King Faisal Day #4 - On a roll

This morning for breakfast I had a new treat, Nutella. It's made from hazel nuts and it tastes like a creamy mixture of peanut butter and chocolate (heavy on the chocolate). I had it on a roll and it was pretty tasty. With a glass of the "Full Cream" milk it seemed quite fattening. Shaloy has commented that I should be losing weight but my clothes don't feel any looser.

Everything else is as it should be; Warm water for a shower, driver was on time, my daily Skype visit with Shaloy. All is well in who-ville. At King Faisal, I have Betty and Deogene assigned to be with me and Said comes in on his Day Off!! That's what I'm talking about!! someone who wants to learn badly enough to go an extra bit. It's quite encouraging. Dr. E also seems quite satisfied to have us bring some images and a report. He's hopping to keep up with CT & plain films much less scanning the patients who need sonograms.

Today's cases included a focal fatty infiltrate within the liver that had a mass like appearance. Another was an in-patient whose right kidney had gotten so big that we could not identify any internal structures, It was hypoechoic and the patient was febrile with a lot of pain in the area of the kidney. It looked inflammatory but the Radiologist thought more likely malignant, I'll follow-up on tomorrow's CT scan.

I went to lunch with Deogene and Said to a local restaurant just about 1/4th mile from the hospital. There were tables and a young lady brought us drinks. The food was buffet of the typical Rwandan lunch, cabbage salad, chips (thick French Fries), cooked bananas (not sweet), cassava, rice, greens (with some sort of bitter seedy green tomato that today I decided might be some variety of eggplant), thin gravy which is appropriately called "soup" and one cube of meat. As much as you can get on a plate (except the meat which is limited to one cube) for $800 FRw ($1.40 U.S.). I've never seen anybody go back for seconds. They get enough the first time. We do a lot of visiting about culture variations and they are surprised to find out that you don't get any money when you marry off your daughters.

I asked Said about a scar on his forehead. He shows me another on his arm and I come to understand he is a survivor. Deogene explains that there was a lot of "cutting". We talk about the reconciliation process and the "Men in Pink". (I'll try to get a picture soon). Their prisoners wear pink pants and shirts that look sort of like scrub suits. And most that I've seen have an interesting knitted cap/hat as well.

We did about a dozen studies and had plenty of time for theory sessions between patients. All three of these people can learn sonography if they get a bit of encouragement, are aggressive in getting their hands on the transducers and go over cases with the radiologists. Our day ends with a renal transplant patient for possible early rejection. The resistive index in all of the poles is less than 0.6, kidney is 10 cm with a tiny bit of collecting system dilatation and otherwise unremarkable 2d findings. The arterial anastamosis has some turbulence, but the angle corrected velocities are around 70 cm/sec.

I catch a moto into Mumenge to go to the forex and exchange dollars for francs. I decide to wander a bit and find that there are quite a few stores selling African and especially Rwandan arts/crafts/pottery/baskets/carvings etc. I look but won't buy until I've looked multiple places, on multiple days, compared prices and see who is consistently friendly and not trying to gouge because I'm white. After looking in a half dozen stores I see that this place also has people wandering the streets asking for money and selling some of the stuff I've seen in the stores. I put on my stone face and walk past but one woman is persistent and when I hear that she is offering me two small african drums for $500 FRw (1$ U.S.) I decide to buy, , , but I've only got a $2,000 bill and she quickly wants to just have me buy something else that she has and not give me any change. Others realize that the muzungu has slowed down and might part with some money and there is soon a small crowd of women thrusting their crafts at me, competing to be heard along with a couple of women who have nothing to sell but keep asking for money. I try to focus on the woman I'm buying from and she finally gives in and asks someone for change. I make my exit as quickly as possible without running and within a block the last one gives up. I do not enjoy that type of shopping!

I remember that I saw another restaurant nearby that advertised Indian cuisine & I'm up for more of what I had last night. I'm there in ten minutes but on closer inspection, , they advertise Indian, Chinese and American food. I walk in scope out the restaurant's menu and don't see anything resembling Indian. They've got a market though & I find a treasure. . roasted peanuts. . . I plunk down my money and get the nuts and two packets of Koolaid stuff (I'm getting tired of drinking boiled water or Fanta). On the walk back, I'm on a tree lined street and the pavement is pretty much painted white with bird droppings. The birds are circling overhead and in the trees and I wonder if I should cover my head. These are big crow like birds with the markings similar to a magpie. It reminded me of that old Hitchock movie "The Birds". There were literally thousands.

