SURPRISE!! I’m back as promised with a final post and reflection on my experiences in Rwanda. I’ve been back in the U.S. for about 50 days and coming home has been a whirl wind of emotions. I fully intended on writing a deep reflection on my flights home and then posting that right when I landed in Maryland, but time got the better of me and that was easier said than done. Trying to put 2 months into a concise blog post has proven to be very difficult so bear with me.

We left off at week 8.5 as I was on my way back to Kigali for our final conference. The final conference was a really fun 2 days. All the teams were back in Kigali at the same hotel. We spent all of Friday giving presentations about our different placements. It was amazing to see how different each hospital was and how much work we accomplished as a whole team. That night we had to say goodbye to the students from IPRC and it was an emotional mess that none of us were ready for. Justine, Claudine and I had become a little family and we we didn’t want it to be over. We had a free day Saturday before everyone started leaving for the airport in different shifts that afternoon. We spent the day exploring Kigali one last time and reminiscing on how 2 months is a lot shorter than you think. I got lucky and my flight to Amsterdam was with 5 other friends from the program, so I didn’t have to say all of my goodbyes right away. The flight from Amsterdam to DC was the longest flight of the summer. I had gained a reputation on the trip of being able to sleep anywhere (a shaky bus or while eating a banana), but I couldn’t for the life of me sleep on this flight. 9 hours later I was walking through customs, welcomed home by the officer, and hugging my family. Just like that it was all over.

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t have a memory of the summer pop into my head. Sometimes it’s a funny story, sometimes an academic tidbit, and sometimes it’s just reminiscing on the fresh fruit I miss terribly.

I think I was expecting a larger culture shock heading into Rwanda than what I experienced. Yes, things were different than they are at home, but I fell into a routine that felt normal pretty quickly. The people of Rwanda were so incredibly welcoming that I felt comfort in my home stay, the classroom, our hotel, and the hospitals. Luxuries that we are accustomed to in the U.S. were no longer available, but that was expected and not hard to adjust to.

 I knew my transition back home would be difficult. All of us on the program constantly joked about how reverse culture shock was going to hit hard – we had fallen in love with the simplicity of life in Rwanda, the kindness of the people, and with the work we were doing. The U.S. is starkly faster paced, people are more standoffish, and with the U.S. comes going back to school and facing the stress of a third year biomedical engineering major who has loads of responsibilities waiting. When I got home, people asked how it felt to be home and I often answered with a short “good.” To closer friends I would maybe answer with a “weird.” I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how it actually did feel to first come home and I’m not sure I can describe it. At the end of the 2 months I was ready to go home – to see my family and friends, give them all hugs. I missed captain crunch and hummus. I missed my bed, and I missed high water pressure. I missed the luxury’s I consistently have at home. I felt guilty a lot, thinking of all the ridiculous things I missed from home. Captain crunch?  Sugary cereal I like to eat absurd amounts of as a snack?? I felt ridiculous. When coming home, I was happy to have all of these things again — I was happy to take a hot shower and sleep in my own clean bed that night, but I soon felt a surge of sadness and want to wake up in my hotel room next to Justine, to put my scrubs on and head to work to joke around with Xavier and Elysee.

When I woke up the day after I got home, I felt so incredibly “normal.” It made me feel almost distraught at how easy it was to fall back into a western way of life. I think my first week back I was definitely on edge. It is hard to enter back into a group of people that have been experiencing a completely different way of life than you for 2 full months. It’s also hard to completely explain the entire experience without feeling like you are rambling about yourself for far too long. I missed (and still do) the people I had gone through all of these transitions with. They say that reverse culture shock comes a lot from how other people respond to your travels. Do they ask too many questions? Do they not ask enough? Do they even care? Why aren’t people interested in what I did? I think everyone is trying to find the right balance of how many questions they should ask along with me trying to decide what the normal amount to bring it up is. A learning experience that is no one’s fault but definitely adds to a tough transition home. I am so grateful for my friends and family that asked all the right questions and were incredibly supportive and engaged with all of my stories. In case you are wondering here are some common questions and the answers to them:

Q: How was it?

A: Amazing, incredible, I don’t really know how to answer fully.

Q: What did you eat?

A: A typical meal is rice, beans and some sort of meat. We ate meat skewers with chips (french fries) a lot. Most meals were accompanied by a fanta, which is MUCH better in Africa than it is in the US because of the sugar used.

Q: How was the weather?

A: It was honestly hotter in Maryland than it was in Rwanda when I got home. Because of the lake and the hills in Rwanda, it is actually very temperate and only got up to maximum 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun, however, was incredibly strong and the UV was almost always at a 10 so in direct sunlight, you could work up a sweat.

Q: Do you really know the language?

A: I would like to think yes. I can definitely get around Rwanda and converse with taxi drivers and shop owners. Justine and I worked a lot with Claudine to learn new vocabulary, so we always felt we were pretty good at it!

Q: Did you meet cool people? Make a lot of friends?

A: Yes! Everyone I met was really awesome and it was really cool to be in a program with all engineers who were interested in the same things, while also having a lot of different backgrounds. I still keep in touch with some people and am so grateful for our friendships 🙂

Q: I wanna hear all about it!

