A busy morning

We’ve had an eventful start to our Tuesday. In fact I’d been on 3 separate expeditions by 12pm, and well needed the siesta time we often have in the early afternoon, after a fine lunch of sambusa (African-style samosas).

View from the Shalom Guest House

As kids actually slept to almost 6am for the first time since our arrival, it then was a mad rush to get me presentable and be out the door by 7.15am to attend the hospital morning medical meeting. About 30 of us, all white-coated (except for me), gathered in a meeting room at the back of the hospital compound to discuss the medical admissions of interest or difficulty in the ward. Dr Andre, the Hospital Director General, and Professor Joshua, the Head of Internal Medicine, presided over the case discussions, which encouragingly were conducted entirely in English. The medical students presented the cases, to a high standard I must say, and the junior doctor staff filled in any clinical gaps. It was nice to have my first real clinical input to these discussions, and the Professor seemed most welcoming and keen to have a gastroenterologist added to the team. I think I’ll try to get along to this meeting several times a week as a sort of “orientation” to the hospital.

After the meeting, I briefly met Francois, the sole part-time visiting gastroenterologist, who apparently is mostly very busy elsewhere. He’s on leave for February, so I will not get a chance to discuss what he has set up at the hospital until next month. The Director General seems keen though to significantly build the gastroenterology department, and wants me to begin training some of the junior doctors in endoscopy. Having yesterday met Charles, the University Vice-Dean of Medicine, who is keen for me to teach clinical examination skills, GI therapeutics and also tutor students in the wards, I don’t think I’ll be short of work after our language learning phase ends!

Dr Andre and I then discussed the housing situation. Thanks to the many of you who have been praying about this. The hospital house we are eventually to move into is undergoing renovations at the moment, and, while these will ultimately make it far more pleasant to live in, with sealed floors and a third bedroom for guests, this process is likely to take a couple of months. In the interim, Bishop Nathan has kindly offered us an empty diocesan house, and the hospital has agreed to provide a stove and refrigerator. There is some basic furniture, but we will need linen, crockery, cookware and so on, so I suspect a busy week is ahead of us…

Inzoze Nziza

After returning home, the whole family came with me to Inzoze Nziza, a local non-for-profit cafe run by a women’s cooperative, which was great and relaxing. Wonderful fruit salad, yummy cookies, ice-cream for Will and Hannah, and the chance to take stock of our first week here. Oh yes, and grab a quick happy snap of our resident blue-tongued lizard, who managed to rapidly find and consume some chalk:

We’re gradually getting over jetlag and acclimatising to the altitude (1750m), have made some good friends, acquired our first 50 words of so of Kinyarwanda, and begun bonds with the Diocese, University and Hospital. Will has walked 3-5km a day, balancing on the side of culverts and reluctantly holding our hand along busy roadsides, mostly without complaint, Hannah is taking her first unaided steps and remains as irrepressible as ever, and both our kids seem to be rapidly settling into African life, food and activities. God has been very faithful to us.

Finally we made a foray into the heart of town to fit our postbox with its shiny new padlock, and to begin pricing some of the household essentials we will need once we relocate to the diocese’s house. Many may be cheaper in Kigali, but it’s useful to know the local price for comparison purposes before you start!

For those of you looking to skype us, faster internet may be just around the corner. Both the hospital and the university are soon to be connected to the new fibre-optic network which is allegedly almost finished, and the red signs warning of buried cable in English, Korean and Kinyarwanda that run right along the roadside through town seem to verify this:

Thanks again for all your prayers, and messages of support. We feel very loved and cared for!