Home by city bus. During our lunch time cultural exchange we had discussed "personal space" and the lack of that concept with the Rwandans. It was re-inforced on the bus ride where there were four adults in three seats. It was impossible not to touch the entire side of the person on each side of you. One real absurdity is the driver's insistence that whoever is in the front passenger seat wear a seatbelt. The drivers frequently just drape theirs over them so that it appears they are wearing but they aren't clicked. Additionally there is always someone sitting between the driver and that front window seat (riding the hump), and it's fine that they don't have a seatbelt nor any of the other passengers. The last of my tilapia filets and cabbage salad for supper. The koolaid - "pineapple with ginger" tastes like medicine.

CVTC News: All the boxes that MaryAnne shipped have arrived without damage. Thanks! I've gotten many very positive comments about my name tag. I wear my CVTC name tag every day and they are uniformly impressed with the appeareance. I've had multiple comments: I guess kudos to the marketing folks who picked or designed the name tag. I do check my CVTC e-mail daily.

King Faisal Day #3,

I'm woken wide awake @ 4:30. It seems that my intestines have decided they no longer want to be part of me and my escapades and they've decided to pack it up and leave. . . . via the nearest exit . . . . . Now!! I'm just glad I stocked up on soft paper. In between times, I visit with Shaloy on the Skype. At this rate I'm pretty sure there won't be any going to work today. I take a dose of 1 charcoal tablet and two Loperamide. . . Finally about an hour later they change their mind and decide to stay. I go back to sleep and wake up a bit later as though all is well with the world.

Okay, get up and start to clean up and who is this??? but the driver is here to pick us up @ 6:30. Ike and the driver have mis-communicated the pick up time & the driver is ready to go now. I'd rather walk than rush now and be there over an hour before the rest of the staff. I ask them to leave me. So, , , another leasurely morning (warm shower water and a bit of pressure :-) ) breakfast with white scrambled eggs and milk that tastes like half and half for breakfast. I walk to the corner, catch a moto and I'm there before 8:00.

Seth is the chief Radiographer and he provided me with a "clinical coat" today. My lab jacket that Shaloy sent hasn't arrived yet. I worked with "Said". This guy is sharp. Already understands the physics and can explain it to me without prompting. Understands the associated math and is pretty good with anatomy and great with understanding the terminology. A slow morning with just a few cases before lunch and a couple after. We had time to scan each other and discuss the functions of the various buttons and the actions of various pathologies on the ultrasound images. We did have a couple of cases that looked like malignant liver lesions. One that looked like gall bladder sludge (definite fluid/solid interface that you expected to be parallel to the floor but instead was vertical in orientation) but it was attached to the wall and would not move regardless of patient position. I also worked with an OB/GYN doctor as he evaluated a set of twins.

Dr. Konn brought the American students to the hospital and I visited with 1/2 of them while the other half toured and then switched and visited with the 2nd 1/2 while the first half toured. Much of my conversation each day is limited by my limited amount of French & Kinyrwandan. I depend on the local folks to be able to speak English or draw or I sign. This doesn' t give much opportunity to have deep conversations. It was nice to visit with native english speakers for a while.

Diogene joined us just before lunch and then again in the afternoon. We scanned different people in the department, did a couple of other cases, reviewed the CT of one of our morning patients and scanned a few more of each other. I walked home again but called Abdullah to make my own arrangements with a driver I know, so that there is less confusion and mix up. I wave to the seamstress lady and am going home at the same time as the school children who enjoy daring each other to talk to the muzungu or shake my hand and say "hello".

