Coming Home Soon!

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 21^st 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!

View from our bedroom window at the Zanzibar House

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!!!!

Yup!  A picture is worth 1000 words...

my backyard... had the whole thing to ourselves for 5 days!!!! no one... I mean no one else was there!!!

me and my son hanging out. Talking about the deep things of life... girls (if I remember correctly)!

headed out for some serious snorkling!

That's NOT a pool...

Me and Massi (owner of Zanzibar House) enjoying a post lunch imported Italian cigar

A little pool with the boys after dinner.

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.

Walking the streets of Stone Town

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?!

Me and my students after our last rotation! Rwanda's future healthcare professionals!!! Great girls!

 

Some of the particpants in one of my workshops!

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!

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.

He thought he was getting fish fingers...

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

Angie is now an official member of the Africa International Club, a fundraising group who raises money for local Rwandan schools!
 

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.

Angie's Embarrassing Moment on House Hunters International

Well… It is been a few days since our last blog, but we have been very busy. For the past five days we have been filming for the reality television show House Hunters International, which is slated to air in September or October! What a blast that has been! In spite of long 10 to 12 hour shoots each day we have been having a great time. What’s amazing is we will capture almost 20 hours of video, which will be edited down to a 22 minute show. Let me just say that the Kutz family has proven to be quite the actors! We can really ham it up for the camera – our director Heidi says we are made for TV family – and I’m sure it will come out in the final edit! I can’t wait to see the final product on television. They have so much footage that there are so many different angles of our family life that the editors could take. In other words, a big part of the final product will be a surprise to us as well depending on which sound bites and clips they decide to use. The film crew has been absolutely amazing and they have helped us discover parts of Kigali that we didn’t know existed! This experience has truly enhanced our trip to Rwanda and broken up a little bit of the monotony and homesickness we have been experiencing the past few weeks. On the fun side, Angie and I have really been able to develop and stretch our acting skills… Angie is a total piece of work. Don’t let her fool you, but she loves, loves, loves being in front of the camera.

Us and the HHI Crew!

Here we are haming it up after 10 hrs of shooting HHI footage

Angie’s embarrassing moment

Perhaps the funniest thing that happened during our filming occurred yesterday. We were filming our decision scene and Angie and I are supposed to be casually walking along this path near a golf course and a pond. It was on our third take when we were walking at a distance from the camera down toward the pond where we were supposed to start our walk and talk… As we are walking down to restart our shoot I mentioned to Angie what awesome actress she is and how easy she is to work with… You know, making jokes about her not being a snobby, stuck up actress… She replied to me in her Marilyn Monroe voice, “auhhh... You’re just saying that because you want to get me – implying she is a famous actress – into bed.” All of a sudden the whole filming crew starts laughing… Because Angie forgot that we were microphoned for the shoot. They heard the entire conversation – and Angie was mortified and that is an understatement. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so embarrassed! When Angie gets embarrassed all she can do is laugh hysterically and fall on the ground. So here we are trying to film the third take of our decision scene and Angie is having a laughing fit that she cannot control because she was caught live in on camera saying something embarrassing. Now that was a memorable moment!

Teaching a KHI

Back on the school front – I finished my last stint at the Kibuye campus. I’m sad to say that I will not be able to enjoy the beautiful scenery any further. But, I am elated over the fact that I no longer have to take that grueling, butt-numbing, rodeo-esque three hour bus trip. I have transitioned into a new role for the next two months here KHI. I no longer will be lecturing in the classrooms, but I will begin to visit the students in their clinical placement sites. In fact, I have already begun. In the last two weeks I have been observing and supervising the students working on patients in the local Rwandan hospitals. So far I have visited two district hospitals where we have placed physiotherapy students and I have been surprised at each hospital over the lack of available equipment. The staff at the hospitals are very professional and extremely qualified! However their resources are extremely limited – so much so that probably 80 to 90% of their treatment plan involves joint mobilizations and massage, regardless of the diagnosis. Because of the limited resources manual therapy is almost all they can offer their patients. On the plus side, the physical therapists here and students are extremely talented in the use of manual therapy techniques. So I’ve been having the opportunity to brush up on a few of my manual therapy skills as well.

