First Day in Kibogora

Today we woke up to a rain storm on our first morning in Kibogora. It is so nice to sleep when it is raining, especially when you can hear it through the open windows with the cool air coming in. Yesterday we traveled around 5-6 hours from Kigali to Kibogora. Rwanda certainly lives up to its name:"The Land of a Thousand Hills." This made for beautiful scenery for our drive! The land is so lush and green here - certainly not what I was expecting of an African nation. In place of deserts and grassy planes, there were hills upon hills - some covered in trees and others covered with crops of coffee or banana trees. This is certainly a beautiful place! Our drive included an hour segment through the rain forest. This was a very exciting part of the trip because we got to see Colobus monkeys right by the road - they did not seem afraid of humans or our cars! After we got through the rain forest, we came to a more rural area of the country where the people where very intrigued by our two buses of clearly non-native people. The closer we got to Kibogora, the more excited the locals were to see us coming through. The children would shout the word "muzungu" at our buses with laughs, smiles, and waves. Muzungu is a word that literally means foreigner but in more recent times the connotation has changed to mean "white person." The Rwandan people have been very welcoming to us and seem generally happy about our arrival. One of the main things I have noticed since my arrival here in Rwanda is how joyous the people are! What a beautiful way to live - I hope to soak some of that joy up while I am here.

Today was our first day in Kibogora hospital. It was quite an experience. We started our day with a morning devotion in the hospital with all of the native workers. It was complete with a sermon, prayers, and songs all in Kinyrwandan. It was an honor and a joy to witness the Rwandans worshiping our Lord in their own way! We were given the opportunity to stand up and introduce ourselves to the people we would be working with and then it was off to our respective sites for the day.

Our students, residents, and attendings are working in 5 different areas - OBGYN, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Orthopedic surgery. I spent my time in the NICU today which was a very interesting experience since I just came off of a month of NICU in the states. The level of care that we are able to provide here in Rwanda is limited due to a lack of supplies and technology. In the states, many of these babies would be getting lab work (electrolytes and complete blood counts) daily as well as various imaging techniques as necessary. We had one baby in need of an echocardiogram which could have been completed within the hour in the states. Here in Kibogora, it is not an option. This is not to say that the medical personnel here do not provide great care - you can see the compassion in their eyes and smiles as they care for their own sick and wounded. It is simply an interesting comparison to the complexity and thoroughness of care in the states. It makes you wonder if all of the lab work and imaging that we spend many precious dollars on in the states is entirely necessary.

I can't wait to see how my time here in Rwanda will affect me as a physician and a human. I hope to learn many things - spiritually, professionally, and personally - during this journey. I am sure that God has many great and challenging things in store for us while we are here!

Sarah Bragg