Easter Sunday

He is Risen! Today, believers across the globe celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Kibogora, Rwanda is no different in that sense; however, the service we were blessed with today was unlike anything most of us have ever experienced. After breakfast, the group traveled down the side of our little mountain to the Lake Kivu (which, ironically, means lake) and journeyed across a small stretch of it, via a small boat - truth be told, it was more of a large motorized canoe. We landed ashore a peninsula, upon which was built a church and school for people in the area. Unfortunately for the ill-equipped and less nimble Americans, the church sat atop yet another hill. With one of the pastors in the lead, we made our undignified scramble up the hill to the church building, an open metal and brick structure brightly decorated for the service. When we arrived, many parishioners had already begun singing the praise and worship with more trickling in as they arrived. We were directed to special pews behind pulpit to sit next to the pastors as honored guess. It was a humbling experience that they would give newcomers such respected seating. The service began in earnest with a series of songs in which almost all of the churchgoers sang and danced to the rapturous music. A good number of us joined in the dancing as well; their enthusiasm in worship was infectious (medicine pun not intended)!
After the first series of songs, choirs from multiple churches sang and praised the Lord, often breaking into bouts of dancing as well. Interspersed among the songs were readings from scripture, the verses translated into English by a local pastor for our benefit. Toward the end of the service, we had several baptisms as well as communion (also known as the Lord's Supper if you're Baptist) and a reenactment of the crucifixion; the entire affair lasted three hours.
Despite the fact that most of the service was in another language, the spirit of worship was unmistakable. God moves through these people in a way that kindles a fierce joy in your heart. What a blessing it would be if we brought back some of that same fierce joy. After the service, the officials of the church invited us to partake in an Easter luncheon. Despite being a poor church, they blessed us with quite a spread: bananas (or plantains, I can never remember which), rice, pasta, cooked greens (we'd probably call them collards if at home), a peanut-infused sauce, and a centerpiece of stewed goat. Meat is such a rarity here, that it spoke volumes about how much they appreciated our coming and worshipping with them. Their spirit of servanthood is truly magnificent.
Our trip back to our houses was more of a scamper than anything else. We tripped and slipped our way back down the hill of the peninsula and into our boat/canoe and began our race with the rain clouds. Most of us were out of the boat and most of the way up the side of the small mountain before the rain came, a blessing seeing as how almost all of us carried some kind of digital camera or cell phone for the same purpose. We each collapsed into our beds, the result of a couple of long hikes and a three hour, joyous Easter service...what a splendid day.
God bless each of you back in the states. May He open our eyes to the magnitude of our sins and simultaneously to the even greater ability of His to love and forgive us of them.
-Daniel

Additional blog on our trip

kjacksonp.blogspot.com

Greetings from Kibogora!

This has been waiting for a few days... every time I have tried to use the internet the past few days, the network here at the hospital has gone down. Finally, it's back online. Carter, Meagan, and I have been working on the Internal Medicine service for the past 2 weeks, and we have seen so many diagnoses we had never seen in the US, including malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and a possible spinal cord compression/cauda equina syndrome. We have seen patients autonomously, making decisions about each patient on our own. In addition to the infectious diseases of Africa, we have also been able to demonstrate our knowledge treating patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, pyelonephritis, gastroenteritis, and many other diseases. So far, this has been an incredible opportunity to hone our diagnostic skills, building confidence with each patient. We have practiced ultrasound skills on live patients and performed lumbar punctures and other diagnostic procedures. Most importantly, we feel like we have positively contributed to the physical and spiritual health of our patients. We also have learned much from our master orthopedist, Dr. Albertson, who took us on spiritual rounds on Sunday. Dr. Albertson has made this a habit of his career, performing spiritual rounds and praying with patients on Sundays for many years. I find this a wonderful practice that I hope to incorporate into my own practice in the future. Even with the language barrier from English to Kinyarwanda, God’s love can be communicated through service, as well as translated directly by the wonderful nurses here at Kibogora. Further preparation for residency has come to us through the management of emergency patients. Last night, I was awoken at 2:54 am about a patient who was presenting to La Salle D’Urgences (Emergency Room) here with chest pain. Although Drs. Bright and Simmons accompanied me, I was allowed to take the lead on examining and managing the patient. Fortunately, the patient was young and in good health, with no real concern for a myocardial infarction or other major cardiovascular event, and we were able to discharge him without worry. Duane led us in a prayer with the patient and his brother, and we were able to return to sleep with the hope that we had helped another patient and in some way demonstrated God’s love to him.