In addition to supervising students at their clinical placement sites I have also been collaborating with my new colleagues on some research projects. In fact, Nuhu (my department head) and I are about 90% completed on an epidemiology research project dealing with rate, incident, and severity of injuries to African soccer players. I was surprised to find out that no research of any kind has been done in this area. So, the two of us are looking forward to getting a manuscript prepared and a poster presentation submitted. I’ve also been meeting with several of the dental school faculty members here at KHI and we are developing a research plan for investigating leadership practices of dentists and allied healthcare professionals here in Rwanda. There are tons of opportunities for research here! The faculty all would love to do research, but do not have the resources, background, or equipment to do so… So my presence here is really lit a fire under several of the faculty members in multiple departments on the importance and role of research in Rwanda.

Here are the new office accomodations for the faculty. KHI admin decided without warning to move all faculty office 5 miles away to a downtown office building. so between classes - sometimes for hours - we hang out in our old office space which is empty - so we use the student's desk chairs for our office space.

All-in-all these two roles – clinical supervision and research – will keep me busy for the remaining eight weeks of my Fulbright scholarship. What I can’t believe is that there are only eight weeks left. Several months ago I remember thinking “holy cow” we are only eight weeks into this… Now we’re thinking there’s only eight weeks left. We do have one more small trip planned to Zanzibar, which is an island off the coast of Tanzania at the end of June. We are excited about that trip and hope that everything we have read and seen in pictures is true. One of the things we found out about Africa is that there are absolutely no copyright or trademark laws and if there are they are not enforced in any way. In fact, we have been joking around with that with the house hunters crew all week… What many of the places do is Photoshop pictures from the Internet and use them as if they are their own products. For example, in the restaurants here you can be guaranteed that the pictures on the menu are not pictures of their food. What the restaurant owners do is cut-and-paste pictures from restaurants in the United States from those menus onto their menus. We also found that many of the brochures and advertisements used here are pictures taken from other places and not the actual place that the brochure is promoting. When the brochure says our hotel offers beautiful scenery… They have no qualms about taking a picture off the Internet of beautiful scenery anywhere and putting it on their brochure as an “example of beautiful scenery." Anyway, that makes for quite a bit of adventure and any traveling that we do is blind. We also have a short stay in Frankfurt Germany planned. Our Flight back to the United States includes a 72 hour layover in Frankfurt Germany. We are going to be able to take a tour of the Rhine River and visit a few castles in the German countryside as one last hurrah before we land in Detroit Metro Airport!

FINALLY found "Mr. Chips" food the way God intended it to be eaten...

Crown crane wandering about the garden (or yard)

Need this guy to us pack for our trip home...

 

Trapped in the Toilet

So we had absolutely wonderful time in Cape Town, except for the small excursion to the African dance theater. Angie had it in her mind that the family needed a little African culture. She happened to see at the hotel a brochure for the African dance theater – it was a lovely brochure with beautiful pictures of Africans in traditional African garb dancing in what appeared to be authentic and ancient types of African dance. None of us were really all that excited about going to the African dance theater, but in the interest of keeping the romance alive in my marriage I decided to attend with a good attitude.

An important part of the story is that… Before we went to the dance theater we decided to rent a car because it was becoming an incredibly expensive endeavor to hire a driver everywhere. What we thought was costing us R20 (R is for Rand) a trip was actually costing us R200 a trip… That’s equivalent to about $50. What was interesting about renting a car in Cape Town was that the steering wheel was on the other side of the car and everybody drove on the other side of the road… Or as I would say the wrong side of the road… But the South Africans took offense to that. Needless to say, I was extremely stressed about having to drive on the other side of the road in a strange place. Since I am accustomed to instinctively aligning everything off of my left shoulder I tended to drift over to the left quite a bit.… And it seemed that every few seconds Angie would give a subtle yet obvious sigh of fear and clutch at her heart thinking I was going to hit something on the left side of the car. Before we left for the dance theater we stopped and asked the concierge if it was okay if we walk since the theater was only about three or four blocks from the hotel. And the concierge advised us not to walk, because the return trip would be in the dark and it is extremely dangerous to walk the streets of Cape Town in the dark especially for white tourists. So… We had to drive the car.