A: Go read my blog! (Just kidding I would basically tell them everything from the blog though ;))

The hardest transition home was feeling like I was leaving a different life of mine behind. I had spent 2 months surrounded by strangers who quickly became my best friends and extended family and then in a matter of seconds we were boarding different planes and heading back to our normal lives separate from one another. Saying goodbye to people, knowing that you most likely never see them again, is something you truly cannot prepare for. My brain knew what was happening, but the emotions didn’t hit until I was walking through the DC airport alone. I am so grateful for everyone I met and the countless lessons I learned from the people of Rwanda as well as all my program partners. All of our colleagues in Rwanda said goodbye to us by saying “see you in heaven.” This stuck with me. In the U.S. we often sugar-coat. I think most of us would say “see you later,” even if we know that is highly unlikely. We wouldn’t want to admit that a goodbye is a forever goodbye. But with smiles on their faces our new Rwandan families said “see you in heaven” – their wholehearted truth.

Now that I am three weeks into my junior year, I think of Rwanda constantly while in the classroom — of ways I can apply my education to helping low-resourced countries. Doing service work is always a constant battle of making sure that any aid you provide to a community is lasting and not just for the period of time you are performing the service. I am trying to make sure that I keep my experiences with me to hopefully create a lasting impact. I am excited to grow my knowledge of building sustainable medical technology for different environments and communities. I am also excited to spread what I learned about the education system and hospital structure in Rwanda. I really learned that if we want to make a difference in building medical technology in low-income countries, we need to build it directly in the developing countries with the materials they have available and with their help. Everyone I met in Rwanda was so incredibly smart and eager to learn, but they lack the resources and institutions to gain an education that they can use to home in on their talents. I am consistently reminded how lucky I am to have access to not only higher education, but to so many options of what I want to study and pursue as a career.

As members of a developed society, there is a lot we can give to low-income countries, but there is just as much that we can gain from them. One of the biggest take-aways I have from this summer is that we cannot dismiss countries that are not “world players.” They have deep rooted history, culture, and plenty of lessons that we can learn and benefit from – we just need to start actually listening.

One last time, thank you for reading and for keeping up with my adventure. I truly cannot express how appreciative I am for the endless support I received from all of you since I started this blog way back in March (6 months ago!). Time truly does fly when you’re having fun. I can’t help but compare my summer to a vivid dream that came and went in the blink of an eye. None of this would have been possible without you all so, THANK YOU!!!

I am so grateful for the time I spent in Rwanda, for the people I met, and for the memories I will always have. Writing this now, I wish desperately I could be sitting by Lake Kivu eating a beef brochette with chips, laughing with friends about our crazy work stories or that I could be sitting in the BMET workshop with Justine and Claudine laughing and joking while we clean dust out of an old oxygen concentrator one more time. Ndagukunda cyane, Rwanda, ndagukunda cyane ❤

Kamembe: July 15 – 24

Sorry for the late post – with my time here in Rwanda really coming to an end we have been super busy getting together all of our paperwork and our presentation for the final conference on Friday. We spent all of week 8 at Gihundwe hospital. Work slowed down and we had a lot of time to tie up a lot of logistic projects for EWH. We spent the past three days (week 8.5) at Bushenge where we did some repairs and some small projects. Today we took a 6 hour bus back to Kigali, tomorrow we have our conference and Saturday I head back to the U.S.. Time really does fly when you’re having fun.

Monday 7/15 – Gihundwe

On Monday we started our secondary project at Gihundwe. We decided to secure the oxygen tanks in the neonatology department. In the U.S. all hospitals have a central gas system where oxygen and other gases used in patient treatment run through pressurized pipes in the walls or ceilings. This is the safest way to distribute gases. The tanks with the gas are kept in safe chambers away from patients. In the developing world, these systems are rarely present because of the complex technology, supplies, and expense. Instead, most hospitals have oxygen tanks placed directly near patients. At Gihundwe, these tanks were free standing with no way of securing them to the walls. This is very dangerous because the oxygen tanks are highly pressurized and if they were to fall, they would likely explode. In the U.S. a system like this is very illegal. So, as our secondary project we purchased some chain and hooks to strap the tanks to the wall. We spent all of Monday securing the tanks.

Tuesday 7/ 16 – Gihundwe

In the morning we finished securing all of the tanks in neonatology and ones that sit as extras outside of neonatology. In the afternoon we made four new quick start guides that Elyse had requested. They are general guides that will hopefully help the nurses to take care of the equipment. Elyse said that a lot of the calls he gets are because the machine is simply not plugged in or because the nurses don’t really know how to use the machine. Hopefully our guides will help eliminate those calls.

Wednesday 7/17 – Gihundwe

We spent the day resetting a drying oven in the laboratory. Previously the oven had been set so that the nurses could just turn it on, and press start, but something had happened that it was not working when they did that. We had to do some research with the user manual and learn how to reset it. We then tested to make sure it was functioning properly. Once we knew how the oven functioned, we reset it and made a sign to teach the nurses how to properly use it. We also left Elyse with a little guide on how to reset it of the problem were to ever come back.

Thursday 7/18 – Gihundwe

Thursday we mainly work on an electrosurgery machine. The machine is a box connect to an electric knife that both cuts and then coagulates to prevent excessive bleeding during surgery. The coagulation function on the knife was not functioning. We did some testing and found that the button for coagulation on the knife was broken, but the foot pedal was working. Without a replacement knife, the doctors will just have to use the foot pedal.

We had some extra downtime throughout the day, so we got a lot of paperwork done. At the end of our program we have to submit a lot of reports about the repairs and projects we completed so it was nice to have time to work on them.

On Thursday night we visited Claudine’s Aunt and cousin who live in Kamembe. Her cousin was so cute, and it was so nice to have a home cooked meal again. You really can’t beat Rwandan hospitality.