The house is empty and Philbert says everyone is gone or gone out for the evening except me. I do some CVTC e-mail work, start a download of some software that Nee has sent and look up that Indian Restaurant I read about. Down to the corner and catch a city bus to within a couple of blocks. One of the people on the bus, Julius, gets off at my exit and walks me to Indian Khazana. The Lonely Planet guide of East Africa gave it great marks and I would as well. Quiet, attractive, attentive service, not outlandish prices, huge selection (including a lot of vegetarian). I have an appetizer of lentils and spinach that are rolled into balls the size of a racquetball and fried. Some of that great Indian bread and goat (the first tender meat I've had in Rwanda) in a thick brown sauce. The masala tea with milk was outstanding for desert.

I walked about a mile before I could flag a moto and now I'm about to crawl into bed and hope that this night will not have any conflicts amongst my innerds. I've gotten two e-mail birthday cards, a happy birthday song from Shaloy, a number of other e-mails with birthday wishes, and I've enjoyed my presents of a French-English Dictionary from Tekoa, Autoharp from Shaloy and anti-rain jacket from Zach. Other than noticing that I keep my reading glasses close @ hand I don't feel much older.

King Faisal Day #2

A long night last night as my ileum and colon were actively peristalsing resulting in increased motility and decreased transit time with a resulting insufficient amount of fluid absorption. I had a nice Skype visit with Shaloy this morning and hear that I'm a Great Uncle by my Nephew Phillip Thomas and his wife Loraine. Alivia Thomas born in Boise, Idaho a few days ago. Phillip has this truly wonderful habit of calling us on our birthdays. We had a memorable time @ their wedding a few years ago on Orcas Island in the San Juans off near Seattle. I actually thought of them Sunday when trying to capture a picture while the hippos were up (We had an equal challenge trying to catch images of the breaching Killer whales on a whale watching trip)

My ride (new driver and I don't know what happened to Abdullah - Phone says not working)showed up @ 7:00 am and I wasn't anywhere close to ready and didn't really want to get there that early, so I relaxed, ate a mango and got ready, , , leisurely and caught a moto to the hospital arriving @ 8:00 am. Today I worked with Betty (a radiographer) and Benard (the KHI radiography student). I scanned a few and had her back scan but most of them I walked/guided/helped her to do the exams. We worked with the Radiologist Dr. E today. He was trained in Belgium and I could tell that he was used to and expected to scan the patients. It a bit of a trial for him to sit back.

Some interesting cases today: A 9 cm mass that was seen between the stomach and liver on CT, they wanted to evaluate whether it arose from the liver tissue or was encapsulated and was pushing into the the liver. A case of sub-acute DVT with constant flow, veins that would not coapt, flow had returned but was tortuous through the hypoechoic residual thrombus.

At lunch time I took a moto to KHI to eat lunch with the Radiology staff, inventory the mailings that have arrived (all the boxes sent from CVTC have arrived with only one CD case damaged but no materials damaged or missing) and also to return the processor manual to Leonard @ CHK. I've visited with the Chief Radiologist @ King Faisal today and review the conversation with the head of radiology @ KHI. I've repeatedly heard radiographers say, , , "It doesn't help to learn this because we will not be allowed to practice later". If this is true, they are right & I need to evaluate how I can best help. If it's not true, I'd like to be able to say so. After discussion, we plan to see how to best approach the Minister of Health in the near future, and to see if we can get an official answer about the practice level for trained/certified sonographers in Rwanda.

Back to King Faisal after lunch to work with 4 students and Betty until a patient arrives when I scoot the extra three out of the room. The OB/GYN doctors periodically bring their patients and use the machine. So at 4:00 pm we're asked to vacate for them. After checking to see who I'll be with tomorrow I start the walk home. I've brought the case for my autoharp because it needs sewing/mending and there is a lady who sits next to the road with a pedal sewing machine each day. I stop to see if she can fix it and she is happy to do so. Fifteen minutes and $1,000 FRw later my case is repaired. I'm happy and she seems quite happy as well. I've probably overpaid her but it was worth $2 U.S. to me to have it fixed well.

While walking home I see a familiar sight. There a bunch of people in blue sitting on the public grass areas across from the ministry buildings. Sometimes they are sitting with nobody around and others are sitting in 2s. On closer inspection, I think they are weeding by hand, I don't know what the blue signifies (civil servant or criminal). In Georgia, the prisoners are frequently out on the sides of the roads cleaning but always under guard and I've not seen a guard with these people. Perhaps a Rwandan can leave a comment and help me out.

