18Jun

Updates from Flory and upcoming Rwanda Experience

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So this has been a busy week. I was contacted earlier this week by a friend of a friend who was given an opportunity to travel to Rwanda with her husband. Her husband will be doing some teaching, and she was given permission to try to work with the local women to educate them about pregnancy and birth. You see, she just happened to be going to one of the main rural towns that women go to for birth. There is a clinic, and like so many other rural areas of central Africa, the women travel to the clinic weeks before labor because they don’t know when to expect the baby.

I have been trying to answer as many questions for her as possible, and connecting her with people actually in the country. Specifically, I want her to be able to meet with Akeysu, the wonderful woman who fought to attend the training desperate to bring information back to the women in her area.

And that is how I received an update from Flory. The good news is that they have been successful at starting a medical school. The midwives are working hard to build a midwifery school as part of the medical school, but they have a problem securing teachers. Isn’t that funny, that is one of the big problems here in the US too. Why teach when you can make more money doing.

Anyway, I am going to see if I can help in some way from here in the states. My plan is to set up a volunteer rotation for midwives from the US, Canada and other nations to spend a month or so at the school teaching. Definitely let me know if you are interested, but understand the details take time to work out. I do not know the schedule, the costs or any other information.

In the mean time, let me know if you want to be on the “keep me updated list.” And if you want to help send supplies to Akeysu on this trip, I’ll be happy to get you connected.

11Aug

Notes of Thanks

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We were lucky enough to receive a variety of thank you notes from the women we trained, and between the three people who spoke both Swahili and English we got them translated. Here are a few excerpts:

“We have found that women are dying because of ignorance. We are promising you to teach or train others so that the number of deaths can decrease in Rwandas women.”

“We are promising to do whatever taught by Jennifer; she did not waste her time here”

“We thank those who contributed to rend this adventure a reality to enable millions of lives to be saved. All of Pastors; and church members have prayed since last year for this and God has answered our prayer.”

“We are happy because we know now how to serve pregnant mothers and their new babies.”

“If you have sacrificed yourself coming from America, how far can I go on my own continent?”

“I promise you and Tammy that your being here with us is not a waste of time.”

“We hope that you will continue to pray for us in this vision that we have of helping pregnant women”

“We hope that many midwives of USA will continue to come to train and assist us in Africa”

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11Aug

Ahhhh…American Food

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We were very excited in Kigali to find a restaurant that served American food. We made Flory try some breakfast pastries, but when we came back for lunch he just couldn’t bring himself to order a burger. Instead he had the waiter bring him his food Congolese style.

Tammy and I jumped right in, ordering sandwiches. Tammy even got an Iced Mocha Late. After a few weeks of mostly bread and potatoes, a panini tasted really good…until about an hour later when Tammy started feeling sick in the belly. As we walked around Kigali following Flory on his quest for information about a Safari, Tammy started asking for a bathroom. By the time we made it up the stairs to the travel office her face was pale and she couldn’t get out more than “bathroom.” But the lady in the shop recognized her extreme distress, grabbed a key and was out the door dragging Tammy by her arm in record time.

I didn’t even see which way they went. When the Woman returned, Tammy was not with her. Flory started talking to her, oblivious to the fact that Tammy was gone. Then I heard a woman scream. I had a picture in my mind of some lady in the restroom trying to take Tammy”s bag and she couldn’t do anything about it because of her intestinal distress. Then came the faint moans and I knew Tammy must be really sick and needed help, but I had no idea which direction she had gone. Flory just kept talking to the travel agent on the phone. Finally the woman noticed my panic and went to rescue Tammy.

Tammy was fine physically; the screams had not been her. But the bathroom she had been taken too had no water in the tank or the bowl. She quickly decided this was an emergency and she needed to go anyway. But then the cold sweat and awful feeling of oncoming puke petrified her. What was she supposed to do now! Fortunately, the nausea subsided and she got some relief.

We still cannot talk about it without laughing hysterically that Tammy did fine all week with the unrefrigerated Congo food, but one iced late made her sick.

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11Aug

Short Stay in Rwanda

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Farm land

After the rain forest, The Rwandan landscape is a patchwork of farms. But the road is all paved and you can see electric lines in some areas. Pretty modern for this corner of the world.

We ended up only spending one day in Rwanda, since hiring a car with short notice on a Saturday is impossible. But we got some great gifts to bring home when we went shopping with Flory. We even made a visit to the Genocide Memorial in Kigali.

We spent the night in a small ministry center with beautiful gardens and of course, no hot water.

Ministry Center

Flory left to use the internet Cafe and we decided to settle in. The room did not seem to have been used in a while, there was a very large dead cockroach in the tub – not like American tubs, really just a drain on the floor. I volunteered Tammy to get rid of it, and gave her some tissue. She screamed as she grabbed it-the thing was alive! She yelled for me to open the door and thew it out as quickly as possible.

As we closed the curtains for the night we found a little friend intending to spend the night with us. I rushed outside and found Patrick, a young man from the UK who was there to teach English to the Genocide survivors. He took the time to shoo the Gecko out of the Room.

Heroically, and humanly removing the gecko

After he left, we found another gecko in the bathroom. Tammy was beside herself by this point. No hot water and a room full of critters. We waited for Flory to return. He laughed at us for being scared of a gecko and calmly beat the poor thing to death.

We spent the next day in the city of Kigali tracking down baskets and other souvenirs. I even gave Flory a pair of sunglasses so he could be a tourist with us. It was the first time we had worn pants since arriving in DC. Here is a city view and the famous Hotel Rwanda hotel:

View from the memorial

Hotel Rwanda

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