Friday 7/19 – Gihundwe

Friday was our last day at Gihundwe so Elyse asked us to write a report on the work we had done and about any recommendations we had for the hospital. We didn’t do any repairs, but spent the day laughing with the BMET team and reminiscing on our time at Gihundwe.

Saturday & Sunday 7/20-21

We spent our weekend in Kamembe. On Saturday we hung out at the hotel getting some sun and some much-needed rest. We did a little bit of work on our final presentation and had fun laughing with some of the hospital staff we’ve come to be good friends with.

We had a more exciting day on Sunday as we went to a co-workers’ wedding! A nurse at Gihundwe (Eric) invited us to his wedding and we couldn’t refuse the opportunity to go to a Rwandan wedding. Weddings here are split into 2 weekends. Unfortunately we won’t be here for the second weekend, but we were happy to be able to attend one part. The first weekend is the introduction and court marriage and the second weekend is the religious ceremony and reception. At the introduction the two families exchange gifts and the bride is presented to the groom. They are then officially married by law. The whole thing was about 4 hours with the ceremony followed by a short singing performance and buffet. The wedding was so cute and Eric is one of our favorite co – workers — we were so happy to be a part of his day.

Monday 7/22 – Bushenge

We returned to Bushenge and hopped right back into repairs. We opened up a couple of oxygen concentrators but were only able to repair one that had a broken power cable. We cut it open and re-soldered the wire back together. The other concentrators all had missing parts or unrepairable motor issues.

Tuesday 7/23 – Bushenge

Although we had limited time at Bushenge we really wanted to do a secondary project. The hospital just built a new workshop, but it doesn’t have many tools or a means of organizing them. We are donated our tool box to Bushenge so we decided to build an organization wall for them to hang the tools. We also made a sign out sheet where different maintenance workers can sign when they take any tools to try and prevent the tools from going missing. We spent all of Tuesday planning and then implementing the project.

Wednesday 7/24 – Bushenge

Our last work day. Wow this day really came up much faster than I could’ve ever expected. We spent most of the day meeting with different directors and discussing our work and then worked on a video interview we decided to edit together of the BMET at Bushenege, Chrysostome.

There is so much running through my head about the last month of work we have completed at Bushenge and Gihundwe. I knew that these two months in Rwanda would have a large impact on my life, but I didn’t know in what way or how large the impact would. I am so grateful for the time I got to spend here, and I am so lucky to call Rwanda my new home away from home. I have met so many incredible people and have so many stories to bring back home with me. I will most likely write a final post once we have finished the conference with a little reflection on how amazing the past 2 months have been. As always, thank you for reading and thank you for all of the support during my time here in Rwanda.

Kamembe: July 8 – 14

After a short week of work with all of the holidays last week, we were ready to get back into it this week! Week 7 was the fastest week yet and I cannot believe that in just 2 weeks I will be back in the U.S. While I miss plenty of things from home, I am not sure I’m ready to leave our work here and all of the people we have met.

Monday 7/8 – Gihundwe

When we got to work on Monday, our BMET Elysee still wanted us to put some final touches on the inventory. He will be using the inventory we did as his submission to the Rwandan Ministry of Health, so he wants to make sure everything is right. While it has been tedious, we know that alone he doesn’t have time to do such a thorough inventory, so we are happy to help! While Justine input the inventory into the Ministry of Health’s online system, I did some research on implementing an in-wall oxygen gas distribution system in the surgery and neonatal section of the hospital. Elysee said he wants to try and convince the hospital director to use an in-wall system rather than having cylinders of oxygen gas in the patient rooms because it is so dangerous.  We are trying to come up with some drawings to help him convince the director.

We also finalized our guide to taking care of the autoclave. We went to the print shop to have it printed in color. We then hung them up next to both of the autoclaves. Elysee was really happy with the guide – he even asked if we could make them for other machines that the nurses and staff often times don’t know how to take care of.

Tuesday 7/9 – Bushenge

Tuesday, we went to Bushenge, but our BMET from Gihundwe (Elysee) came with us. We were able to put the BMET at Bushenge (Chrystosome) and Elysee in touch with one another about the incubator issue at Bushenge. Elysee agreed to come to Bushenge for the day to help figure out the problem.

When we got to Bushenge we learned that none of the incubators had been working for 2 weeks. We got right back to work opening up the incubator and checking all of the electrical continuity and wiring to the power of the fan. All 4 of the incubators had the same issue of the ventilation not working. The heating in an incubator is controlled by a heating resistor and then a small fan that blows the hot air from the resistor through the entire incubator. When the fan stops working, the incubator automatically shuts of the heating resistor because it needs the fan to properly heat.

After testing different elements and checking the power, we finally determined that a fuse was blown halfway through the line of power to the fan, so the fan was not getting power and therefore was not running.

In low resourced, developing countries, the voltage that comes from a power outlet is seldom consistent like it would be in developed countries. Any technology is built to withstand certain voltages and certain amounts of current, if this voltage isn’t correct then a fuse within the circuit will blow, or if there are no fuses the circuit board will become permanently damaged. The fuses in the incubators blew because of either an influx in voltage (a power surge) or a drop in voltage (a power outage). Fuses can be replaced and then the incubators can function again, but fuses with the correct amperage rating are very hard to find and are expensive. A more permanent and effective solution would be implementing voltage regulators throughout the hospital. A voltage regulator works to keep voltage at one rating even when it comes from the source at a varying voltage.