Home to a supper of fish and chips which are helped along when I see that there is some red vinegar that I can use for seasoning. (tasted similar to the malt vinegar that I like at Long John Silvers). I sit and eat outside under the gazebo and play music for about an hour (autoharp and recorders).

Philbert comes to see me later and I let him try out the autoharp. I'm hoping to get to bed early

King Faisal Hospital - Day 1

I'm pretty proud of my eggs. Benard (pronounced Ben erd) from KHI had told me that it wasn't safe to buy the eggs @ Kimironko market. When I asked why, he said "You wouldn't get them home without breaking the shells" (they are given to you loosely in a thin plastic bag - no egg carton). But I needed/wanted eggs. My large mouth water bottle and these small eggs might make a pair. The eggs fit in and I get them home without any waste. When I made my omelet this morning, I'm surprised to see that the egg yolk is not yellow but much closer to a white so my omelet is white instead of the yellow I'm accustomed to seeing. They still taste fine. Ike tells me that he had to adapt to the color and that there is nothing wrong with having white yolked eggs.

A new driver and vehicle drops me @ King Faisal Hospital which is no more than 2.5 miles away. I tell the driver to not worry about me this afternoon, as I intend to walk home. I'm in before the rest of the staff and wander around the outside of the facility a bit. The difference could not be more stark. This is a thoroughly modern facility, with the only CT scanner in the country. The ultrasound unit has six ways of recording - BW printer, color printer, video cassette, hard drive, 3.5 Floppy and CD. It has Doppler and 3D/4D. There is a changing room and enough linens for the entire day. The main department is using all digital imaging. They plan to upgrade the CT unit, add MRI & Nuclear Medicine within the next couple of years.

After a discussion with the Seth and his staff I go to orient myself to the location of the various knobs on the Siemens G6 Ultrasound unit. I know what they all do I just need to learn where each button I want/need is located. By noon my fingers are moving automatically to the right spot. I work with a Radiographer "Deogenes" and a student "Benard" (also pronounced Ben erd). Dr. S. is the Radiologist and he is quite pleasant and accommodating, sharing the vision, introducing me and accompanying me to lunch and then paying for it today. Throughout the day, he encourages the radiographer to keep his hands on the transducer and scan. I work one on one and have Diogene scanning most of the patients or at least back scanning.

The workload is a bit slow and we only do ten patients between 8:30 and 4:00 pm. Two of them are portables in ICU. I see about the same percentage of pathology as previously. The biggest difference is that they have Doppler and are interested in doing more and better vascular studies. The first two today are DVT venous leg exams. The patients are not the poverty level patients of CHK. At 4:00 we begin reviewing some cases and the pathology we'd documented and I walk home around 4:45.

I cooked some of my multicolor beans for 3 hours while adding to yesterday's blog. We tried but had much difficulty with the Echo students skype session @ 8:00 pm. I think that it's mostly bandwidth issues. We were able to say hi and wave at each other & I shared for about 5 minutes.

There many avocado trees along the public roads. I've asked two different people what would happen if somebody picked one of those avocados?? They both responded that it would "Be no problem, yes, sure, fine, no problem" So I ask, , , If they are free on the trees in the street why do they sell them in the markets?? They both told me that they wouldn't use them from the public streets and that they buy them.

The hit counter is very intriguing to me. I can see the cities of people who are reading the blog but don't know who it is who is following along in Cincinnati, St. Mary's - Florida and Albertville - Alabama.

Akagera Game Park with Dr. Konn's group - The full posting

Alarm went off @ 4:30 am. I've convinced Dr. Konn that they can pick me up along the way. It will help Philbert as well because he is picking up their laundry to wash it while they are out today. I may not have mentioned that there is no washing machine here. I've not found any Laundromats. So about every six days I pay Philbert around $2,000 FRw to wash my clothes by hand. He air dries them on the line outback and then irons the shirts.