I was trying to avoid driving the car because it’s scarier driving on the other side of the road than it is getting in the ocean with great white sharks.  In fact, I would much rather get in the ocean with great white sharks that the drive on the other side of the road. But… It was necessary to maintain the harmonious nature of my marriage. So… we arrive at the African dance company theater and to our surprise it was… Less than what the brochures had indicated! Fortunately I didn’t have to point it out to Angie or say that I told you so because she immediately recognized the error of her ways. It was a pit! But, at $30 a ticket, which we paid for in advance we were obliged to endure the performance.

However, before the performance was to begin the anxiousness of me having to drive on the other side of the road – I told you that part of the story was important – caused my intestines a little irritation… Needless to say I was in need of a bathroom break or as the Africans would say I needed a toilet! So… I made my way to the restroom proceeded to lock the door to my private little stall… Did what I was there to do… And upon trying to exit my private little stall realized that the door was completely broken and stuck in the locked position! Yes, the door was locked shut and I could not – no matter how hard I rammed my shoulder into the door or how violently in vigorously I shook the door I could not jar it or even break it open. I was trapped in the toilet stall. Now when I went into the restroom Nathan and Jay came in as well, but they were already gone. So my screaming their names was to no avail. So there I am standing in the toilet stall screaming for Nathan and screaming for Jay, but no one would answer. Now you would think that there would be a lot of traffic in and out of the restroom immediately before the show was about to begin… Nope! My only guess is that the rest of Africa new this theater was such a pit – I think it was us and about five other people (who by the way we found out were white people from Australia) made up the entire audience. So the three other males who are in the audience had already gone the restroom so no one was coming in and out. I was trapped in the toilet stall and nobody can hear me scream. I had resolved that I would crawl under the door of the stall to free myself from my imprisonment. Unfortunately, it was only about half of inch space between the floor and the bottom of the door. Even though I’ve lost a few pounds while here in Africa that was not going to work, So I resorted to my next option of screaming and yelling. But with all the excitement of the African drums rhythmically pounding in the preshow entertainment no one could hear my screams. So I resolved myself to just sit and wait thinking at some point in time Angie would wonder what was wrong with me and what happened to me and send the boys to come find me. Well, she obviously didn’t care… Because she never sent anybody to come find me.

You see the lock had broken once I close the lock the mechanism inside broke free and it could not be on opened it was like a doorknob that just was freely spinning without catching any mechanism… Eventually I made enough noise that one of the women walking through the hallway on her way to the restroom heard me screaming opened the door and said, “ excuse me is there problem in here?” To which I replied yes I’m trapped in the bathroom toilet stall – she said, “oh my goodness I will get security.” So a few minutes’ later security walks in. He says in his South African accent, “what seems is be the problem sir?” To which I reply – “I’m trapped in the bathroom the door lock will not unlock – the internal mechanism in the lock has broken free and the latch is just spinning freely.” To which he replies and I don’t know why was surprised – “sorry, we’ve been having problems with that lock.” Of course they were! Then he said what do you need me to do to get out of there – and I said, I was hoping you could tell me. Since I had been examining the door latch for the last 20 minutes and observed that with a Phillips head screwdriver I could remove the entire lock from the door, I asked for a Phillips head screwdriver. He said okay I’ll go get a screwdriver – now at this point it’s important for me to mention that when he said that I reiterated to him that it needed to be a Phillips head screwdriver. A few minutes later he shows up with a screwdriver. Great I have been saved! He standing on the other side of the door and we both realized there is no way for him to get the screwdriver to me. There is not enough space between the bottom of the door and the floor for the screwdriver to fit under. Mind you this is not just a toilet stall it’s Fort Knox there are no gaps over the top where he can pass me to screwdriver. So we decide he has to remove one of the ceiling tiles over the bathroom door and he can pass it to me through the ceiling space. But to do that he needs a ladder… So I wait for him to get a ladder he comes back with the ladder removes the ceiling tile and passes me to screwdriver over. Wait for it… It was a flathead screwdriver! I asked the security person about it and he said that it was the only screwdriver in the entire building – so it would have to do. So here I am on the other side of the bathroom trying to unscrew the four Phillips head screws with a flathead screwdriver. Eventually – after my blood pressure and heart rate have been elevated beyond normal limits – I was able to get the entire lock off the door. The door opened and I was free from my imprisonment. The guard glibly commented that he had better fix the lock before he puts it back on. Apparently this happen before and not knowing what to do with the broken lock – is a don’t throw anything away – just put it back on the door.

