The Beginning

Since I last wrote, I survive my first weekend and began my internship with WE-ACTx!! My overall impression of Kigali thus far can be summed up as hectically relaxed. It seems ironic, but I have never met people who walk so calmly through chaos like Rwandans do. I’ll continue to elaborate throughout this post, and hopefully you will come to agree with my conclusion.

Me at an Italian Restaurant in Kigali

I’d like to start off by describing some valuable lessons I’ve observed since my arrival last Thursday. First, people will stare at your white skin no matter where you go. They like to touch you, grab onto the car you’re in, and ask you to take their picture. The man pictured below ran up to me on the street as I was on my way to the market and insisted that I take his picture. His face lit up when he saw himself and made me promise to tag him on facebook.

My pale skin also caught the attention of the head nurse at WE-ACTx. She began explaining a fantastical gel that comes from Europe and the United States that protects fair skin. She recommended that I bring it from my country since it cannot be found here. I told her this gel is a lotion, and it is called sunscreen. I reassured her that I had put some on that morning. Second, traffic laws are frequently “forgotten” here. Motos (little motorcycles) are the most abundant form of public transportation, and they like to weave in and out of cars. Taxis are also popular, and have a funny habit of turning off their engines as they coast down large hills. Not only really dangerous, but also very cost inefficient because restarting their engines takes up more gas than driving down the hills. Oh well, I wasn’t about to argue. Third, instead of squirrels running around, Rwanda has stray black cats. Finally, Kinyarwanda is an extraordinarily hard language to master. So far, I have learned how to say good morning: mirewe, thank you: marakozi, How are you?: amakuru, and good: ineza. Exercise caution when sounding these out, I mostly likely spelled all of them incorrectly.

Everyone at the clinic has been very welcoming. My first day was spent shadowing the head nurse. I sat in on all of her consultations in the morning. Every patient has a blue booklet that contains all of their health records that WE-ACTx keeps on file, and the patients bring in a white slip of paper to schedule their next visit. Although all conversations were in Kinyarwanda, I grasped what each person was saying because they’re very expressive when describing their ailments. After each patient left, the nurse would give me an overview of the conversation. Most patients are healthy and take their medication. She looks for warning signs like lower back pain, headache, and upset stomach. If patients express these symptoms, she sends them to the lab for testing because they could have typhoid or malaria. For example, one patient we saw had typhoid last week. The number of patients diagnosed with malaria varies each month, but 0-12 is the typical range.

After lunch I was able to work in the Pharmacy.  I packed Cotrimoxazole, an antibiotic recommended for HIV patients with a CD4 count less than 500. I sorted 30 pills into individual bags in preparation for distribution the next day. For a reference, it takes 4 years and roughly $200,000 to receive a pharmacy degree in the United States. I sat down as a pharmacist and began practicing with less than 10 seconds of instruction. Below are some pictures taken at the clinic.

Tomorrow is children’s day at the clinic, and I will be shadowing the youth director. I’m very excited to share my next experiences with you.

Signing off.

-E