RATS!! not real rodents but shoot!! not a gun, but dang!! No water. I forgot to mention yesterday one other Great Thing!! Not only was there water but the shower had water pressure!! and not only that but the water was warm!! Hot Dog!! The shower is one of those hoses with a shower head that you hold in your hand and point in the direction you desire. However, the pressure is such that if you hold it sideways (or up) the water only goes down, , , not out sideways for a while before turning down. And though we have hot water in the sinks it never seems to have any positive thermal qualities when dribbling out of the shower wand. But I'm not complaining, because I had a bucket full of water saved for just such an event and I'm getting to see Giraffes, and Baboons today!

So Philbert & I meet the buses at the corner. Once they have given him the eleven bags of laundry I have a seat. Everyone seems in excellent spirits. I never hear an exact head count but there are ten American Students, One faculty member (Bianca), Dr. Konn, three people with the tour company, about 25 Rwandan students and me. So close to 40 people in two buses. Kigali is roughly in the center of the country. Last Sunday I traveled around 2.5 hours basically west to Kibuya and was at the western border. This Sunday we're traveling about 2.5 hours basically east and we'll be at the eastern border. A 2.5 hour drive doesn't' get you nearly as far on these roads as it will in the U.S.. The main roads seem well maintained but are heavily used be all sorts of traffic (buses, trucks, taxi vans, motos, the occasional bicycle (frequently carrying some commodity or another person) and people walking, always, people walking.

We move from the main paved road to a dirt road @ the town where Bill Clinton's Foundation has donated monies to build and outfit a hospital. The further you get from the main roads, the lower the quality/standard of the housing. We pass many community water supplies today. I see yellow 5 gallon containers collecting that water which makes me seriously doubt the information given me last Sunday when I was told that the yellow containers were all for milk.

We get to Akagera Park and proceed to check in where we can stretch legs, empty bladders, pick up the guide for each bus, sign in and meet the first animal. There were a number of baboons around the ranger station and they seemed adjusted to people. One in particular, was quite happy to mill around with us and was interested in anything that might be eaten. We could get quite close to him without any apparent nervousness , , , , , , on his part. The temptation was great and just before we got ready to leave he was sitting in a bush about 2 feet off the ground , , , , and his feet looked so soft and touchable, , ,, and he'd been sooo friendly so far , , , , , so I got closer (and he ignored me) , , , , , reached out (still ignoring me) , , , , , and touched the bottom of his foot. He must have been ticklish , , , , , for he jumped to grab my hand, grunting loudly and ran off past me. The others nearby hadn't seen what had caused the incident but were startled as he ran past. . I tried to act non-chalant and kind of meandered off around the corner. Shaloy has already scolded me. I know, , they're wild animals....

Into the buses and within 15 minutes we see the Giraffes. They were pretty close by and two of them were hitting each others necks with their heads. I've seen a video of this but the ranger tells us they are just playing around... In the previously mentioned video it didn't look like playing but at the park today it did. We see some antelope which aren't on my side of the bus and I don't hear the name clearly and some Zebra. The ranger tells us that there are about 15 lions. They are seldom seen by the tour buses and primarily eat the zebras (the Giraffes can kick pretty hard). We leave too soon for me but on to find the buffalo.

It's a long drive and the first group is about 1/3rd of a mile away under some trees, barely visible and we don't try to get closer. Another 20 minutes and we see come to zebras standing in the middle of the road. Just standing, , , waiting , , , , after a few minutes the bus driver revs the engine and the Zebras take off running, , the African students really liked that and there was quite a bit of hooting and hollering. A few minuted later, another small group of Zebra and a lone bull under a tree. We're about 70 yards away when the other bus splits the distance between us and the Buffalo who is now paying attention. Quite quickly he puts his head down and charged. They quickly put it in gear and as soon as they started to increase the distance he stopped. It was only about another 1/2 mile to a group of over 50 buffalo. They seem wary and we don't get very close. On the way back we see almost all of the same family groups of animals as on the way in.