We placed thin wire in place of the fuse. The wire can replace the fuse for a short period of time, but if the voltage influxes it could damage the circuit. Without the replacement fuses on hand and without any functioning incubators, we had to use the wire. We are coordinating with our directors to bring the correct fuses from Kigali. We are also planning on talking to the director of the hospital about getting voltage regulators for at least the intensive care equipment.

Wednesday 7/10 – Bushenge

We spent Wednesday going through all of the incubators. They all had the same exact issue with the same blown fuse.  We replaced the fuses with thin wire in each of the incubators. We then thoroughly cleaned out the inside of each one and checked the other electrical elements to make sure they will function safely.

Thursday 7/11 – Bushenge

We started our morning by assembling two new phototherapy lights. We had to do some wiring and screwing together of parts. Without a technician on hand, I’m not sure how the hospital would have been able to assemble them.

Once we finished the lights, we moved on to fixing an oxygen concentrator. When we plugged it in to test what the issue was there was a spark where the power cable attaches to the machine and then it began to smoke. We quickly unplugged it and then let it cool before opening it up to investigate the issue. When we opened it up, we were met with an excessive amount of dust throughout the entire machine and some mold in spots. Looking at the power source, it was obvious that it had overheated and that is why it sparked and then burned up. We spent at least an hour doing a deep clean of all the parts – removing all of the dust and mold. We found some more evidence of smoking at the air filter which was also clogged and most likely caused some burning also. We replaced the power outlet with one from an old light that was missing a part and cleaned the filter. When we tested the concentrator again, it worked with no problem. The excess dirt and mold had caused it to overheat, so it really just needed a deep clean.

After lunch we opened up another oxygen concentrator. Its entire circuit board had been damaged, so we found another oxygen concentrator of the same make and model and replaced the board with that one. The machine we took the board from also had other broken/ missing parts. We have learned that a lot of times you have to decide which machines have the best chance of working and then use other more hopeless machines for spare parts. It’s better to have one working than two not working. We opened a third oxygen concentrator that wasn’t working, but its compressor was broken. Without a new compressor, this concentrator is unfixable.

Friday 7/12 – Gihundwe

We spent our morning talking to Elysee about the common issues which all of the vital hospital equipment. He gave us thorough details about what the staff normally does wrong and what he wants us to put on the guides we make for each one. He then let us take a half day and start our weekend early 🙂

Saturday & Sunday 7/13-14

On Friday afternoon, Justine and I took a 6 hour bus up to Gisenyi to visit some friends and also check out the famous Rwandan beach town (and my original placement). We spent the weekend exploring some hot springs, going to the beach and hanging by the pool. We had heard a lot of great things about Gisenyi from the locals and definitely weren’t disappointed after seeing it for ourselves!

As always, thank you for reading and for your support 🙂

Kamembe July 1 – 5

This week was full of Rwandan national holidays! Monday (July 1^st) was Rwandan Independence Day – a celebration of independence from Belgian colonization. Thursday (July 4^th) was Liberation Day – a celebration of the end of the genocide in 1994. Then, since this year was the 25^th Liberation Day, the president decided to extend the Liberation Day celebrations and on Thursday night he declared Friday to be a public holiday as well. We spent the entire week at Gihundwe hospital doing some repairs and a lot of logistic work with our head BMET.

Monday 7/1

Due to Rwandan Independence Day, we had the day off from work. Justine, Claudine and I went to the market in the morning to shop around and to try and find a big source of drinkable water. We found a Jibu store that sells 20L jugs of water that you can buy for about $13 and then you can have it refilled for $2. It was the perfect solution to our water problem! We bought the jug and then had to carry it all the way back to our hotel – a 15-20 minute walk all up a steep hill. We got some crazy looks as we carried the heavy water jug up the hill and even had some people offer to carry it for us if we paid them. We were determined to do it ourselves and did end up making it home okay, but we agreed for our next refill we would need to find a new transportation system.

In the afternoon Justine and I went to a restaurant by Lake Kivu to sit in the sun and read our books – it was a nice relaxing afternoon.

Tuesday 7/2

When we got to work on Tuesday, our BMET informed us that the Autoclave’s (a sterilization machine) gasket was broken. The gasket is a rubber circle that sits at the seal of the autoclave door.

When it is damaged, the autoclave cannot maintain a high enough pressure to produce enough steam to properly sterilize the equipment. It was an emergency to find a solution for the gasket, because without a means of tool sterilization the hospital cannot perform any operations. The hospital has 3 autoclaves. The main one has been broken since April and they are waiting for the supplier to send a replacement part. There are 2 back-ups and one was already broken because the heating element failed. So, there was one functioning autoclave and its gasket became too damaged for the machine to function. The gasket on the autoclave with a broken heating element was luckily in good enough condition to replace the overly damaged one. This gasket still had some damage and will most likely not last very long. We worked to clean and replace the gasket on the autoclave and then cleaned out the water draining system for the whole morning.

We figured out the gaskets were breaking because the lids of the autoclaves were not being cleaned after each use, so there was a buildup of reside that was digging in to the gasket.  Also, the gasket should be lubricated every couple of uses so it does not dry up and the hospital staff was not lubricating it regularly. We decided to make a little sign that reminds hospital staff of the proper maintenance of the machine so the gaskets would not break in the future. The gaskets – which are just circular pieces of thick rubber – are $170 USD. They are so expensive and it is very hard for the hospital to replace them because they must go through the ministry of health to buy any equipment. The Autoclaves and the gaskets are so important, so we decided that educating the staff on how they are becoming damaged is really important!

