Sorry I haven't blogged the last few days. The program is keeping us quite busy and when we do have time off Kirsten & I are usually at the market or exploring some part of Rwamagana. I love this community because although it's still considered "third world", the country is beautiful, everyone is lovely & most importantly it's safe which allows us the freedom to explore & enjoy the culture.
Sunday we went to a pentacostal church with our host lady Delfine. It was in both kinyarwandan and english. Rwandans LOVE music! If you walk down the road you will hear a phone playing music something or carrying an old fashioned radio playing music or huge speakers aimed towards the street blasting "Red,red wine".....LOL. Well I have been to quite a few charismatic churches in the past but during this service at worship time, the pastors came off the stage & the people left their seats and starting dancing & clapping a rhythm all over the church. It was wild! Their worship songs sounded a bit like R&B. It was quite the experience!
Yesterday I had a chance to visit their neonatal units. Despite not having actual ventilators & even though they don't intubation, they do have ambubags, oxygen, suction & 2 CPAP machines only for neo. HOWEVER, they do not place their babies on cardiac monitors, so if they go apneic (stop breathing) or bradycardic (heart rate drops) the nurse will only know after they do their check which is too late. They are definitely doing the best that they can with the supplies that they have. They have isolettes, warmers and photo therapy lights. They also use Ng tubes for feed but IVs are run by gravity on these tiny babies. For infection control they make us take off our shoes/sandals & give us slippers. You wash your hands before coming in from this big jug of water, no sink & no soap?!?! The big blue tank you see is an oxygen tank and there are several standing up against the wall, not chained..... if someone accidentally knocks one of those tanks over it, according to Laura (biomedical engineer) it has enough power to blow a hole right through a brick wall!
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