So I walked into the theater to find my family and close in conversation with a very nice Australian couple sitting behind them. And she looks at me and says oh there you are – where were you!? I just growled and sat down. She asked again what happened to which I replied weren’t you worried about me at all for the last 30 minutes – what did you think happened to me? Of course she said, we just thought you were pooping. I told her that I been trapped in the bathroom for the past 30 minutes and have been screaming and vigorously and violently shaking the door hoping to break it off of its hinges or for someone to hear all the commotion and calm let me out… But no one did, no one cared, no one even missed me… Trapped in African toilet stall in a less than savory part of downtown Cape Town in the old dilapidated theater building… And my lovely wife just laughed.

Let’s see… Other things that happened on our Cape Town trip? We went to Table Mountain, which was recently named one of the seven natural wonders of the world! And I must agree it is absolutely one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places I have seen. We rode the cable car up to the top of the Table Mountain and it looked as if we could see the entire world. We went to Camp Bay and me at a lovely seafood restaurant on the famous Camp Bay Beach. We had a wonderful excursion to the Cape of Good Hope (previously known as Cape fear)… Which was also an absolutely beautiful place, but very treacherous place for ships. We found out that at the Cape is where they catch about 90% of Africa’s seafood. So we ate at a restaurant called Two Oceans Restaurant. By the way, it is at the Cape of Good Hope where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean converge. Being at one of the places in the world where you can get awesome seafood Angie and I ordered some sushi as an appetizer… Of course we insisted that the boys try sushi. And being the troopers that they were they were willing to at least try it. After Jonathan took his bite of sushi he made the statement that he had a new least favorite food in the whole world, to which we asked what used to be your least favorite food in the whole world, to which he replied without even a moment’s hesitation “salad!” We all had a good laugh. At least salad is moving up the food chain for Jonathan. But I don’t think he will be trying sushi again anytime soon. Also while in Cape Town we got to witness some authentic African dance – to which I referenced above, we also got in the water and did some cage diving with great white sharks! That was a truly awesome experience – at least for me and Nate. Angie and Jonathan who get motion sickness if they walk down the stairs too fast were helping the skipper chum sharks the whole trip. The only disappointment of the trip, was that Jonathan and Angie didn’t get to enjoy the sharks very much, because they were sick the entire time – and I must admit the water was extremely choppy and the swells were extremely high, so much so, in fact, that even some of the crew were vomiting over the side of the ship. After the sharks, we were able to take Jonathan to a bird rehabilitation sanctuary – which was awesome. Jonathan got to hold an eagle and a falcon and owls – he is a huge bird fan. We also went to a cheetah sanctuary and actually got to pet a cheetah – that was a pretty awesome experience as well. But perhaps the greatest joy of our entire excursion to South Africa was the fact that we stayed in a hotel with sports channels and free shuttle service to the mall – a mall which had a food court that included such fine delicacies as McDonald’s and Subway… or as my kids said “real food.”

Cape Town Mall... how nice!!!

The boys trying their new Least favorite food in the world sushi.

