Will you be my Valentine?

Well it’s been over week since my last post so get ready for another novel… to those of you who actually read through all of these entries, thanks for your interest in my life! To those of you who don’t, I’m planning on doing some entries just about my observations about life here and what some of my experiences have meant to me instead of just a play by play of events so keep your eyes open for those – I think they’ll be more interesting.

2/5/09
I got a late start today which was nice since my flight wasn’t until 2pm. Rwandair Express is quite an interesting little operation – they don’t actually own any airplanes… they just charter out their flights to a bunch of private carriers so I had a nice little flight on a no-name aircraft. It was only 25 minutes though (compared to about an 8 hour drive) so I can’t complain. I got into Bujumbura and Mary was waiting for me which was a relief since the bank at the airport was closed - it was “National Unity Day” and I didn’t have any Burundian Francs to pay for a taxi with!
We got back to Jeff’s house where he generously offered for me to stay for the weekend. Jeff works for Heartland Alliance – the same organization that Mary and Sean work for – and has been on the ground in Bujumbura for about 7 months setting up their child soldier treatment program. I continue to be amazed with the outstanding international work Heartland is doing! I got a tour of the house including the amazing backyard with every kind of fruit tree you could imagine. His house really feels like a little walled off piece of paradise which is a bit bizarre considering it’s in the middle of a city that has been deep in conflict for decades.
Anyway, Mary and I spent the evening chatting about relationships and life accomplishments over a few glasses of wine. As I said I really think the work that she and her colleagues are doing is phenomenal and it’s had not to feel dwarfed by their achievements. Between Mary’s work with torture victims, Sean’s work with global HIV initiatives and LGBT grassroots organizations in some of the most oppressive nations in the world, Mardge’s activism at Cook County Hospital working for access to healthcare for a highly underserved community, Donna Rae’s work as an activist in the HIV/AIDS movement in the late 80’s and for human rights in Southeast Asia, and Kathy’s work in the Bronx (not to mention the work WE-ACTx is doing in Rwanda), I really feel like I couldn’t possibly have been surrounded by any more accomplished and heroic people. The stories they share and the knowledge and experience they bring to the table have been eye opening and have made me reexamine my own career aspirations and ideas of how to use medicine as a vehicle for social change. I know I am lucky to have met each and every one of them and I have no doubt that my interaction with them has changed my goals for the future (career and otherwise) - I can’t wait to see what opportunities await! It’s totally this kind of inspiration I was hoping to find during my time here and I feel really excited to jump back into school with some new perspectives.
So, after reaching all these conclusions, I went to bed feeling really good but was awoken at 2am either by the sound of Cher’s “Do you believe in life after love” blaring from a bar down the street or by the insect that was in bed with me and had bitten me about 10 times. That’s what I get for sleeping on a mattress on the floor I suppose! Thankfully I had earplugs and cortisone cream and was able to fall back to sleep eventually.