After lunch, we scrubbed up to go into the OR and do some routine maintenance. Our BMET checked on the anesthesia machine while we replaced the filters of the suction machines.

Tuesday night one of EWH’s on the ground coordinators (OTGC), Claire, came to visit us and check in on how we are doing. She took us to a nice dinner and we talked about all of our work so far. It was so great to see her!

Wednesday 7/3

We went back to check on the autoclave in the morning. We took some pictures to add to our maintenance guide. We spent most of the morning finalizing inventory and inputting it into the hospital’s online system, and also making the maintenance guide for the autoclave.

After lunch we went into the NICU to work on some incubators. One of them had an issue with the display screen and two others have probes stuck at the input port. We didn’t have the right tools to remove the probes, so we moved on to working on the display screen. Nothing was visibly wrong with the circuit board directly attached to the screen so we figured it was most likely an issue with a fuse in the main part of the incubator. The nurses were busy and to open the incubator we would need to remove it from the NICU. There are other function incubators, so we had to stop and said we would be back the next day.

Thursday 7/4

Happy Fourth of July and happy Liberation Day! Because of Liberation Day, we did not have to go into work on Thursday either. We had a really lazy day at our hotel. We read our books, caught up on our journaling and did a little bit of research on secondary projects for the hospital. It was a really nice and relaxing day!

Friday 7/5

The president declared Friday a public holiday as well, but we still went into work. We spent the morning repairing some blood pressure machines and cuffs. A lot of the blood pressure cuffs had leaks that prevented the machine from producing an accurate reading. In most cases when a cuff has a leak you throw it away and replace it; however, Gihundwe has a shortage of cuffs so we found the various leaks and patched them with super glue and electrical tape which worked well!

 When it was time for lunch our BMET told us to take the rest of the day off for the holiday. We went to the market and explored some more shops.

Friday night our friends Alex, Maya, and Patience came to visit for the weekend.

Saturday 7/6

Alex, Maya, Justine and I went to Nyungwe National Park to go hiking. The park is about 45 minutes from Kamembe. The outskirts of the park are tea fields, while the inside is a rainforest/ jungle. We went on a nice 4 our hike through the rainforest that ended at a large isumo (waterfall).

Thank you for reading!!

Kamembe:  June 24 – 30

Our first week of working in the hospital! This week was the fastest one yet as we were busy getting to know the new area, meeting our new co-workers and bosses and diving right into work. Every day we head to work to start at 8am, take lunch for an hour around 12 and end our work day between 4 and 5pm. This week it was pretty cloudy and rainy in Kamembe so we spent most of our afternoons hanging out at our hotel and doing a little bit of exploring.

My group is also unique in the fact that we have been assigned to two different hospitals. Gihundwe hospital is a little smaller with about a 270 bed capacity with about 315 pieces of medical equipment on last year’s inventory list. It is a 2 minute walk from the hotel we are living at so it’s super convenient to get to and from work! Bushenge hospital is a 20 min drive from where we are staying and little bit bigger with about a 310 bed capacity – there wasn’t a group there last year so we don’t have an updated inventory of what their medical equipment is like.

Originally, we planned to work at Gihundwe on Mondays and Fridays and Bushenge during the middle of the week, but the technicians worked out that It will be better to work for continuous time in each. Now, we are working in Gihundwe for the first two weeks and will go to Bushenge for the second two. This plan was put into action on Wednesday night so we have visited both hospitals.

Monday 6/24 – Gihundwe

We went to the hospital at 7am to be a part of the general staff meeting and introduce ourselves to the staff. Justine and I got a lot of chuckles when we did our entire intros in Kinyarwanda, but I think everyone appreciated it.

We met one of the BMETs at Gihundwe whose name is Xavier. He gave us an extremely thorough tour of the hospital and all of the equipment they have. The hospital is nice and spread out with separate buildings for different departments. It is relatively quiet and all of the doctors and nurses are so welcoming and were happy to see the new faces. Xavier speaks English well enough to crack a ton of jokes constantly while also explaining all of the equipment to us – he is such a fun guy and we are so excited to work with him. After the tour we had our lunch break and then worked on some equipment. We ended up fixing a surgical aspiration machine (a suction machine). We just had to move around some tubing and then it started working perfectly! We were so excited to have fixed something on day 1 :).

We spent the afternoon hanging at our hotel, reading and journaling.

Tuesday 6/25 – Bushenge

WE received a ride from an employee of Bushenge hospital to work on Tuesday and were met by the biomedical technician (Chrystosome) and the director of the hospital. We met with them about the work we will be doing, and they were both so welcoming and happy to have us as a part of the team! We got a pretty brief tour of the hospital. It is very big with each specific department having its own building. We cut the tour a little short because the neonatal department has 3 broken incubators with the same problem, so we had to go and try to repair them.

We worked all morning and afternoon trying to get them fixed, but couldn’t identify the root cause of the error that the incubators were signaling for. We ended up have to close it up and planned on trying again tomorrow.

That afternoon, we went to explore the market area. It was busting and we found some good spots to buy snacks, water and other essentials.

Wednesday 6/26 – Bushenge

When we got to work, we got right to looking at the incubator again. We took apart another broken one to compare their internal electrical connections and there were no differences. We switched out some parts from other incubators to see if changing them would solve the problem and nothing helped. We spent the entire day troubleshooting and nothing worked. By the time we went home we were all so frustrated, but there was nothing we could do. The BMET determined it was most likely a problem with the setting or some hardware that is not repairable.