What else…? This past week I had another wonderful week in Kibuye (or as I referred to it in previous posts Dante’s 3rd ring of hell) teaching exercise physiology, in Marathon lecture format, to freshman, in a language that barely understand, without the access to any necessary lab equipment… What a thrill that was. Next week I get to try to teach them CPR and first aid without the use of any manikins or first aid equipment… I guess we will just practice on imaginary manikins. Side note: I swear if my students at BG ever complain again about anything pertaining to the quality of their education or the resources they have access to I am going to go nuts! They have no idea was a stressful and unwelcoming learning environment even is. Our students in America have unlimited access to books, unlimited access to Internet, unlimited access to libraries, not to mention desks and chairs in their classrooms, and instructors who (mostly) speak in their native language… Furthermore, faculty members who complain about their work environment in the United States should be drawn and quartered. I don’t mean to make any political statements about unions or collective bargaining – but I just want to say we are extremely spoiled! I have had to purchase my own PowerPoint projector, had my office moved without me knowing – twice, had my entire department moved without me knowing, have office mates who change without me knowing, have to buy my own extension cord and all of my own classroom technology – or schedule my classes around their availability, teach in a classroom equipped with a single power outlet – of course I always need to one for my computer and one for my projector, have no office space, don’t know when or what time I will be teaching on Monday until Sunday evening about eight or 9 PM, a shower that doubles as a child’s toy bucket for the beach, and get food only if the campus director remembers and I need a ride into town to get some dinner. Did I mention that the students have to find and bring their own chairs to class… And I am expected to teach while construction is going on around me (jackhammers and everything) and the constant interruption of other students walking into my classroom looking for unused chairs so that they can take it to the class that they are supposed to be in. And if the cleaning crew decides that it’s time to clean your classroom – well then – the teaching stops. They have schedule to keep therefore your class must wait and if you’ve already started your class has to stop while they clean your room. Because they will not come back later…

Interestingly, the day before I was to leave for my teaching extravaganza to Kibuye I stopped by the University office to collect a few things and check in with my colleagues – since the previous two weeks we were closed for the genocide Memorial. To my surprise I found the entire office suite area completely empty. I don’t just mean empty of people – I mean completely empty. Where all the computers had been, where all of the desks had been, where the bookshelves had been – gone! It was an empty warehouse space. It was like some kind of strange surreal dream. Everything was gone and nobody was around. The only thing that was where it was supposed to be was my desk just how I had left it. But everything else was gone. Made a few phone calls and found out that the entire department had been moved to a new location 3 miles away – not even on campus. No one thought it was necessary to tell me. Apparently over the break an executive decision was made by administration to put all of the department heads for all of the different programs on campus in the office suite area that physical therapy had been in. Fortunately, As a Fulbright scholar, they didn’t think it was right just to throw me in with all the other faculty who had been moved – against their will – into a giant warehouse in downtown Kigali. So they let me stay with all the department heads. So I have new office mate… And do not see any of my colleagues anymore. I am the only remnant of the old physiotherapy department left in the wing. And every time I ask about how or why this could happen I am always given the same excuse – and I’m not exaggerating when I say I hear at least once a day, as an excuse for why something has happened or has not happened is because “this is Africa.”

Petting cheetah's pretty cool!

On top of the world at Table Mt.

Camp Bay, South Africa. SA place for the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Oh yeah.. forgot to mention South Africa wasnt all play. here I am giving a thrilling lecture at the University of the Western Cape.

Petting porcupines...

A few wild ostriches at the cape of good hope

We also got to see the penguins on Boulder beach in South Africa

Cape Town and Great Whites

We had a great time in Cape Town... What a great city!!  Here are pics from our trip. I will blog on the details later. Enjoy the pics - I will post more soon...

OK... here we go. A bit nervous... but brave!

You cant tell, but I a, peeing my pants right now...

and... she ramming and biting the cage... I didnt pee, it was the other option :-)

After she realized I coudnt be eaten - or that I wasnt an oversized walrus she backed away... whew... clase call!

These next few are views from the boat deck

 

 

Scene in the mirror leaving the shark dive
 



Our Jay-bird and his new eagle friend!

Billy Joel, Cuban Cigars, and Dante’s 3rd Ring of Hell

On April 2 -5 I taught in a remote campus of KHI. I was teaching exercise physiology to the first year physical therapy students [As an aside teaching exercise physiology – which is already difficult because it has always been upper division course– to students who’s English is their third (not second) language proved to be quite a challenge]. However, I was impressed with their effort and level of understanding. But what made this more of a challenge than necessary were the other distractions...

