Well… I have not blogged in quite a while, but that does not
mean life has not been interesting here in Rwanda. I know I have not blogged in
quite a while – about six weeks – so I will keep it short as possible and spare
you the mindless diatribe. Some exciting news is that in the past six weeks
Kigali opened its very first cinema… Yup that’s right Kigali now has a movie
theater – and a very nice one at that! We’ve been able to see IronMan 3, Man of
Steel, Monsters University, and Lone Ranger… all in 3D. Since we don’t have TV,
radio, or reliable Internet at home this is been a small teaser for re-entry
into the 21st century!
However, The most exciting news is that we’re coming home in
six days! Plans are being made, bags are being packed, goodbye parties are
being had… We have one more small trip – a 48 hour layover in Frankfurt Germany
on our way home. We are planning to use that time to take a tour of the German
countryside, the Thames River, and in visit some old castles. But Mostly we are
excited to get home to family, friends, and a semi-predictable routine (or at
least back to a place where 4 o’clock means 4 o’clock). On the other hand, we
have grown very fond of Kigali and will miss our friends in Rwanda very much!
Since my last blog many things that happened: the semester
ended, took a trip to Zanzibar, and a participated in quite a bit of community
engagement. First let me talk about Zanzibar!
The Zanzibar House
As you can see by the following picture Zanzibar is
absolutely beautiful. We stayed at the most beautiful guesthouse perhaps on the
planet! The name of the place was called Zanzibar House. Owned and operated by a retired couple from
Rome. Massi (the owner of Zanzibar House) is a retired hotel builder who has a
degree in nuclear physics. In addition to that he is an expert Italian chef who
paid his way through college as a cook and was a tour guide for the city of
Rome. As a tour guide for the city of Rome – where over 70% of the world’s
history is rooted – he had to take classes for two years four hours a day in
ancient Roman history. As you can imagine with a background in nuclear physics,
contracting and building mega-hotels around the world in nine different countries,
and being an expert in Roman/world history he was quite an interesting man to
have a conversation with. Needless to say we set up many a late night listening
to his stories. Zanzibar House was
perhaps one of the most beautiful places on earth that I’ve ever seen, the
Indian ocean is absolutely crystal clear – and warm! Massi cooked a four course
five-star Italian feast for us every evening (an appetizer, a pasta dish, a
meat dish, and a dessert)! It was truly some of the best food we have ever
eaten in our lives. Perhaps what made it taste better is that our table was set
on the Indian ocean and beach every night. After dinner the boys and I would
play billiards in a private bar area where the “fourth wall” was completely
open to the beach listening to the water crash on the shore. To use the term “paradise”
is an understatement. It was a little seven bedroom guesthouse, but since it
was off-season none of the other bedrooms were occupied. So we had the entire
guesthouse, private beach, private masseuse, private chef, private dinner bar,
private tour guides… All to ourselves! Could not have asked for or wished for a
better end to our stay here in Africa! While in Zanzibar we had an opportunity
to go snorkeling in the reef off the coast of Tanzania it was absolutely
awe-inspiring! It was the highlight of the boy’s trip. The water – as you can
see from the pictures – is crystal clear – cleaner than a five-star hotel
swimming pool. We saw sea snakes, octopus, sea cucumbers, starfish, hundreds of
different species of very colorful schools of fish… It was incredible! Zanzibar
– and particularly Zanzibar House – is worth the visit!
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| View from our bedroom window at the Zanzibar House |
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| Standing in the Indian Ocean taking this pic of Zanzibar House. Little room to the left is dining room. Little room to right is massage studio!!!! |
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| Yup! A picture is worth 1000 words... |
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| my backyard... had the whole thing to ourselves for 5 days!!!! no one... I mean no one else was there!!! |
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| me and my son hanging out. Talking about the deep things of life... girls (if I remember correctly)! |
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| headed out for some serious snorkling! |
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| That's NOT a pool... |
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| Me and Massi (owner of Zanzibar House) enjoying a post lunch imported Italian cigar |
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| A little pool with the boys after dinner. |
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| One of Massi's creations what he calls "African Steak" Itialian style. We each got one, but one would of fed us all... this was course #3 |
Also of note was Stone Town, the main harbor city of
Zanzibar – which had a very Moroccan feel – and where a majority of the world’s
slave market was operated from. We witnessed firsthand and even went into the
slave market, which is now a historical monument. We saw the deplorable conditions
that the slaves were subjected to – no television show and no movie could do
justice to being there and seeing the literal site, including some of the original
chains, original whips, original whipping posts, etc. it was an extremely
sobering and educational experience – to say the least. I for one never knew
the details of the East African slave trading industry – and that it was based
in Zanzibar. Needless to say the East Africans hold William Wilberforce (freed
the slaves in Great Britain), Abraham Lincoln (freed the slaves in America),
and David Livingstone (freed the slaves in East Africa) in high esteem and
honor as the three great liberators of the African slaves throughout the world.