2/6/09
We started the morning off changing money (at a Forex Bureau called “change for peace” which I found rather ironic considering its war torn location). We went and got Mary’s visa extended and then checked out the craft market where I promptly spent all $50 that I changed. There are some good deals to be had on crafts in Bujumbura though so I’m pretty excited about what I got! We also ran into Neelah (the coordinator for the Human Rights Watch in Burundi) twice in the span of about two hours which tells you just how few westerners there are in Bujumbura. It’s really quite sad because the city is about the same size as Kigali and they have just as great if not a greater need for foreign aid yet there’s millions of dollars flowing through Rwanda and basically NO foreign investment in Burundi. We had dinner at a restaurant called BoraBora (which was right on the beach and had a strangely Caribbean feel) and it was with just about every NGO employee in Bujumbura as far as I could tell. I guess I’m exaggerating but everyone at dinner was an NGO employee - Catherine (from Catholic Relief Services), Felicia (from the Clinton Foundation), Michael (from Orphans of Rwanda) and then Jeff and Mary. Felicia has been working on the Clinton Foundation’s new pediatric HIV treatment protocol in Kigali for the past year so we had a great convo about that and she connected me with some good resources in Kigali including a random number to call to order bagels (every kind you could imagine including cinnamon rasin – now if only I could find cream cheese)! Michael was a friend of hers visiting from NY via Kigali and his organization provides full scholarships for graduate level education in Rwanda so yet again I was surrounded by amazing people doing amazing work!
I also got to enjoy an Amstel Bach for the first time which is a delicious beer that I highly recommend. I had enough of it that I slept pretty deeply but woke up in a half dream state to the sound of a large mob of screaming people. I fell back asleep immediately after dismissing it as a dream but found out in the morning that a man had been beaten pretty severely outside of the house – no doubt on his way home from the bar that was blasting Cher the night before. Apparently an off duty police officer was one of the attackers and the mob I heard was actually intervening on the man’s behalf. If the large pool of blood we found in the morning was any indication though I think perhaps they got there a little too late… Jeff assures me this is the first time anything like this has happened but I think it’s fairly indicative of the continuing safety issues after dark in Bujumbura.

2/7/09
We woke up at 6am to go to the Parc National de la Rusizi which is about 15km outside of Bujumbura. Two French journalists that Jeff met earlier in the week accompanied us since they had been previously but forgot their cameras. Unfortunately every Saturday morning in Burundi is a national service day – similar to Umuganda in Rwanda that I talked about in an earlier post but instead of the last Saturday of the month, they do it EVERY Saturday from 7-10am. We managed to make it to the park by 7am but almost plowed through a road block on our way there since Jeff wasn’t paying attention! The park was kind of limited but we were able to see a bunch of hippopotami as well as some pretty birds called weavers. It really only took about an hour and a half to hike through the whole park though so by the time we were finished it was about 8:45. Unfortunately the road blocks were up to 10:00 and so when we got in the car and attempted our trip back we encountered a mob of Congolese people who were stopped on their way into Burundi. When the soldiers started to let our car through, two men on bicycles loaded to the brim with goods cut in front of the car and blocked the way. At that point we were surrounded by about 50-100 people all laughing and pointing at the stupid muzungus that thought they could force their way through. Mary and I kind of took the viewpoint that we should just wait it out until 10 when the roads opened up – why should we have any more right to get through than everyone else? Jeff and the French journalists, however, felt that we should be able to get through and so after about 10 minutes of sitting there, the two French journalists got out to talk to the soldiers and I was sent out to protect them from the mob – a lot of good I would have been if things had gone badly! Anyway after a screaming match in French of which all I was able to pick up was “we are human beings too” they were able to convince the bicyclists to move aside. I felt like the whole situation was just wrong and it had the potential to be a real issue. On we went thouth, the privileged muzungus, and we stopped for brunch at the hotel club du lac which felt a bit like adding insult to injury. Mary and I debriefed afterwards and agreed the sense of entitlement was a bit disturbing especially considering these people made a conscious choice to come and work in Burundi ostensibly to make a difference for the very people they pushed their way through. AND we made a choice to squeeze in this leisure activity that morning – it’s not like we had an important meeting or something to go to. Over brunch we agreed to disagree but there was clearly a little tension… Mary and I decided to stay at the beach for a while and the three of them went back into town once 10am passed and the road blocks were down.
The beach was gorgeous with a misty view of the DRC across the lake and cute (but worm infested) dogs running around. We ran into Felicia and Michael there of course – yet again an indication of just how small the ex-pat community is there! On the way out of the resort we walked by a cage with two Chimpanzees inside which I must say was one of the saddest things I’ve seen in Africa (which is saying A LOT). We stopped by t2000 on the way home which is a dollar store full of crappy Chinese goods that is popular in Kigali and I didn’t realize is a chain! For dinner, Jeff, Mary and I met Felicia and Michael at Khanah Khazanah which is THE BEST Indian food I’ve ever had in my life and definitely ranks pretty high in the best food of any kind I’ve ever had. It’s a funny story but basically a very popular restaurant in Kigali called Indian Khazanah was shut down for tax evasion and the same family set up shop in Bujumbura instead. Fingers crossed - the owner promised they would reopen in Kigali in mid April so hopefully I’ll have the chance to go again before I leave!

