitos

I knew mosquitos were a problem in a lot of African countries, but I didn’t quite understand just how prevalent they were. For example, if you find yourself outdoors in a t-shirt and capris as the sun sets you better run home before you are eaten alive. It’s like a scene from a scary movie where all the inhabitants in a small town shut their windows and doors at sunset to protect themselves from some imperceptible danger, which in this case takes the form of hundreds of mosquitos. Mosquito nets help a lot, but you need to check your net before you turn out the lights because even if one mosquito is in your net at night, you will wake up to at least 10 bites. I was really lucky during my first week and didn’t receive any bites but then I started getting them on my feet and ankles. You can’t feel them biting you, but you can definitely feel the bite afterwards. The itch is unbearable. I will scratch my bites until they bleed and one time I was foolish enough to spray some bug spray on me after I had been itching a bite and it stung like hand sanitizer on a paper cut (which I have also been foolish enough to do).

Before I got here I was really paranoid about contracting a disease spread by mosquitos, such as malaria or dengue, and this fear was only heightened after taking BIOL 416 (Viruses and Diseases) the previous semester.

I’m currently on Malarone, which requires as much attention as birth control (it must be taken at the same time everyday starting two days before your trip and seven days afterwards and it must be taken with milk or food) and costs as much as an iPhone 5, so it would really suck to get malaria at this point.

My bed... In Africa.