The scene from the front of my classroom

This remote campus was in a small lake town called Kibuye on the western border of Rwanda – very near the Democratic Republic of Congo. As one of my previous blogs indicated I was extremely nervous about the transportation to Kibuye. I was nervous because of recent grenade attacks as bus stations as well as the bus ride and the accommodations. Let me just say – I was right to be nervous! No grenade attacks, but the bus sucked royally!



But… before I describe that experience let me start by saying… So that nobody thinks I am complaining too much that Kibuye is certainly one of the most beautiful places on the planet! No one lied to me when they told me this place would be beautiful. When God made beautiful places – this was certainly one of His highlights. And about everywhere you look was a perfect postcard picture.

Having said that… Let me be as clear as I know how to be, in spite of its beauty I think I was in Dante second ring maybe even third ring of hell! Technology and the rest of the world forgot that this place existed!

Tight ride... this was the ride home - so i was able to get my
bag under my feet... but notice how my neighbors hand slipped
right under my arm and between my legs to hold on for dear
life during those hairpin turns.

Before I get ahead of myself… Let me describe the bus ride. I arrived at the bus station 20 minutes before departure to find an empty bus. I was thrilled because that meant I had the pick of the seats. I picked a nice aisle window seat. Within 10 minutes the bus was full. And by full I mean 26 people in a bus of 19 seats. Yup – that is correct they put 26 people on a three hour bus ride that only had seats for 19 people. This was not one of your greyhound type buses either this was a VW van from the 1960s with a slightly extended cab. It was absolutely horrible. I had two bags both of which were on my lap. My roller bag suitcase and my laptop backpack were piled on my laptop to my chin. At one point I saw a cockroach crawling on the wall next to my seat, but couldn’t even swat at it cuz my arms where trapped under my bags. So I sat there in my seat knees forward, upright posture, bags in my lap, piled up to my chin with the Rwandan man tightly and intimately pressed up against my left side. I am so glad that on my right side was a window – if not I might have gone legitimately crazy. So for the next three hours traveling at about 40 or 50 mph on roads that every quarter-mile had 180° hairpin turn I sat there and stared out my window trying not to smell the smells or think about how cramped my legs were. I did however have my MP3 player and I was able to listen to contemporary American music. Mind you they have a lot of American music here but it’s all hits from the 1970s – a lot of Rod Stewart, James Taylor, and Barry Manilow…  

One of the scenes from the side of the road... chicke truck
accident. dead and alive...

Once I arrived in Kibuye I was scared to death… It was literally a Western-style ghost town. What I was expecting in my mind was totally different from what I got. Fortunately, someone was there to pick me up and take me campus. Once I arrived on campus – as I’ve already described – I recognized how truly beautiful it was.

The accommodation was a tiny little guesthouse cabin-type place where visiting faculty stay while they teach. There are no permanent faculty on this campus everyone travels from Kigali to teach the first-year students in all the different programs. One of the things that KHI does is keeps all the freshman for all the programs in one location and then once they pass their freshman year they matriculate on to the Kigali campus. So there were about 800 freshman in all the different programs on this campus living in the dorms.

The thriving metropolis of Kibuye, rwanda... Thats the
Best Western Hotel to the far right of the pic.

The first room they gave me was probably 10 x 12 with a large foam sponge as a bed, mosquito net, and a folding chair. I laughed to myself and said this would be fun and asked to see the restroom, which was a community bathroom at the other end of the hallway. I was escorted to the bathroom and was shocked and horrified at what I saw fortunately I noticed that there was no shower. When I asked about it they said they didn’t realize that this bathroom did not have shower. So they moved me to another dorm – however the other room they wanted to give me was already occupied so I would just have to wait until that person left. Several hours later the person is gone they changed the sheets and moved me in. Still attend by 12 room with a foam sponge in a folding chair… But at least this facility had hot water and shower.

I was introduced to several people and they were very pleasant and very friendly. I asked where the cafeteria was and if there were food and they can just looked at me and chuckled and said there wasn’t any. If I needed any food I would have to go into town to get it. Of course the campus driver was in Kigali getting the car repaired so there was no way to get into town. So I went the first day without any food. Fortunately I had a half a can of Pringles and a packet of Keebler cheese peanut butter crackers that my wife made me take. If I not had those I very well may have starved. I ate the cheese crackers for lunch and the Pringles for dinner.