2/8/09
I woke up early to take a walk down to the soccer fields and watch a troop of Burundian drummers that I had heard practices on Sunday mornings. I guess I got there a bit too early and ultimately headed back because the walk got a little sketchy. I went back at 10:30 with Jeff and Mary and after watching a bit of a soccer match, we saw a troop called Rukinzo Legacy practice for about an hour. Their leader was a magistrate named Posper who introduced himself and the troop to us afterwards. I was hot just watching them – I can’t imagine how hot they must have been. I treated myself to my first Diet Coke (aka coke light) since I’ve been here and we bought them all a round of Fantas. Sean came in the afternoon from Kigali and we went grocery shopping (including purchasing 18 cans of coke zero to feed his addiction) for his trip into the Congo this week. He’s going to Uvira tomorrow to work on establishing a former girl soldier treatment program in southeastern Congo.
We all had dinner at Felicia's – she made delicious eggplant parmesan and Jeff brought over some delicious couscous. All in all my culinary experiences in Burundi were quite impressive!

2/9/09
Mary and Jeff had actual work to do today so I entertained myself by walking down to the HUGE central market. I put my money in my shoe since I was forewarned that I would be the only muzungu and indeed I stuck out like a sore thumb. It was a great if not slightly claustrophobic experience and I’m glad I went but it was quite sad since amidst the endless stalls of fabrics and goods, I encountered about 10 amputee and otherwise sick children on display asking for money. I headed back to the house and then packed up my bag and Jeff gave me a ride to the airport.
Arriving in Kigali was actually a really nice experience – despite immediately recognizing just how sanitary and oppressive Kigali can feel compared to other cities in developing countries, I had a sense of homecoming. There are definitely good and bad things about the way things are done in Rwanda but I was really happy to realize that in a lot of ways I already felt at home in this city. There was even a rainbow over the airport when I landed which felt a bit over the top but I went with it and took a picture! I also got a nice welcome from everyone at the house and Donna Rae and Mardge were particularly happy to see me which was really nice. I think I’ve definitely made some lasting connections here!

2/10/09
Back to work this morning… apparently training on Friday went well but one of the machines from Qiagen was broken so things have been a bit delayed. We went out to Nyacyunga for another day of training only to discover power lines were down so we came back to town. I had a package to pick up (thank you again Mama) and so I took a Mutatu (local buses) out to Kaciyru to pick it up at the central post office (iposti in Kinyarwanda) which I am proud to say I figured out how to do all by myself! Anita, Neeva and Alesha came along too and we checked out Top Tower Hotel & Casino which Michael had told me he had fun gambling at. They’re only open at night so we’ll have to check that out another time… We also finally made it over to the Novotel to see the infamous pool where apparently a lot of ex-pats spend their Sundays (the other two hotels with pools are both under construction). We got a buffet lunch at Ma Collines and ran into Savannah & Meredith there – if you haven’t identified a trend yet there’s a lot of running into people here! I had a meeting in the afternoon with Bernadette who works for WE-ACTx to discuss what role I can play in a nutritional supplement program they have for children on anti-retroviral therapy. The cervical cancer study won’t be taking up all of my time after next week so hopefully this Sosoma project will be something else interesting to work on. I also bought Kinyarwanda phrasebook this afternoon since I’ve been lagging in my efforts to learn more words and Anita and I are going to look into possibly taking lessons.

