Rwanda Trip Part 2

I know, I know. You all are really just following this blog for pictures of our kids! I promise to take up as few spots as possible. I thought it would just be two more, but it looks like it may run on a bit longer than that.

There are some things that I forgot to mention about our time with the street boys. One was that there was a question and answer time when we all introduced ourselves, said where we are from and then the kids could ask questions of us. Some of the questions were pretty mundane: what is your favorite sport, what do you do, and so on. Others were a little more difficult to answer: are there boys like us in America, where any of you street children. The most interesting question I got was, “Are you a giant?” To which of course I answered, Yes. They then proceeded to ask me how much I weighed, and I was truthful. Lots of laughs. In hind sight, I wish I had answered in kilograms instead of pounds.

Clearly a giant

That night we visited the Kigali Memorial Center (the genocide memorial in Kigali). I am surprised at how surprised I still am at the evil that exists in the world and how easily man can become entangled in it. I did well through most of the memorial until the last section that was called something like the lost generation. It was about some of the children murdered in the genocide. The most recent pictures of the children were on display along with descriptions like their names, ages, favorite foods, favorite toys or games, comments about their personalities, sometimes even their last words, and how they were murdered. I still tear up thinking about some of those faces and plaques.

It was difficult to "pose" for a picture after going through the museum, but some teamates insisted it was a good photo-op

The day after we ministered with the street boys we travelled to Kageyo. You won’t find this city on many maps. It is a relatively new settlement. During the genocide that occurred over several decades in Rwanda, many oppressed people moved to neighboring countries. Many of those living in Eastern Rwanda moved to Tanzania. Sometime in 2007, the Tanzanian government required all Rwandan refugees in that country to return to Rwanda. Some of these families had left Rwanda as early as 1959 when the first genocide was taking place in Rwanda. Most of these families had no land or place to stay in Rwanda. The Rwandan government designated some eastern land (formerly part of a national park) for these families. This area, called Kageyo is now inhabited by more than 3000 Rwandans. Unfortunately, this land is VERY far from most places of employment, and was not developed agriculturally. And believe me when I say that the road there (at least when our crazy driver is taking it on) is pretty treacherous.

The road to Kageyo

Getting out to help move a tree that fell on the road to Kageyo

Our clinic day in Kageyo took place in a building that Africa New Live Ministries helped build. There is a physician that travels there occasionally, and from what I can tell, there are a couple of nurses that live in or near Kageyo that help to treat people as well. The drive to Kageyo took almost three hours, and with orders to return before nightfall, we didn’t have nearly as much time as we wanted in Kageyo. We also were down a nurse, so it was mainly just the physician diagnosing patients, while a few others could help with wounds. I know many of you are probably asking what good a pharmacist does on medical missions (I must say that I asked this same question myself before signing up). Essentially, what we worked out was for the MD to diagnose the patient and write for what medications (or class of medications) they would like for them to have and I would determine the dose, frequency and duration of therapy. For example, we think we saw a few cases of elephantiasis in Kageyo. Luckily, when I was looking at the dosing of our worm medicine, I remembered seeing dosing for this disease as well as the possible use of other agents to help. I am glad I updated the drug information software on my iPhone before I left. We saw somewhere around 110 patients and I probably did between 350-400 prescriptions that day. Not too bad without a tech and having to talk through a translator…

Some kids playing behind the clinic

My office

With each prescription I would hand out a track that went through the 4 spiritual laws (http://www.campuscrusade.com/fourlawseng.htm) in kinyarwandan. I didn’t have a lot of time to go through this with the patients, but some of our other team members did. Libby, for example, had brought one and a half suitcases of eyeglasses to have an eyeglass clinic for patients. The glasses, however, were held up with customs at the Kigali airport. Every day we were told we would be getting the glasses that day, but every day it ended up not happening. God apparently had a different plan for Libby this trip. In Kageyo, she led several people to the Lord. Libby was able to use her recent personal experience of losing a granddaughter to cancer as a way of opening into conversations about heaven and ultimately Jesus. Among the people that Libby was able to share and pray with in Kageyo was a professed shaman. I thank God for holding those eyeglasses at the airport so that Libby could help this man understand his need for Jesus Christ, and accept him as his Savior and Lord that day.

One of the girls we met in Kageyo carrying water