What we learned was both horrifying and inspiring about the history and
development of the slave market and how it affected the world from the very
spot we were standing. I actually touched and held in my hands one of the
chains that was used to corral, humiliate, and herd men and women. I was
surprised to find out that many of the Africans and warring tribes would
capture and sell their fellow countrymen to the slave traders… Visiting Stone Town
and in learning about that part of the world’s history something everyone
should have to experience.
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| Walking the streets of Stone Town |
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| Pause for thought... |
End of Semester
The semester ended at KHI about three weeks ago. Grading final
exams the Rwandan way was something new for me. First of all since each class
is operated in a module style format the only scores that the students earned
for the course was a final exam. In other words, 100% of their grade dependent
on how well they did on a comprehensive final exam in a course where 16 weeks
of content was crammed into a 3 to 5 day workshop style class. That was
strange. But even stranger was the fact that each faculty member wrote
questions for the final exam. For example, if the course was orthopedics and
had five different modules I would write the questions for the module I taught
and other faculty members would write questions for the modules they taught. We
would then put all of our questions together in one document and that was their
final exam. So the student’s not only had to manage a comprehensive exam, but
also several different faculty members questions and style of question asking.
After the exams, which were all “blue book” style they were passed one by one from
one faculty member to the other for grading. Once all the exams were graded the
faculty met together as an entire department and reviewed each of the exams and
each of the student’s final grades. Now that was a strange and arduous process.
Yes - Every student’s final grade was discussed and approved by the entire
faculty – some faculty who never even had the students in class. Sounds fun
doesn’t it?!
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| Me and my students after our last rotation! Rwanda's future healthcare professionals!!! Great girls! |
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| Some of the particpants in one of my workshops! |
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| Finally got Nuhu (my Dept Chair) to eat something other than Rwandan food! Here we are eating a Burrito with chips and Salsa... it took me nearly 6 months, but I converted him to real food! |
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| Me and Anne (a faculty member and my office mate for most the time) after all day meetings... |
Community engagement
Since my last post and also had many opportunities to get
involved with the community. My primary responsibility has been to supervise
students doing their summer internships. I have had the opportunity to visit
three (out of four) of the local Kigali hospitals. One of the things that is
unique here is that the clinicians at the hospitals do in not take the time to
supervisor manage the students – they say they are too busy and that they are
not paid to teach. So what happens is faculty members go to each of the
clinical sites and work in the hospitals for free seeing a regular and
sometimes full patient load so that the students have someone to observe and
work with. Interestingly enough for me is that there are very few orthopedic or
sport related injuries in the Rwandan hospitals, which are the only clinical
sites available, so I found myself in the very uncomfortable and precarious
position of treating every sort of patient imaginable, most of which I’ve never
treated before. I tried at length to explain the limits of my skills in
treating non-orthopedic patients, but those explanations fell on deaf ears. I
guess, as a Fulbright scholar and being from the United States it was just
assumed I was an expert at everything. However, it has certainly been an
extremely valuable learning experience for me – one that I’m not likely to soon
forget! In addition to that I’ve also
been working on some research projects, specifically epidemiology of sports
injuries here in East Africa with my new Rwandan colleagues. We are about 90%
completed on our first manuscript and they are pretty excited about it –
research is one of the things that is seriously needed here among the Rwandan
faculty ranks and they are excited any chance they get to do it. I’ve also done
many training and workshop on different sports medicine topics, like
plyometrics, taping and bracing,
advanced rehabilitation techniques, etc. for many of the nurses and
physiotherapists at some of the local hospitals - that has been fun and very
rewarding.
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| He thought he was getting fish fingers... |
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| Angie with her class that her and the boys worked at once a week teaching them english. This is the class that received the donated books from Karen Campbell |
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Angie is now an official member of the Africa International Club, a fundraising group who raises money for local Rwandan schools!
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Our time here’s been very gratifying – very strange at times
– but also very fulfilling. Nate and Jay (and me and Angie too) are going to
miss Kigali and our new friends very much! We are already hoping to be able to
come back and even trying to organize a return trip.
