CHK Day 3 - Success

Woke up this morning and we had running water. YEAH!! I filled every bucket that I could find in the house including the ones we use to flush the toilets. There is a reservoir tank but something is wrong with the pump so it doesn't fill when the water is on. For other folks on this street it's no big deal if the water is only on for an hour. They immediately refill their reservoirs and they are good for three or four days, , , if necessary. When I got home the water was off again but there was some being delivered. I can get by pretty well most of the day if I can get cleaned up in the morning.




Caught my morning ride with the guys in the picture and Dr. Konn. Jamba a dentist (on the left, without a tie), Abdullah the Driver, and Chris (also a Dentist on the right with a tie). Wonderful men they invited Dr. Konn & I to go with them to a program in the city park tomorrow evening. It's some sort of live International Peace Conference. Sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday night and make better friendships.

Sabbath to church at the Rwanda Union Office. I got a pineapple to take in case I get invited to lunch. Sunday I'm hoping to go see Jonathan Hodgson at L' ESPERANCE CHILDREN'S AID Children's Village Kigarama . Gayle Moore from Southern Adventist University asked If I would stop in and say hi. She said he was in Kigali. I checked at the Rwanda Union Office this week and found out they have a P.O. Box in Kigali but that he's actually near Kubuya which is a 2.5 hour bus ride. Should be an adventure!


The morning went well with only 24 patients between 8:30 and 11:30. Dr. C & I continued to help Dr. Landos with his scanning. We even got to do two Obstetrical exams today which seemed to really brighten up Dr. Landos. The day before I had told Dr. Landos the good sonographers should almost always be able to tell the gender of a fetus. He looked a bit smug when I had to admit that the 2nd one this morning was in a position where I could not see any tell tale signs. In the afternoon I mixed in 4 more scans before, in between and after working on the processor. I saw a textbook example of appendicitis in a 4 year old. and had the opportunity to show Dr. M how to identify the appendix.

When the main morning load was done I left to find the parts for the processor. The maintenance man had come first thing in the morning and I asked him to try and locate the other housing and motor. No luck, AWOL.... just not around, , the part not the man. So , , It was off on a mototaxi to search! At some stores they speak primarily French, other stores mostly Kinyarawanda and a few could speak English. But I had the part with me and adding a diagram and a picture they knew what I wanted , , , but didn't have it. After 6 stores in an hour, I decided to check one more store (another moto ride) and if they didn't have it, I'd go back to the store from last night and buy the whole fan unit and modify it to work rather than modifying the existing unit and messing up a chance to later fix it right. Now many of the shops are closed for lunch, , , So lunch it is for me as well and back in an hour. I found Abdul waiting for the boss to open up and he recognized me. We quickly agreed upon a price and got a taxi together to go across town to the hole in the wall hovel of a store that you would never guess had anything of value much less the desired fan motor. Tested it, it worked, paid Abdul (who paid the hovel man) and caught a moto back to CHK.

On the way back I dropped the fan while at a stop. Only about a 24 inch fall but it made a bang. Embarrassed I jumped off to retrieve the fan plus I wanted to repeat where I was going to the driver because I was not familiar with the route he'd taken. Very interesting that within seconds two well dressed people were there from the sidewalk checking to make sure that nothing bad had happened to the muzunga.


Walking back into CHK a few minutes later the familiar sheet spread out in the sunshine drying the 2 dozen films. The dark room was busy so I started the modifications to the fan and asked to have the maintenance man come back (he'd asked to be there when I was working). It took a couple of hours to make the modifications, mount the fan, create and connect an air duct, test the heater unit, undo the wiring from the previous rigging. Turned the unit on, , , no heater but the blower was blowing a good steady stream. Checked the heater and saw that it was trying to turn on but the relay wasn't making a good connection. Worked on the relay and wallah. Blower blows all of the time that the processor is running, which should be modified but the heater and thermostat are working together so that the heater is on at the appropriate times and should be safe. Closed the top, ran a film and it came out dry!!! I hurried to get the lead radiographer who didn't seem very excited to come with me. But when I handed him a dry film and told it had just come out of the processor , , , , the smile was worth all of the effort. Three months of wet films. . . . .

1. Ride on a mototaxi - $300 FRw


2. Used Squirrel fan and housing - $25,000 FRw


3. Smile on Aphrodice's face when he held that dry film - Priceless!!

P.S. I actually did get a good electrical shock today while working on the processor. We hadn't taped two wires and I grazed them. Yikes!!!