That night we went into the town for dinner and explored the shops a little bit more.

Thursday 6/27 – Gihundwe

We met the head of the BMET department for the first time Thursday because he had been traveling when we were at Gihundwe. His name is Elysse and he is almost as goofy as Xavier. They are quite the duo.

We spent the day cracking down on inventory at Gihundwe. We spent the whole day going through the hospital recording equipment that is on the floor and operating as well as digging through store rooms and recording equipment that is no longer used. Elysee was really grateful to have us there to record the inventory becaue it is such a valuable tool for him to have as a technician. Their team is usually too busy with repairs to take a thorough inventory, so having us there is a huge help to them. We got through about half of the hospital’s equipment.

Friday 6/28 – Gihundwe

On Friday morning I wasn’t feeling too great, so Justine and Claudine went to work without me. They ended up finishing all of the inventory while I fought off a stomach bug. (Don’t worry I’m all better now!)

Saturday & Sunday 6/29-30

Some of our friends visited this weekend from Kibuye and Gisenyi and the 6 of us explored along the lake and through different parts of Kemembe. It was really nice to see some other EWHers and heae about their hospitals and the work they are doing! Also, Kamembe and Lake Kivu are absolutely beautiful so that didn’t hurt either.

Thanks for reading!!

June 8th

Here is a little picture gallery from our group excursion (not sponsored by EWH) to Akagera National park! Animal picture credits go to Justine and group picture credits go to Khulood who both have really nice cameras 🙂

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Kigali: June 17 – 22

Our last week in Kigali! This month of training has really flown by. I can’t believe that I have already lived for an entire 4 weeks in Rwanda. I am so grateful that I still have another month here to continue to learn about medical equipment in the developing world and I am so excited to continue learning about Rwandan culture.

I arrived in Kamembe yesterday (6/23) and after one day in Kamembe I already am in love with how nice the people are here and how welcoming the hospital staff has been. Stayed tuned for more updates about our hospital work. For now, here’s an overview of my last full week in Kigali – it was an average week, but we spent a lot of time in class going over logistic aspects of the second month.

Monday 6/17

After what felt like a really long weekend, getting up on Monday was especially difficult. It was sad heading to class knowing that it was our last week and that the group only had 5 days left to be all together.

In Kinyarwanda we topped off our knowledge with some general practice and learned about prepositions so we could better form sentences.

In lecture, we had our last lesson on equipment – a lesson on water baths, stir and hot plates, and autoclaves.

In lab, we practiced making quick start guides to be able to train hospital staff on how to use certain equipment or how to maintain it. It was important that we kept our guides simple but informative so that they would be useful for people across all cultures.

Monday afternoon we played soccer for the last time with the neighborhood kids. In the words of Gabby – I got absolutely smoked in the head with the soccer ball (thanks Andrew). I’m okay though!! (don’t worry Mom). It was definitely sad at the end when we all realized this was the last time we were going to play together.

Tuesday 6/18

In Kinyarwanda, we each prepared a short lesson to teach the class about important things we learned throughout the whole month. I taught mine on useful phrases for when you’re running errands:

_______ iri he? = where is ________ ?

Ndashaka kuga ______ = I want to go to ________

Mumuji = town

kwisoko = market

n’angahe? = how much?

Urahenda! = That’s expensive!

Ufite _______? = do you have __________?

Sinumva = I don’t understand

Imisarani’ri? = where are the toilets?

During lecture we had a lesson how engineering design and how we can start the design process while at our second month placements. We are encouraged to come up with ways the technology can be improved.

In lab we went over different forms and inventories we will need to fill out during the second month.

After class I went to Kimironko market with Khulood (Kali) and Gabby. It was a carzy market full of fabrics, produce and souvenirs. We put all of our Kinyarwanda to practice and got some pretty low prices!

Wednesday 6/19

In Kinyarwanda we reviewed simple math and some more conversation practice.

In lecture we finished up our design discussion.

For lab we split up into our second month groups and went on a scavenger hunt to find different spare parts and different electrical components throughout Kigali. All of the markets are crazy, but Justine and I had Claudine to help us navigate and communicate with the locals.

Wednesday night my host dad took Justine, Alex and me to get massages at his favorite spa. They were so inexpensive, and it was such a nice way to relax after a tiring month! After massages we got dinner at a close by restaurant. We all reminisced and joked about the time we’ve spent together.

Thursday 6/20

Thursday was our last hospital visit in Kigali. My group visited King Faisal hospital. It is the largest hospital in Kigali and is home to the only MRI machine in all of Rwanda. It was definitely the cleanest of all the hospitals we had visited and had impressive technology. Also – it was three levels which is abnormal for hospitals here as they are usually one level very spread out.

We got to working on equipment right away. Justine and I worked on 2 patient monitors. They recorded patient heart rate, temperature and blood pressure. After some testing we discovered that the blood pressure tubing/cuff had a leak so it was producing inaccurate readings.

We tested the monitors on a really cool patient simulation device. You can attach sensor tp the block and it will produce readings so you can test if the equipment you are working on is producing accurate readings.

Thursday night the group went out to a fun dinner in Kigali heights (a very western area of Kigali) and we all got gelato afterwards – a nice little taste of home!

Friday 6/21

A bittersweet last day of class! I think we’re all sad to say goodbye to our friends in Kigali and especially to our homestays, but I know we’re all excited to get started on some real work in the hospitals.

In Kinyarwanda we had a fun final game where we sis a survey on our class experiences and then played some group games.