2/11/09
Today was a pretty uneventful day. We went up to Nyacyunga for training in the morning, came back and had lunch at home where we discovered there was a meeting of all the grass roots organizations that work with WE-ACTx (there’s about 20+ of them so it was a full house)! I took a nice nap and after discovering there was no internet we watched Blood Diamond on Anita’s computer and then headed to bed early.

2/12/09
I met Michael (Felicia’s friend from Bujumbura) at the offices for his organization – Orphans Of Rwanda. It’s a scholarship program for graduate students in Rwanda and Michael and I discussed possibly starting an internship program with WE-ACTx for some of their nursing/lab tech students. Then I went to a store called Dancing Pots with Mardge & Donna Rae to check out some Twa (a pygmy people from central Africa) pottery. I also met with Eugene to finalize plans to start the pilot for the study on Monday and I helped Anita set up the machine for her study. Mardge also met with me to discuss another project I can work on while I’m here… they want to start screening all of their pediatric patients for depression and so I’ll be spearheading that along with the two trauma counselors. We had lunch at Ma Collines again with Merideth and when I got home, I discovered Josie had left me a rose from the garden in my room since the one Eunice gave me before I left was dried out… too cute! Mary arrived home from Burundi and it’s Donna Rae’s last night here so there’s more goodbyes coming up.

2/13/09
Said goodbye to Donna Rae this morning and I’ve promised to apply to the pediatrics program at UCSF if for no other reason than to go visit her if I get an interview. I met with one of the doctors for the Sosoma (pediatric HIV nutritional supplement) program in the morning... we were supposed to meet with two doctors but the one from Icyuzuzu called to say his brother had been electrocuted so he had to cancel. Things like this are said so casually here that I was strangely not surprised! Anita and I grabbed some coffee at Bourbon (where we ran into Katie) and then back at the clinic I narrowly escaped Bernadette asking me out for Valentines Day… she asked me casually about what I did usually at home for Valentines Day and thankfully I had to leave right before I could tell she was going to ask me to do something tomorrow. I felt bad but at least I avoided the awkwardness of having to make up an excuse why that wouldn’t be such a good idea.
I took a trip out to Remera (a neighborhood near the airport) to visit the Ineza sewing cooperative which is an income generating project for WE-ACTx patients. Two of Lara’s yoga clients (Roy & Sarah) and Meredith joined me. They make beautiful bags and aprons and such there… there will surely be a few gifts coming back to NY from there.
Afterwards we went to a debut concert at the Hill Top Hotel in Remera. It was a concert for a new artist named Eric Sendeli that Bertin (the coordinator of the WE-ACTx children’s program) invited us to. It was supposed to start by 5:00pm but in typical Rwandan fashion it didn’t start until 8pm. We got a few drinks and actually Savannah was randomly at the same concert so we just hung out with her for a while. Bertin gave us “VIP” tickets which basically meant that we had to sit in the front row but considering there were only about 40 people there it was a bit awkward. Despite best attempts to get drunk on uguagua (banana beer), the concert was still not very enjoyable and after about 2 hours of TERRIBLE lip syncing, Alesha and I decided to head home.

2/14/09
Today has been a pretty chill day. Mardge left at around noon. The weather was gorgeous so I sat out in the yard for a little while and then Alesha, Nevea and I took a walk into town so they could check out the craft market here. Candida made a delicious chocolate cake for Valentines Day and we’re heading out to Torero Café tonight to meet up with Amy and check out some live music they’re having there. It will hopefully be an early night since we’re getting up at 6am to drive out East to Akagera National Park which is a savanna reserve with all kinds of animals. Fabreece (one of the lab tech’s we’ve been training) arranged for us to rent a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Should be an interesting day!

Phew, that was long! But now for the most important part… I finally got around to uploading pictures so feel free to take a look – they’re on Facebook but if you don’t have an account then just use the links below. There are three albums so far:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2135819&id=2600785&l=0b683

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2135841&id=2600785&l=63c48

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2135955&id=2600785&l=54c60