Concerning the food: Many of you who know me are wondering how I am doing with the food here. We are blessed to have some wonderful ladies preparing our food, and though it is considered a luxury to Rwandans, we have been having meat with almost every meal. While my colleagues here enjoy poking fun at the vegetables lacking in my diet, I assure you, I am eating them on occasion. One or two salads. With pepperoni. That counts, right?

Market day was on Friday this week: It’s like we are celebrities here. The children in the marketplace followed us around the whole time, and many adults crowded around too to see what the Mzungus (“the rich white Americans”) were buying. We seriously had 25-30 kids following us everywhere we went. Some of them even followed us about halfway home (around a mile). Many of us found fabric for dresses (not I; they didn’t have my color), and Laura and Katy bought ingredients for homemade guacamole to go with our delicious dinner of enchaladas. Finally, I want to post a prayer request. Our friend, JC, a surgeon at Nebobongo Hospital in the Congo has visited Kibogora with the group these past 2 years. He is one of the only surgeons in the Congo, and it is 700 km from his hospital to the next nearest surgeon. I ask all of those who read this to pray for JC and Nebobongo Hospital, and if you feel so led, find a way to support his efforts through other action. If you would be interested in finding out more about JC and his work in the Congo, you can ask me (or anyone on the trip), and we can get you more information. We appreciate all of your prayers! More pictures to come!

Joseph

 

A week at Kibogora Hospital

So we've spent a week or so at Kibogora Hospital now, and it's been pretty amazing. Joseph and Meagan and I have been working in the Internal Medicine department with Dr. Telesforo, a Rwandan physician who is at times confused with Dr. Jospin. We've seen a variety of diseases from malaria to lymphoma to hepatitis and everything in between. It's been a great learning experience as well as an eye opener. Despite their suffering, the patients here are so grateful for any and all care that we give. It makes it easy to love on them, and I hope and pray that God continues to bless these patients and our relationships with them even after we're gone.

Anyway, here are some pictures from in and around Kibogora Hospital over the past few days for your viewing pleasure.

Carter

The Canopy Trail

Here are a few pictures from our Saturday adventure. I was the self nominated photographer because heights and snakes are my two greatest fears. I avoided both successfully during this hike through the rain forest. Hallelujah!

I hope you enjoy the pictures!

-Jamie.

Canopy walk

We all over came any fears we had and trekked over the canopy of Nyungwe rain forest. It was a lot of fun but scary at times! We of course represented our school some while we were up there! - laura

Rain forests and hot chocolate

Saturday, we got the chance to visit the Nyungwe (n-YOON-gway) National Forest and hike the Igishigishigi (no-idea) Trail. It being a rainforest and all, guess what? It rained! The entire time! But, being the super-troopers that we are, we pulled on our ponchos, tucked our pants into our socks (oh yes, we were lookin' good!) and had an amazing time!

At the mid-point of our hike, there was a suspension bridge, called the Canopy Trail, where, if you were daring enough, you could dangle untold meters off the rainforest ground to get the view of a lifetime. (Really, though, we couldn't tell how far up we were because we were above the clouds and could no longer see the ground!) Of course, the suspension bridge wasn't as steady as some of us might have preferred, and at one point I may have had to gently and *lovingly* correct our fearless leader, Duane, who thought it would be (ahem) funny to jump up and down on the bridge while we were crossing. But, we all made it out alive(-ish).

Back at the top of the forest, we all dragged our soggy and muddy selves to the Nyungwe Tree Lodge -- a five-star resort in the middle of a tea plantation -- for a spot of tea... and hot cocoa and French-press coffee. And there may have been more than one of these hot and tasty beverages per person. But at this point, we'd definitely earned it!

More pictures to come -- just as soon as we can all dry out our cameras!

-Meagan-