Another rest stop @ the ranger outpost. The faculty member Bianca was quite happy when we were able to locate a couple of Cokes (she hadn't had her coffee and was getting a caffeine withdrawal headache/migraine). On to the Hippos. The lake is the 2nd largest in Rwanda and we stop at a "fishing project" and catch a pictures of some Egrets, Maribou Storks (Which I think are some of the ugliest birds) and a pair of beautiful Egyptian geese. A little bit further and we stop at a camping site where we are told there are hippos. We're allowed out here and we pile out scanning for a huge animal but see only a small disturbance on the water surface about 30 yards out from the shore and a small partial head with nose, eyes and ears. The hippos poke their heads up for 5 - 10 seconds. The rangers tell us that each submersion lasts about 5 minutes and if that is so there were around 5-8 individuals in this herd. as we would see a head once every 45 seconds but never so enough to be able to actually identify different ones.

It's getting close to lunch time so we go to the park lodge. A very nice modern facility with a fantastic view, top notch service and a very nice pool. If you want a place to go and relax far far very far away from it all (and be treated well with great accommodations, food and service) I can highly recommend Akagera Game Park Lodge. We made lunches with Various kinds of sandwiches (tuna or PBJ or Nutella), fresh pineapple, biscuits (cookies), water and 15 plates of "chips" (thick French Fries) fresh and hot from the restaurant. Everybody ate until they were satisfied. Afterwards many people swam.... Dr. Konn had told me at one point that there would be swimming today, , , But I had spaced about it and hadn't brought my trunks, , , but I was hot and the water was cool and I did have on solid black boxer briefs which were quick drying, wicking so , , , , (no I didn't swim in just my underwear!) I unzipped the the trouser legs of my pants and jumped in. About 3:00 pm we packed it all up headed for Kigali.

Same trip in reverse, with a brief pit-stop for those with small bladders or who had consumed much fluids We were back in town by 5:15. I asked to be dropped off in Kimironko near the market as I was getting low on some supplies. The market was beginning to shut down as sundown was approaching and there are no lights. I was able to get a pineapple, 2 mangos, 0.5 Kilos of mixed beans for soup, 6 eggs, two 500ml containers of milk, a Kilo of tomatoes, a cabbage, carrots, onions and a Kilo of those strange Kinyomoro fruits. I'll get pictures of the market next time I go.

I took over 300 pictures today and the Internet speed isn't very fast. When I got home I couldn't access Blogger & I needed to let my computer churn through the images and some software I needed to load in order to sort pictures. I laid down for a nap and didn't wake up until 4:30 am Monday when I started the process over, , , So the complete regular blog about Sunday is just coming now Monday evening.

The students who were on the trip asked for me to send them e-mails of any pictures I took of them. However that would be waaayyy tooo time consuming of a process and I might not send them the ones they wanted. Soooo, If you want a picture or pictures here's what you do. Go to my Picasa album. When you see a picture you desire right click on it. Tell your computer where you want it saved and BINGO. You've got the image. Of the 300 pictures 54 were blurry or of no interest at all and I've deleted them. Some of the pictures have captions but it'll take me a good part of an evening to add captions to the rest (which I intend to do - eventually) .

Tomorrow I start @ King Faisal Hospital.

2nd Sabbath

It was nice to sleep in. I didn't get up until 5:30 today. But I wanted to visit with my sweet heart over the Skype. A lounging type of morning with fried onions and scrambled eggs plus a whole avocado and a glass of milk.

The milk here is similar in taste to my childhood in Yerington, Nevada where we drank cat milk. The local dairy farmer was a family friend who was not allowed to sell raw milk for human consumption but could sell it for pet consumption. We would take a clean glass gallon jar to him and he would exchange it with a gallon jar of milk which was for consumption by our cats (we didn't own a cat and that would have had to be a lot of cats because we got a gallon every 2 or 3 days). Besides being unpasteurized and non-homogenized, it had all of the fat content and we would let it separate to make home made cream, butter, butter milk and whipped cream. The fat content was close to 20%. In the U.S. what is termed whole milk is only 4%. Low fat is 2% and skimmed is near 1% or less. If you're going to drink water, , , why would you run it through a cow first??? Anyway, , , The Rwandan milk in 500 ml paper containers says, "Full Cream" and it tastes like it..... Man it's good!! Ready to go to church by 8:30.

