CHK - Day 8 - Last day

Woke up @ 4:30 without a rooster or an alarm clock, so I decided to Skype Shaloy. I think/hope
she appreciated talking earlier. I also visited with my mom for a little bit. She fell off of her scooter and has broken her right wrist so she has been pecking out short notes during messaging sessions. Now she has her camera and microphone which she found from back when Triandra was in Peru, , , so we can talk away.

Morning routine was pretty routine. The radiographer I had class with this morning has an unusual name, "John of God" at least that's what I heard him say and what I had repeated back and what I said back and he said yes. We were already scanning patients when my other scheduled student "Gaston" arrived. The first few patients in the morning John of God, Gaston & I scanned and then reviewed the cases with Dr.s L & M. After Dr. Landos arrived Venant came and retrieved John of God but Gaston stayed for at least 90 minutes maybe a couple of hours, observing and helping. I tried to slip over to him and explain what we were seeing whenever it was possible.

There was some crazy pathology today. A lot of patients in a lot of pain. A woman with a 10 cm peri-umbilical abscess two years post surgery. A young girl who had massive dilation of the gut and I'm pretty sure had perforated and was on her way to surgery via sonography (There are no images taken so this ultrasound image is a similar case off the web). A baby whose neck was almost the size of his head on the right from a neck mass. The baby was crying audaciously and also having a hard time breathing from the mass in his neck. Every time he strained to cry or breathe the mass bulged out to three times the size and when he would relax or between cries the mass seemed to move down into his chest. It was a complex cyst with septations. Another patient with a large liver abscess in a tremendous amount of pain.

Another 35 patients for today and the crush is over. I'm I saying goodbyes to Dr. Landos (we've exchanged phone numbers and he's invited me to his hospital in Nyagatre plus I'm supposed to get him an OB calculator wheel when that box arrives). Dr. C seems happy with my visit, I promise to come back and see Dr. M. and Dr. L promises to show me where I can get a beautiful African dress for my sweetie Shaloy. I know Dr. L will know to go, because she always is dressed sharp. Venant says we'll make more arrangements with John, Dr. Konn and I for additional training before I exit Rwanda.

This afternoon I've been asked by the KHI faculty to go to Muhima Hospital and see what might be done for their broken processor. It's been down for 2 weeks and they are hand dipping films. Supposedly it's a Pro-Tec processor similar to the one I've been working with. I go by to see Leonard in maintenance and borrow the manual in case they don't have one. We talk about the parts order and he's taken apart the defective motor and thinks he may be able to get it going in case they need it before the replacement arrives. I also received an e-mail from Doris Tontsch @ Pro-Tec with suggested prices (in euros - minus shipping) for the parts that they need.

It's off to KHI and lunch with Patrick and John (the Radiology Program Director). The canteen told me I could take pictures of the food today. So here's lunch: rice, cooked bananas (not sweet at all) potatoes (very large cubes that look to have been boiled and then baked), casaba, bitter greens (which I've eaten every day and have now come to enjoy), red beans, a cube of meat (and they mean a single cube about halfway between a dice and a Rubik's cube) and a red gravy/soup that you pour over it all. It's a ton of starch which they seem to pile high and eat without gaining any weight. All this, as much as you can keep on a plate, for $1.60 U.S. These folks are the thinnest population group I've encountered (speaking from a sonographer's point of view).

When I've seen hits on the blog from Kigali I've assumed they were all from me, , , Over lunch I realized that some of the Kigali hits are from others because many of the things that I've written about were quoted back to me by the Medical Imaging Program Director. I hope I've not written anything that will offend any of the local folks here in Kigali. Patrick tells me of at least 4 words I've misspelled. I've been adding an a on the end of Muzungu, added an o in the middle of Kimironko (the market town), the town where there is church in English is spelled Kibagabaga and finally that strange fruit is called Ikinyomoro.

We wait, wait and wait for Abdullah to take us to the hospital and finally give up. (He's been delayed while having a flat repaired). It's about 150 yards of driveway between administration and the Health buildings. I've walked this parking area/drive a half dozen times and have picked up no less than a dozen nails. When they fill a pothole, they bring in dirt from the construction areas and the dirt contains nails. No wonder Abdullah is constantly getting flats! When I was a kid my Grandpa Penrose would insist that we look for and pick up any nails whenever we walked about the drive or yard at the ranch.

So we are taken by a different driver over to the hospital and wait @ administration for permission to proceed. Then we are accompanied down to Radiology, films outside drying in the sun but now suspended in manual dip racks which I haven't seen used in 25 years. A few minutes later and we're in the radiography room. The processor is in a corner, upside down, no racks, no chemical tanks hooked up, with parts obviously missing from it's belly. The Director of the hospital arrives and tells us that a repair person has come and removed the Power Control Board (I'm guessing some other parts as well) and has promised to return it (the PCB) repaired and fix the processor next Monday. The only thing I do is to confirm that it is a Pro-Tec processor. It looks very similar to the one I've been dealing with for the last week.

So, , , , that's it for this mission. If they need help once the PCB board arrives back they say they'll let us know. . . . So we're dropped off at the town buses and catch the one back to the guest house for me and on to their apartment. We wander through the melee listening for the Hawkers shouting Kuchira (the route we want to get us home). This is a two person operation in that there is a driver who drives and a "Hawker (my term)" who urges the people to get on this particular bus and not the next one down going to the same destination. Or maybe it might be another destination. Benard warns me to ignore what it is written on the bus because they swap them out if a bus breaks down. Of course the next one down has a "Hawker" trying to get you on his bus instead of the one you were about to get on to. It's loud and confusing and the craziest part is that they all seem to be run by the same company "ATRACO". There is an ATRACO official who keeps in contact with the drivers by hand signals and keeps/moves/directs the buses in and out. We pick an empty bus and get on to wait. It is crowded, I get warm and sleepy and could have easily closed my eyes for a nap while we waited for 15 more folks to get on our bus. Patrick tells me we have to wait until we get 18 passengers before they'll leave. Eighteen in a standard Toyota mini-van!

Home without incidence, I treat myself to a two trips around the mulberry tree picking and eating the fruit. I start on the chicken and dumplings, nibbling some of my pineapple while I wait. Check some e-mail, send some files and have a lovely meal. The second cooking softened the bird a bit, , but not a lot. Tastes great though. I've got a tupper ware container of leftovers in the fridge and still have a fair bit to share with the house staff.

Skype visits with Dan Pratt and Ken Willes. We're trying to set it up so I can participate in Sabbath School tomorrow. School business Skype with Dawn Irwin (I'm going to visit with the echo students next Monday @ 2:30 their time via Skype). Then I set up a Skype to phone service so I can call U.S. landlines and cell phones for 2.4 cents per minute. I call Shaloy's answering service and sing her a song, call Tria's answering service leaving her a message and figure I'll skip leaving a message on Zach's answering service.

Sabbath I plan to attend the English Church in Kibagabaga and Sunday I'm going to the game park with Dr. Konn's American Students. I'm supposed to get to see giraffes, baboons, warthogs, hippos and antelope.

Any image that is too small to see/read on the blog , , , If you click on it, , , , will open a new page and be viewable in original size. Also a couple of folks have told me that they're having issues publishing comments. I've changed some settings to see if that helps. You're comments have kept me encouraged to keep blogging.