June 12

My third weekend in Kigali is coming to an end, and I easily find myself considering this city home. This week, two new people joined us in the house. First, we welcomed Stephanie, a medical student who is conducting research at WE-ACTx until late July, followed by Susan, the founder of Hands of Mothers. Hands of Mothers is a local NGO that runs cooperatives to help women become financially stable. An example of a current program is Ineza, a women’s sewing group that creates beautiful products of everything and anything you could imagine.There are several others that I encourage you look into that can be found in the link. (They take orders!) I found myself buying several items from them including a beautiful bracelet, necklace, and bag.

Women of Ineza Sewing Cooperative selling products at Heaven Restaurant.

            The clinic was quite exciting this week. I was able to go to Rwanda’s National Laboratory to drop off blood samples, as well as accompany our psychosocial nurse to Nyacyunga to treat patients. There were two appointments scheduled for that day, however only one of the women showed up. The nurse explained how he keeps a file for each woman he meets in order to recall every detail of her life and her previous appointment. This is emphasized because of the fragile emotional state of the women. Many don’t understand that he has other patients, and would become upset if he didn’t remember everything about them. Some information he collects is a family tree, employment status, and living arrangements.

            The stories of the two women were devastating. The first woman was a survivor of the genocide, and she has had several traumas since. During the violence, she lost her husband and father, but her mother survived and has since remarried. Her mother is living with her stepsister, and the patient has recently moved in with them because she has no money. She remarried the man who hid her during the fighting, but he abandoned her to look for work in Uganda. In her last session, she was going to start a tomato business in the market in order to raise enough money to move out. She was worried that the stepsister would kick her out, but the nurse believed this was a result of paranoia. She didn’t show up to her appointment.

            The second patient was another genocide survivor who was sexual abused as a child. She was able to secure work as a housekeeper after the fighting, but her boss raped her. Shortly after, she entered an intimate relationship with the boss’s cousin and ended up marrying him. The story only declines from here because the boss was HIV positive and she was now pregnant without knowledge of the father. The status is still unknown because the two men never made it in for testing. This woman was also abandoned by her husband and forced to give her child to her mother while she looked for work. She has been depressed and suicidal throughout this process, but she said she was not feeling suicidal during her last appointment. She came in very sick this week with news that she was having suicidal thoughts again. Her business plans were falling through, and her landlord was threatening to evict her. After a very long session, they decided that she would have a friend help her create a business plan for selling onions or tomatoes. She would need this assistance because she cannot write.

Nyacyunga Clinic

Nyacyunga Clinic

            After a particularly emotional week, I stayed home and relaxed this weekend. Most of my free time was spent at Heaven Restaurant and watching The Devil Wears Prada and Eat, Pray, Love.  I also had the lovely pleasure of passing a man walking his sheep on my morning run.

Buffet at Heaven Restaurant complete with biscuits, grilled vegetables, coffee cake, passion fruit, Japanese plums, sausage, and cucumber pineapple juice. (Not pictured were omelets and banana pancakes). 

-E