King Faisal

Today we were to go to King Faisal hospital to work with a resident assigned there.  This was the first morning with water which meant I was able to have a coffee.  There are a selection of stove top expresso makers left around the apartment but I have never used one so I used my trusty French press mug from MEC.  I also ate the small bananas and some of the pineapple I had bought at Simba today.

Christophe called a taxi and we were off across the city to the King Faisal Hospital.

The KFH was donated to the Rwandan people by King Faisal in the 1980s.  Unfortunately the government couldn't afford to run it (where have I heard that before) and it sat empty although General D'allaire appropriated it as a field hospital during the genocide.  After the genocide, the cash strapped government sold it to a South African company and it has functioned as a private hospital since.

We arrived and after the guards searched under our car for bombs with a mirror, we were dropped off at the entrance.  I was smart this time and called Dr. Paulin to come down and meet us which he did in time.  The OR was actually easy to find although there is a passcode to get into the OR.

Unfortunately, Dr. Paulin told me, the resident we were supposed to teach is not here because his infant son has a strangulated hernia. He apologized and said the resident really should have phoned us.  I told him, if my son needed surgery, calling a CASIEF volunteer would not be the first thing on my mind; not even the second or third.

I asked Dr. Paulin if he could show us around the hospital and we got to tour the ICU, and OR and watched him start a case.  It was not a very busy day with 3 rooms running, two staff anaesthesiologists and some techs.   The hospital is much nicer than the other hospitals I have seen in Rwanda although a little shabby by Canadian standards.

Since I was at a private hospital I took the opportunity to ask Dr. Paulin about the Rwandan healthcare system.  Patients at KFH either pay for their own treatment or if they have good insurance can come there.  In addition some public patients get treated there if the treatment is not available in the public system.  I asked about the public system and he said that while it is free, patients have to pay 10% of the costs which may explain why patients often get delays in their treatment.

Doctors at KFH are salaried and earn significantly more than those in the public system which I know is a source of bitterness in the medical community.

View of Kigali from KFH

We had kept Dr Paulin away from his work so left around 1030 for the Union Trade Centre in downtown Kigali where Simon hoped to get a sim card for his I phone.  I went to the Bourbon Cafe for a coffee after which Simon joined me and we had lunch there.  We then walked to the Serena hotel.

I left Simon there after a while and walked home because I wanted to visit the Nyamirambo market to buy dinner.  Having only been in Rwanda for 4 days, I wasn't sure whether Simon could stomach the market.  On the way to the market I stopped at the "Kigali Cake Empire"  to buy croissants and samozas.  The KCE motto is "happiness is guaranteed" and I hope this is the case.

I walked around the periphery of the market.  At one point a woman yelled out,  "You must have been beautiful when you were young?"  I told him that I assumed that was a complement and she told me she had been married to a white Canadian in the past.

I bought some tomatoes and peppers for probably more than I should have paid and also bought some meat from a butcher who hacked it off a carcass with a machete.  I am currently simmering all that for dinner.