A night drive to Nepo’s village

I just got back from a night drive to Nepo's house with William, to take infant paracetamol to his sick 3 month old. Tim stayed at home to put Hannah in bed.

The road, as all do in Rwanda, wound around, up and down the hill tops and valleys for 30 minutes. It got narrower and increasingly rutted until it was obvious that the road had seen very few cars. The grass was growing too close on either side for a car to fit its wheels, but we kept going, passing crops and now and then passing a collection of houses.

When we arrived we were very rural. As the car lights went out I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. William pointed out enthusiastically that the stars were amazing! Nepo's family are lovely. Most of his seven children were there, the older ones in secondary school spoke to me in a little English (his son very confidently, his daughter shy but determined to try!), and a little one in the first year of school hid in the bedroom at the sight of a wuzungu / white person (Nepo explained).

It was dark inside except for a faint torch light that was directed around, but I was surprised to see they had the  printed photos that had faded so I had thrown them out (and Nepo had asked for them) on the wall to decorate the room. A photo of my Mum and the kids, my sister Steph and her baby, Will’s friend Amelia… and the stuffed giraffe we gave his baby was sitting close by, the only item on the little side table. The furniture in the room included said table, 2 chairs (one for Nepo and one for his wife – Nepo offered me his to sit in) and the low stools he made for his kids with wood leftover from our tree house. I felt very humbled. I was handed his beautiful little baby to dose with panadol, and realised that I will be clucky again one day. Then we said our goodbyes and drove home.

As we bumped along in second gear I thought of Nepo riding his bike the 50 minutes to our house each day, and how different each of his two worlds are. He’s a good man, with a lovely family. He lacks material possessions but he has these more important things. Still, the stark difference made me respect him and how he handles the two worlds even more. We can learn a lot from him. I hope when I am back amidst the West’s materialism, the thought of Nepo can keep me grounded. A little perspective can be very helpful.

Fired.

Yesterday I fired someone for the first time. I didn’t like it. It was a hard thing that needed doing, and now it’s over lots of tension we didn’t know was there is leaving our household.

Our house worker Emovine didn’t work out. We didn’t trust her, for some proven reasons, and she still wasn’t a very good cleaner two months in. Afterwards we used Google translator to explain in French to a confused Nepo (our gardener) what had happened, and he then offered information that further confirmed our decision, which was helpful emotionally. So now it’s done and we’re looking for a replacement. It feels like a breath of fresh air has wafted through the house.

Or is that the smell of the sourdough Tim has just baked? Mmmm….

We are very excited to be able to show you our new car! Tim went to Kigali this week and had it checked by a mechanic, then bought it and registered it in our name all in one day. Incredible, considering the trouble we had with the first car, which is still unregistered and yet to be resold many months later. We have a few people making solid offers at the moment so hopefully that one will be off our hands soon.

This weekend there is a special conference being held by the Butare Anglican Diocese, with lots of overseas visitors and excitement in the church community. The children and I attended the main session this morning and a lovely little Rwandan girl attached herself to us. I was quite chuffed that I managed to communicate with her a little about various things (she must be about 4 which helps – she chose simple words and topics). William wanted to bring her home. I said no but at one point thought she might end up coming with us anyway because we couldn’t find her mother. I was quite shocked (cross-cultural difference again!) when it was suggested by someone that I just take her home. Their plan was to tell the girl’s mother, who they didn’t know, that her daughter was at my house when she came looking. Imagine doing that in Australia! I suppose in Australia you wouldn’t leave your daughter with a stranger either. There’s a much more community oriented approach to parenting here! As was clear when I stood there waiting for her mother to return, and a couple of Rwandan mums offered to take her with them. They didn’t know her or the mother either, but off she went happily with them.

Tomorrow we have a farewell party for Simon, Nicole, Senna and Rowan, who are moving to the UK. The children are going to miss them terribly, as they play together a couple of times a week. William has been quite emotional about it all week, poor boy. We will miss their company.

On Sunday we are quite excited to be off on our first camping trip in Rwanda – a missionary’s conference near Lake Kivu. On the way we drive through a state forest teaming with different kinds of monkeys, which should be fun. The conference is supposed to be in a stunning location, so we will be posting pics I’m sure!

For now, here is the sunset from our front door (which looks over our back fence). Beautiful.

Examinations, Gardens and Church

Just though I’d write a bit to update you on some of the goings on here.

Yesterday I went to Kigali to examine the final year medical students (interns) from the three teaching hospitals in Rwanda at the conclusion of their final internal medicine terms. The six from Butare I’ve been working closely with over the last 8 weeks preparing them for this exam and pleasingly they were all excellent. Indeed they stood head and shoulders above the other candidates and I was very proud of how much they’d learnt and adopted over the last 2 months. It was very exciting!