I walked to the corner to catch the city bus to Kimironko terminus and then walked the last mile to Kibagabaga English Church. I figured I was getting close when I saw four little children wearing their Pathfinder scarves. I don't think they must use the Pathfinder song here because there were only quizzical looks when I started singing it to them. I thought they'd recognize the tune. Crazy Muzungu! They just wanted to touch me. Again I was struck by the stark contrast in the quality of the church structures across the street from each other. But I was able to participate in Sabbath School and worship in a language that I understood. We had a dynamic speaker who preached in Kinyarwandan and was translated into English. Which seemed a bit strange because most of the people understood before the translator translated and sometimes the translator just let it go because everybody had already gotten it. I'm almost done with this cold but I got a coughing fit and had to leave the sanctuary or disrupt the service, so I stood outside and listened because the speaker was so good. Walked back to Kimironko and then a City bus back to my street and home.

I had cabbage salad for lunch and then took a nap until my special Sabbath Treat!! I played the Autoharp for about 45 minutes until my treat was ready!!. 3:30 our time, 9:30 East Coast time, ,I Skyped my buddy Ken Willes who had set up his laptop, a camera and microphone @ the Collegedale Community Church, Collegedale TN. I got to have Sabbath School with my Realife class!!! Live!!! What a treat!!! I muted my microphone while we were singing and I played my autoharp because the time delay would have put my sounds about 0.5 seconds behind theirs. I'm sure the other house guests were wondering what was going on in my room. They set the laptop up on a chair and made my live image full screen. They forgot to bring the Hawaiian shirt though. I sat between Allison and Kelly. Periodically Kelly would turn the camera so I could see who was talking. I tried to look towards the person who was talking. That is when a person on Allison's side would talk I'd look at the wall to my right and when a person on Kelly & Shaloy's side would talk I'd look toward the closet and someone across the room talked I looked at the camera. I was trying to fit in :-) Thanks to my friends back home for going to the effort so that I could be included.... Wow that was nice!

I had gotten on Google Earth a while today to see if I could find our guest house and did. I noticed that around the block (that's really a country block), there appeared to be a park in the middle of a huge roundabout. So before it got dark I went for a walk around the block and found a very very nice park. Until I learn the real name I'm going to call it "Roundabout Park" They have built and are building some beautiful modern buildings around the periphery which must have started after Google Earth took this image. The park was quite nice and I intend to make a regular place to walk to and enjoy.

I got back to the house after dark and made supper. There were three of us (Duvall, Philbert and I) trying to cook on a tiny 4 burner stove but it was all quite friendly and suppers were eventually made (mine was fish and fries, Duvall was making spaghetti for 4 and Philbert was cooking for Ike). I tried to call Dr. Konn about details for tomorrows trip. I'm supposed to meet them before @ 5:00 am and I don't know what to bring, the costs, or really any other details other than the starting time and ultimate destination. Her phone says no service so, , , , what else will I do on a Saturday night?? I catch a moto to the Iris Guest House and start to wander around looking for Muzungus with American accents. I spot a room in the restaurant with about 5 young ladies who sound American. I play dumb and ask them in my worst Southern accent if they might be from America. The ruse doesn't last long because one of them, Shayla is from Albany Georgia and doesn't believe the accent for a moment.

We visited for about 45 minutes while they dribble in one by one. They had spent the morning either @ church or the Kimironko market (their choice) and then met @ 12:30 to go to an orphanage to paint the walls and the kid's faces and entertain the kids. They had called and ordered their food before they left the orphanage, then drove back to the Iris, and most took showers (the reason for the dribbling in, , , as each finished getting cleaned up) and then the food came. Good thing they had called ahead!! That was over 1.5 hours from ordering to on the table!!

Dr. Konn asked if I could get supplies to add to what they have for Sunday's lunches and I go to get 10 cans of tuna, two loaves of bread 2 very large boxes of biscuits (cookies) and deliver it all back to the Iris and then catch a moto home. I think that when Jesus fed the 5,000 it might have been tuna fish, "'cause tuna goes a longggg waaayys, " Back at the guest house I get the other supplies; four large avocados, a bowl some salt a knife and a can opener. We've decided that they will be passing directly past our corner so I'll meet them there @ 5:30 with Philbert who will be getting their wash done while they are at the Akegera game park.