June 21

I see that Memphis is supposed to reach 101F today. Ugh! It is very pleasant here in southwest Rwanda. The elevation is about 6,000 ft and there is a large & deep lake here, so it's breezy and cool. No air conditioning, but it is not a problem. At night it's about 65-70F, and during the day it gets up to about 80F. Strange that it is so cool, because we're just 2 degrees south of the equator. While it's not hot, the sun is fierce, so people try to stay out of direct sunlight. Many of the local people carry umbrellas for shade. This is my first time in the southern hemisphere. Last night the "southern cross" constellation was easily visible (once someone pointed it out to me).

This morning I spent some time in the hospital outpatient clinic observing patient flow. I felt like I was working with Carrie Hazlewood again on the Process Team! The front desk has a 2 sided copier surprisingly, and x-ray has digital capability. Front desk staff copy insurance cards just like at home. Paper is conserved, so if a 1/4 page or 1/2 page will do, then the staff uses the smaller piece of paper. We were copying 4 insurance cards to a page. When I asked for a scissors to separate the 4 insurance card copies, the staff just handed me a ruler to use as a straight edge. So here's another example of dichotomy: digital x-ray, but no scissors in sight! Maybe I could donate some after I get home....

I was sitting with 2-3 nurses doing triage today. We were having a bit of trouble communicating. They asked me if I spoke French, and I replied no. They looked surprised and asked, "You ONLY speak English?" How embarassing for me! These folks speak Kinyarwanda, French and English. One of the male nurses said, "If we can learn English, you can learn some French." How can you argue with logic like that?! I certainly won't be learning to speak Kinyarwanda fluently. I saw one Kinyarwanda word today which was 27 letters long. But I am picking up a few of the easier words! Mirakoze means thank you, mwiramatse means good morning, muzungu means white person (usually accompanied by finger pointing!), Imana means God.