Great Weekend

   This weekend I went to Nyungwe Forest, which is the rainforest in Southern Rwanda.  It was a beautiful place.  We went to track the chimpanzees.  It was probably the hardest hike I have ever done.  It has rained a lot here, so the path was very slippery.  I was about an 11/2 hours hike to the chimps all down hill in the mud.  When we got there, there were 3 female chimpanzees and a baby in the tree. It was so amazing to watch these creatures in their natural habitat.  Unfortunately, they were high up in the trees, so the pictures didn’t turn out that well, but I did put up a couple of them.  However, the highlight was as one of the females swung from tree to tree and down.  The baby then followed her.  Talk about an amazing thing to witness.  Then trek back took about 2 hours and was uphill almost the entire way.  It was very tiring, but well worth it.

 

      

 

Today was a very hard day on the floor.  We were short on doctors today, so I rounded on both pediatrics and internal medicine.  It was a very long day.  Internal medicine rounds took forever because I am pretty sure about 80% had the complete wrong diagnosis and/or treatment.  Lots of changes and trying to explain my rationale made for a very long day.  However, I feel like I am getting more use to my role here.  I am trying to help the best I can.  I pray from patience from God everyday because we all know that is not one of the things he decided to bless me with.  However, I have been here 2 weeks and haven’t even raised my voice once.  I know my nurses will find that hard to believe, but God can truly create miracles. 

     This experience has been such a blessing for me.  Everyday at home, it seems that I try to help people that could care less.  I have heard “Murakoze”, which means thank you more in 2 weeks here than I have in 3 years of practicing medicine in the states.  Here it just feels like I am actually making a difference in people’s lives.  It has been an amazing experience.  I have definitely been bitten by the missionary bug, and I hope I can continue to do this again and again.  I can’t believe I only have two weeks left in the hospital. 

 

This is Kumbya, which is a retreat on Lake Kivu.  Lake Kivu is a large lake between Rwanda and Congo.  Last weekend I got to go here.