Groundhogs Day in Rwanda

2/2/09
So 6 more weeks of winter, huh? Sucks for you all! I must say though I’m glad I’m not going to have to repeat today over and over again a la Bill Murray – it’s been a kind of frustrating day. It turns out that after all the debate back and forth, today actually was NOT a holiday in Rwanda so we were up at 7:30 with the hopes of getting the 500kg of supplies that Quiagen shipped out of customs and set up so we could start training on Tuesday. While that was being arranged, we met with the lab techs that will be trained and made up a schedule for the coming two weeks that includes 8 hour days since only two techs can be trained at a time and the training is split up into 4 hour modules so there are some long days coming up! Ultimately it became clear that the supplies wouldn’t be getting out of customs any time today since the minister of health hadn’t personally stamped some piece of paper. As soon as we found that out and were about to head home, it started POURING rain so we were stuck waiting around the clinic for another 2 hours until the rain passed. Ultimately we made it home and the only saving grace of the day was that Anita seems to be pretty cool and I think she and I will do some traveling together when there’s down time here. That and I went for my first run in Kigali now that I’m fully healthy again and other than everyone staring at me, it was a really nice and cathartic run. I’m looking forward to making that part of my regular routine here although with all the hills here just walking is a workout!
I also found out that tonight my friend Katie got accosted by some man who tried to steal her cell phone out of her hand. One might not find that so unbelievable but Kigali really is the safest city I’ve ever been in and things like that really just don’t happen here. Thankfully Katie was able to fend off her attacker (after he tried biting her hand so she would let go of her phone) and other than being a bit shaken up she’s fine. The saddest part of the story for me though was the reaction of the two men who came running over to help her. They were extremely apologetic and insisted on walking her all the way home (this is the typical Rwandan hospitality I’ve come to know and love) but Katie said they were clearly shaken up by the attack as well. They wondered if perhaps the man was a member of the interahamwe (the group of Hutus that perpetrated the genocide in 1994). It just made me so sad to think that 15 years later the first thing to come to the minds of these men with even such a petty crime was related to the genocide. I find it’s really easy for me to forget about the atrocities that have happened in this place that I find so peaceful but stories like this one are a reminder of just how much the history is at the forefront of people’s minds here. It’s also a little scary because I have heard grumblings that many people feel the atmosphere in Rwanda right now is eerily similar to the period immediately before the genocide. The DR Congo has recently reached a deal with Rwanda after the arrest of General Nkunda to let several former members of the interahamwe return to Rwanda with amnesty and I think it has really unsettled a lot of people here…

2/3/09
What did I say about being glad I didn’t have to repeat yesterday over and over again??? Well today started off with high hopes of customs clearance and so we headed up to the clinic at 8:00am only to be told nothing would be happening with the shipment until early afternoon, meaning training will be delayed by yet another day. So in order to avoid the frustration of yesterday I just spent the day with Eunice (her last full day in Kigali) and told Eugene to be in touch via cell phone because I couldn’t spend another day filled with “hurry up and wait” moments. So Eunice and I had a really nice day together and we met up with Savannah, Anita, Alesha and Neeva for a buffet lunch (which sadly is not all you can eat here). It was also quite a productive day for me in the end because I decided to go to Bujumbura, Burundi for the weekend and bought my plane ticket… I’m taking a long weekend (Thurs-Mon) and meeting Mary (and hopefully Sean) in Buj to hang out for the weekend. Lake Tanganyika is supposed to have gorgeous white sand beaches and despite being unsafe at night, Bujumbura sounds like a fun city to visit. Mary arranged for me to crash on a colleague’s couch so it should be a pretty low cost trip and I’m really looking forward to it!
The shipment finally got delivered at about 6pm tonight so we’ll be heading up to Nyacyunga to set everything up in the morning and start the training tomorrow afternoon. Once that was all settled I joined Eunice at the Serena Hotel to have a celebratory drink with her on her last night in Kigali. I feel like I’ve said so many goodbyes in my short time here but while each one is sad, ultimately it’s pretty cool to feel like I’m actually rooted here for a while. And Euni and I have plans to reunite in London on my way home in April so hopefully that’ll work out!

2/4/09
After a rainy morning and a delayed departure for Nyacyunga, we finally made it there around 1pm and got all the equipment set up for the training which started by 3pm and went through until 7pm today. We unpacked 19 boxes and 500kg of supplies from Quiagen in this rickety building in the back of a rural health center just outside of Kigali – a scene that attracted quite an audience. We’re training 4 lab techs on how to do the HPV testing and only two of them are proficient in English so it was definitely an interesting day. Alesha and Neeva seem to think it went pretty well though and hopefully by the end of next week they’ll have it down and we can start piloting the study. I’m really looking forward to my trip to Buj tomorrow and I promise once I’m back I’ll upload some pictures! I’ll be out of touch till Monday night probably. Some appropriate Kinyarwanda courtesy of Logan: Uragendo rwiza – safe journey!