In lecture we had discussions about the second month and some final parting words. We had a pretty free afternoon so we could all get ready to travel and have time to say goodbye to each other.

Friday night we had a final goodbye dinner and went dancing as a group!

Saturday 6/22

Our final day in Kigali. We spent the day packing up our things and then some of us went to a local pool to go swimming. It was an interesting pool but they had a DJ and we all had a blast joking about the past month and saying our actual final goodbyes.

Saturday night Justine, Alex and I had a party with our host family where we got them a cake and some flowers and gave them our gifts from the U.S.. I brought them maple candies and they actually really like them!

I am so excited for this second month to get started! I love all of my time in Kigali and I already miss the group and my family so much – but am looking forward to being independent and making a difference in our hospitals. Stay tuned for more updates on our hospital work!

As always – thank you for your support and for reading 🙂

Kigali: June 10-14

Bite! (What’s happening!/ What’s good?!) Sorry for the late post! As my time in Kigali comes to an end I am getting more and more busy trying to fit everything in. We just have one week left of training then I am off to Kamembe! Last week was very similar to week 2 – mostly classes and a little bit of exploring more parts of Kigali.

Monday 6/10

We had a typical morning of Kinyarwanda lessons. A lot of conversation practice and new vocabulary that is getting pretty hard to remember. We did learn about relationship terms and I do remember mushiki wanje which means “my sister”. It’s my new favorite thing to call the other girls on the trip.

For lunch some of us walked across the street and got some Rwandan fish and chips. It was actually a very tasty meal!

In lab, we did some practice on interviewing hospital staff members about what the hospital needs. This will help us be prepared to converse during our second months and think of some secondary design projects to work on!

After class we went and played soccer with the neighborhood kids – a typical Monday afternoon here in Kigali 🙂

Tuesday 6/11

Another Kinyarwanda lesson! Today it went by quickly because we were just doing conversation practice in groups.

For lunch we walked down the street to an African Buffet restaurant and then bought some cookies at a bakery – not the best but I haven’t had dessert since I got here!

In lab we continued work on our power supply which will filter AC current to DC current and convert the voltage of a wall socket to the correct amount.

After class I went downtown with Khulood (Kali), Gabby and Mckenzie. We were on the hunt for some safari pants that zip off at the knee (one thing I wished I had thought of before coming!). We didn’t have much luck – but we saw some interesting Kigali shopping malls and let’s just say shopping here is overwhelming.

Wednesday 6/12

Another typical Kinyarwanda class – yet again. I’m not sure how much more vocabulary my brain can retain!

We spent lunch on campus and laid in the sun for a little.

In lab we got to open up different types of medical equipment to see what some common problems and troubleshooting methods are.

Thursday 6/13

Hospital day! Today my group went to CHUK. It was a nicer hospital than Kibagaga and Muhima. It was HUGE. We spent the entire morning just taking a tour.

After lunch we worked on some syringe pumps. While we couldn’t fix them because we needed parts that the hospital didn’t have, all of us were able to identify what had gone wrong with our equipment. Justine and I found out that fuses at the start of the circuit board of our circuit board had been blown – sadly, the hospital didn’t have any replacements.

While we weren’t able to do any substantial repairs, I do really feel like we are learning more each week and will be ready to work independently soon!

Friday 6/14

NOT a typical day of Kinyarwanda today! We learned a little bit of new vocabulary, but I think our teacher knew we were tired, so we instead played some games outside. We had some fun group bonding and sunshine 🙂

After lunch, instead of lecture and lab we traveled to Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. It is a community where orphan live and go to school. It is a completely self-sustained community. They live in family units, grow and cook their own food and take classes.

While we were there, we worked with some student who have a curriculum concentration in science on some of EWH’s medical simulation kits. I worked with a girl names Perfect and she was so unbelievably smart and a fast learner!

After we worked on the kits, we got to stay for their Friday night village time. This is a weekly talent show that they put on where student sing, dance, act and do poetry. It was amazing!

BONUS: Saturday 6/15

On Saturday I traveled to Musanze and hiked Bisoke Volcano. I may post something separate just about the hike, but to summarize: it was the hardest hike I’ve ever done – but so worth it! It was 3711m up and took about 3 hours up and 3 hours down through steep, slippery mud. It was so nice to bond with a couple of the other girls on the trip and would definitley recommend if you’re ever in Rwanda 🙂

Thanks for reading!! This week is my last week in Kigali and I will be traveling to Kamembe this weekend so my next post may be a little late also.

N’aho mukanya! (see you later!)

Kigali: June 3 – 6

Mwiriwe! (Good afternoon!) week 2 was a very typical week of class (except for a day off for Eid on Tuesday) and it absolutely flew by. I can’t believe we are already halfway through our training!!

Monday 6/3

This morning was a typical 4 hours of Kinyarwanda. Since we’ve all mastered the greetings, each class gets a little more complex and is definitely getting harder.

At lunch today some friends and I laid outside to try and get some sun. Being in class all day and then it getting dark here at 6:30, we don’t get much time outside.

Before our afternoon lecture we learned that our groups and locations for the 2nd month had to be changed for some logistical reasons. I am now going to be in Kamembe for July with Justine and a student from the local university (IPRC) named Claudine. While I’ll miss Thomasina and Laura and getting the chance to see Gisenyi, I’m still really excited for month 2!!

In lab we built an LED light and my new group and I are already working great together!

