We had more or less a slower start to
our first day in the OR. Simon had to go back to the airport late in
the evening and so I felt we should skip morning report at 0700 and
just show up around 0730. My recollection of CHUK was that they
started slowly in the morning. As it turned out CHUK was on a
“surge” which should be familiar to Alberta physicians. The
government had mandated that to clear the backlog of cases waiting to
be done, the OR must work harder and do 60 cases per day. Nobody
told me whether this came with more resources but if their
administrators are anything like ours I suspect not.
Did I mention we still had no water in
the apartment.
Arriving in the change room we were
immediately accosted by a friendly American surgeon with whom we
chatted for a while. He was from Boston but when I asked him whether
he was a Bruins fan he said he didn't follow hockey. Like most
Americans he was bright eyed, bushy tailed and enthusiastic if only
because he had had a shower that morning, had had coffee and hadn't
been kept up all night by the Nyamirambo road all night party.
The operating room at CHUK has changed
a great deal. They have a much larger change room and actually have
a locker for the Canadian volunteers (unfortunately we had to share
it with the American anaesthesiologist who arrived bright eyed and
bushy tailed while we were changing). The OR did seem to be a little
more organized than I remember, the anaesthetic equipment is in
better repair and the turnovers were pretty quick. In mid morning ,
the hospital brought in tea, coffee and deep fried dough balls which
were much appreciated by me.
At noon I decided that we had taught
enough and we both headed over to Karibu for the buffet followed by a
visit to the Serena, where Simon who I should have figured was
seriously jet lagged slept for about 3 hours. As it was getting
towards 1700 and we didn't know whether we would be able to cook in
our apartment I suggested that we eat in the downtown tourist area.
We ended up at the Mille Colines which is the real name of the Hotel
Rwanda and ate at the pool side restaurant. Aside from the
atmosphere and history, the food was pretty good. It then started to
pour as is becoming a custom every evening so we took a taxi home.
The power was out when we arrived but
we had water ....and then we didn't. I started to put water into a
pot to boil for drinking water and after about a litre, the water
ended. I was also able to flush the toilet once and then we had no
water again. The power went on and off during the evening.
We were supposed to go to the Military
Hospital the next day which is 20 km away. We got Christophe who
helps us out to call a taxi and negotiate a fare which he did quite
efficiently and so a taxi picked us up and it was off to the Military
Hospital. We quickly veered off the NR to the east descending into
valley and then climbing up. Morning traffic was heavy. Our driver
had a hate on for motorcycle taxis and made sure he passed them as
close and as fast as possible. We eventually arrived at the Military
Hospital where he dropped us off at the Emergency Entrance. We then
had to find the OR which turned out to be difficult as nobody knew
where it was. Okay this is the Military Hospital and maybe the
location of the OR is a state secret. Finally somebody knew where it
was and walked us over there. We started to change when a very tall,
stern man came into the change room and interrogated us as to who we
were and what we were doing. Eventually we satisfied him and he lead
us into the OR and into a room where all the anaesthetic techs and
our resident were. I learned that he was the chief tech and he gave
a short welcoming speech. He told us that normally they had 30 techs
but that 10 of them and one physician anaesthesiologist were Peace
Keeping in the Central African Republic.
Peace Keeping; isn't that something
Canada used to do?
Somewhere around that time, I figured
out that we were probably the first CASIEF volunteers who had
actually gotten sucked into going to the military hospital.
We spent the day with Christine the
resident finishing up around 1400. At around 1000 very sweet tea
with milk and more fried dough balls were brought to the tea room.
The hospital also provided a very nice lunch, rice, plantain,
potatoes and peanut sauce, as well.
We had kept the phone number of the
taxi driver and he picked us up about 40 minutes after we called and
we had a fun drive to the Serena hotel, almost killing several
motorcycle taxis and their passengers. Unfortunately he charged as
almost twice what he charged in the morning but on the other hand we
probably would not have found a taxi way out in the boonies.
I had a shower and brief dip and then
savoured my first coffee of the day.
As we now had water in apartment (at
least when we left in the morning), we headed off to Simba which is
the more proletarian of the supermarkets to buy food for supper and
breakfast. Of course it started to pour right on schedule so we took
another taxi home where we still had water and I made spaghetti with
meat sauce after running through the rain to buy some beer.
I will be able to make coffee for
breakfast tomorrow. I am so excited.
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