The team bathhouse... I "showered" out of that red bucket
in the tub.

The next morning at 7 AM I went to the restroom and try to take a shower and found out that the shower doesn’t actually work. Yes – the room has a shower, but the shower doesn’t work! When asking about this later apparently I wasn’t specific enough that I wanted a working shower. They just understood that I wanted a room with access to a shower nevermind that it didn’t work. So I was instructed on the finer techniques of how to shower yourself with a bucket of hot water from the sink. And yes that’s exactly what I did. Imagine this… me in all of my splendor and glory standing in a filthy dirty the restroom afraid to touch anything splashing water out of a bucket onto my body to get myself wet, once wet lathered up with my soap and then splashing myself out of a bucket of water literally hands gripping each splash to get all of the soap rinsed off. I was pissed! And it is now that I realize I have entered Dante’s third ring of hell!

My classroom - no chairs.

But having a great attitude and armed with positive thoughts I laughed it off, shook my head, counted it as a wonderful learning experience and proceeded to the class. Of course no one was there and none of the desks had any chairs. I was told that the students would start arriving about 8 o’clock in that they would be responsible to find their own chairs from other classrooms that were not being used. Apparently there are only a finite number of chairs on campus and there are not enough chairs to accommodate every classroom so the chairs rotate from classroom to classroom depending on what classroom is being use and when the students need them. Very interesting.

Flipped a coin on what to eat for dinner and which
one for breakfast

Mind you I still have not had any real food yet and I’m about to lecture for four straight hours. I resigned myself to have to wait till lunch break when somebody could take me into town to get some food. This was day one. I had two more days of this… And by the way after the genocide commemoration I have to go back for another week and a half.

By the second day… Oh, I did end up getting someone to take me into town to get me some food. I won’t even bother to describe that adventure suffice to say for lunch I was able to secure two pieces of flatbread – called chipatti – and two mini bananas. Hardly enough calories to sustain my basal metabolic rate!

Anyway… By the second day I had become very skilled at taking sink showers by splashing myself – something I’m quite proud of! Class went fine and the students were very engaged and appreciated the fact that I could speak clearly in spite of my American accent. But it was certainly a new challenge to try to teach a very complex and difficult subject to first-year students in the language and with an accent that they do not know very well. Keep in mind that exercise physiology uses a lot of words like a “Adenisone triphosphate,”  “acetylcholine,” and complex chemical interactions… trying to describe the creatine kinase reaction to students who don’t even understand you when you say “hello” was challenging – but I learned a lot!

My office and prep space for the week... a TV tray and folding
chair :-) My back is against the bed... very tight working space.
The bus trip preped me for it...

I had arranged to be picked up by the campus coordinator at 6 PM for dinner that night… I was excited because I was going to ask of you will go to town and eat at what he called “an American-style restaurant” for dinner… Well when 8:45 came around and he still hadn’t come I decided to call him… Long story, but He had forgotten me! He went to dinner with another colleague from the University and forgot to pick me up… So I went without dinner that night as well!

By the third day showers were no problem, in fact they were becoming easy. But most of all I remember that I had packed one of the Cuban cigars that I had bought for Dr. John Fischer in my bag – in case of an emergency – and this was an emergency – sorry John, but I smoked a cigar that was meant for you! And I’m glad I did. I found a very nice spot on the lake took my folding chair from my bedroom. Set next to the lake, smoked a Cuban cigar (Montecristo Open Master from Habana) – which was excellent by the way, and listen to Billy Joel’s greatest hits. It was surreal. I truly, truly, truly enjoyed that time in one of the most beautiful places on earth. At least for a few moments I forgot about the bus trip, forgot about the classroom fiasco, forgot about the showers, forgot about the no food, forgot about my foam sponge mattress… Enjoyed the beautiful scenery and time alone with my thoughts!

In a few weeks I go back, but I will be prepared mentally and physically for what I will encounter and will have a much, much, much better experience!