After class we played soccer with the kids from the neighborhood. We played boys vs. girls and obviously girls won 🙂

Tuesday 6/4

We had Tuesday off of class because Eid (the end of Ramadan) is a public holiday. My roomates, Alex and Justine, and I decided to use the day to relax and try and finally get over our perpetual jet lag. We had a lazy morning and then Went to Rwanda’s largest art gallery called Inema. By no means would it be considered large in the U.S., so it surprised us. All of the artists were from Rwanda and slef – taught as there is no art school in Rwanda. I couldn’t take any pictures of the art, but if you want to llok it up you can go to https://www.inemaartcenter.com/. I thought it was all so beautiful and the building itself was so cool!

Wednesday 6/5

We had another day of typical Kinyarwanda lessons, but we decided to get some ~really cute~ actions shots of class:

In lecture we learned about typical problems with different lighting systems in hospitals. In lab we started to build a power supply that will convert AC voltage to DC voltage.

After class a bunch of us ventured into a busy market downtown. We all practiced our Kinyarwanda while bargaining with the locals. It mainly consists of: angahe? (how much)? then oya! (no) and stating a lower price like igihumbi (1000). 1000 Rwandan francs is a little more than 1 U.S. dollar so we usually shoot for that. We also know kabriri (2), gatatu (3), kane (4), gatanu (5), gatandatu (6), kirindwi (7), umunani (8), icyenda (9), and ichumi (10). I think we’ve all gotten pretty good at cutting the prices down.

Thursday 6/6

Today was hospital day 2! This week we were split into 3 smaller groups and went to 3 separate hospitals which we will rotate through for rest of training. My group is Jutsine, Kali, Kaylee, Parker and Cole. Since the IPRC students joined us late, they don’t have approval to work in the same hospitals we do. They can only come to Muhima Hospital which my group happened to go to this week so we also had Claudine, Clenie, Narciss and Emanuel with us this week.

We had a productive day of fixing 2 nebulizers and a blood pressure monitor. We also got the chance to open up a baby incubator and learn about the inner workings as well as a baby warmer.

We also got to tour the hospital. It was much more developed than the hospital last week and it had full blood work laboratories with advanced equipment. The hospital was still by no means as developed as any place in the U.S., but it is interesting to see how 2 hospitals within 10 miles of each other could be pretty different.

Friday 6/7

We had another typical morning of Kinyarwanda. We are starting to learn the future tense which is already proving to be a challenge.

At lunch, we discovered a new canteen on campus where you can buy yummy chapette (a flatbread type thing) and samosas for 100 francs a piece! (That’s less than 15 cents).

In lecture, we went over incubators, baby warmers and fetal monitors.

In lab we continued to work on our power supply circuit and are making progress!

Overall, Friday was a a very typical day of class. After class Justine, Alex and I played cards with our host sisters. They’ve gotten really good at go-fish and they really like playing a game where you have to find pairs of numbers while the cards are face down by memorizing where they are. We went to bed early on Friday night, because we had to get up early on Saturday morning to go to Akagera National Park to go on a safari!!! A post with solely picture from Saturday is to come — I am just waiting to get them from Justine’s much more high quality camera. Here’s a selfie of me with some elephants to get you excited 🙂

Murakoze cyane! (Thank you so much!)

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Sunday 6/2

Last Sunday, our group went on a cultural field trip to the Millennium Village in Mayange, Rwanda (about 1 hour from Kigali). The trip was a full day excursion organized by EWH. We made many different stops to learn about different aspects of Rwandan history. I wanted to make one post about the day as it doesn’t necessarily fit into the typical school days we usually have.

Millennium Villages is an organization that develops communities that work to end poverty in low resourced areas by addressing “the root causes of extreme poverty, taking a holistic, community-led approach to sustainable development.” They work to reach 8 different goals that will overall help to end poverty: food, water & energy, environment, technology & innovation, education, gender equality, mother & child health, and business and entrepreneurship.

We spent the whole day touring through different parts of the village. Here is a general outline of the day:

Genocide Memorial

we went to a catholic churched that was the sight of 45,000 deaths during the 1994 genocide. As the genocide was only 25 years ago, the pain is very fresh for many people here. They that they must remember it to move on a heal, so they have at least one memorial in each district of the country.

Agriculture Farm

We next went to small farm where where we learned about the different plants they harvest in Rwanda.

Lunch and the King’s Hut

We then went and had a local lunch that was cooked farm to table. Most of our meals at home are farm to table as well so it was a very typical Rwanda meal. We had rice, beef, potatoes, spinach and beans.

We then got to look at a replica of what the King’s hut would’ve looked like before Rwanda was colonized.

Women’s Cooperative

We went to a woman’s cooperative where local women weave baskets. They showed us how and then we had the opportunity to buy some.

Local Village

Last, we went to a local community where survivors and perpetrators of the genocide live in harmony. We were greeted by all of the children of the neighborhood who sang and danced for us. We then heard stories of the genocide from one perpetrator and one survivor. Each time a tour comes through, different people are required to tell their stories. The perpetrator was an older man, maybe about 60 years old. The survivor was a younger woman who said she was 17 at the genocide. She had gone to milk her cow one morning and when she came home, her family had been killed. She survived by escaping the country to Burundi. The communities here believe that the only way that they can move on from the genocide is to have faith in God and forgive one another. Many perpetrators spent 9 years in jail and then when they admitted that they were sorry the government allowed for them to be released. It is amazing how much love every person we meet here has even after living through the genocide just 25 years ago.

Overall, the day was very educational. While somber at times, it was important for us to learn about the tragic history of where we are living and how all of the people of Rwanda have triumphantly overcome it.