Tomorrow I fly to Halifax. I will be attending the Global Outreach course.
If I am going to Rwanda to teach, why do I have to attend a course? Fact is, despite all our whining, we anaesthesiologists are pretty pampered in the first world. We have $100,000 machines, lots of monitors, well trained assistants and our patients get million dollar workups before we even set eyes on them. For all this are our outcomes any better. Most of us are working way within our comfort level. Time to push the envelope. This Global Outreach course is all about working safely with what we have, where we are. A lesson a lot of us could use.
After 4 days in Halifax, I fly back to Toronto where my wife will join us and we will be off to Brussels where we will stay for 2 days to acclimatize before the flight to Kigali where we will arrive on May 28.
This has the advantage that if I forget anything, I can get my wife to buy it or I can pick it up in Halifax. I am still really nervous about arriving without my underwear or tooth brush or something stupid.
We had dinner with my niece Lucy last night (and her sister Carolyn). Lucy works with the UN in the Sudan and has actually visited Rwanda and done some of the trips I am thinking of doing. She says we will love it. This of course comes from somebody who has lived in parts of Africa for several years now. I get the feeling we should have really picked her brain while we had the chance but we hadn't seen her in a while and had a lot to catch up on.
Meanwhile the Bruins' incredible post season run is playing havoc with my last minute packing.
even if you forget your underwear, having to go buy it at a local Rwandan market is part of the adventure! enjoy every moment and I can't wait to read more!
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