Our garden continues to progress. Some herbs I’ve grown from seed have just been planted out, we finally have a garden fence capable of stopping Hannah running off around the neighbourhood and thus Catherine needing to go on long missions to find her (she usually visits one of several families who live nearby) and we have a front driveway, ready for our new car, which hopefully should arrive next week. Catherine and Nepo paved a large strip of the garden last week. Here’s some before and after photos to show you (and remind us!) of the progress that’s been made, primarily by the hard work of Nepo:

In sadder news, our gardener, Nepo, has gone home early today because of the sudden death of his 5 year old nephew. We don’t have many details, but it sounds like he was taken ill and died at the local health centre prior to getting to hospital. Unfortunately child mortality remains high here, and while I am exposed to death frequently at the hospital, this was a much more personal reminder of the tragedy this brings to so many families here. Please pray for Nepo and his family at this time.

Last Sunday I preached at the English language service at the Anglican Cathedral. I preached on Deuteronomy 28 and Acts 27 (the set passages for the week). The long list of blessings for obedience on Israel in Deuteronomy contrasted starkly with Paul’s shipwreck on Malta as a Roman prisoner. It was great to tackle some of the important theological issues here such as prosperity doctrine, suffering in the face of obedience and, especially in Acts 27, the balance between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. The sermon was well received and people said they found it thought provoking and easy to understand, which was encouraging. Afterwards the congregation went to the bishop’s house for morning tea and a chance to spend some time together. The kids had a great time, especially Will and three boys from a Rwandan-Mazungu mixed family:

The Sunday before we attended the first communion for Martin, the son of a French catholic missionary family who are working and living in a catholic girls secondary school here. The schoolgirls had prepared a special service with lots of singing and dance and then we had an African style party lunch afterwards, which as you can see the kids enjoyed:

The coming weeks are looking busy too. Next week I’m doing the first therapeutic endoscopy cases in Butare with our new equipment, going to Kigali on Tuesday to arrange settlement on our new car, and a new bunch of final year students will start. There’s also the exams for our Masters of Medicine candidate doctors who I’ve been training (I’m examining again). Then on Thursday the Anglican church starts a four day evangelical crusade, with international guests, and I’m on duty as the convention doctor. On the Saturday, we leave for Kumbya, a 10 day missionary conference on the shore of Lac Kivu, at which we’re camping in our new tent (assuming we get the car!). We come back early from this to welcome Faith Blake, our first CMS pastoral care visit, on her last official trip to Africa as CMS Mission Personnel Secretary. So it looks like a hectic fortnight!

2 Days in Kigali

It’s been a busy last 2 weeks for us, culminating for me in an two trips (the second  an overnight one) to Kigali, while Catherine has been beavering away at home, getting our house and garden increasingly into good shape, while taking care of the kids. We’ve also both had several days of uncomfortable tummy bugs, so that has slowed us up a bit.

During my last trip to Kigali, I managed to:

1 Meet two of the Deputy Commissioners for Customs and establish that the car we had bought is completely unable to be registered in Rwanda, except by a diplomat. We will need to sell it, and have advertised it for sale on the web.

2 Clear all our household goods and some donated endoscopy equipment for the Hospital through Kigali Airport customs, and truck it back to Butare. Tomorrow a day of unpacking awaits Catherine and the children (while I try to catch up on my neglected hospital duties).

3 Inspect about 25 RAV4 cars for sale at 7 different locations all over Kigali, and make an offer on one, which i think will suit us. I’m still waiting to hear back from the vendor. I also got to show the CHUB Director of Administration how to assess a car prior to buying it, as he’s looking to get one too!

4 Have dinner and stay the night with Peter and Katie, our English friends and medical colleagues. I also met an American premed student and his wife who will spend some time with us at Butare soon.

5 Attend the morning meeting at CHUK, the Kigali University Teaching Hospital and meet the physician staff there. I also had a very promising meeting with Dr Benoit, the Director of Gastroenterology there, who is very keen to learn therapeutic endoscopy techniques, and wants my help in training him and his staff and setting up the service. We also discussed forming a Rwandan Gastroenterology Society, another of my longterm goals which was received very positively, and hope this will happen over coming months. We have the blessing of the Director General of CHUK , who I met briefly, on both fronts.

6 I met up by chance in the shops with Lynne Beatty, a parishioner at St Mary’s Mirboo North who hosted us at their lovely property in Mirboo North during our deputation there last year, Lynne and Neville are staying at Gahini, where we have worked previosuly, undertaking and managing a building project at the Seeds of Peace Centre by Lac Muhazi. It was lovely to have a chat over a cup of African tea and catch up on going on, both at Gahini and in Australia.

7 Do some shopping, eat, sleep and answer about 60 phone calls.

I’m exhausted so off to bed now. We’ll write more soon. In particular I want to do a “before and after” photo series looking at the progress that’s been made on our house and we also went to a “First Communion” for the son of a French Catholic missionary family who are good friends of ours on Sunday. So much to talk about, so little time….