Arriving on July 1st,
I started with community at the baggage claim as I heard a woman ask another
person if she were Carrie. Jane from St.
Andrew’s in Mount Pleasant, SC was coming for her annual summer three month
trip to teach pre-school with Peace, a lovely woman originally from
Uganda. Since we came on the same
flight, Peace came to pick us up and bring us both to Musanze/Ruhengeri. I had the pleasure of a lovely 5 day stay
with Caleb, Louise, Lydia and Moses King.
Louise and I started my first morning at the local and hospital
pharmacies to discern what dermatologic medications were available. Over the next day and a half, I saw about 100
people with Louise, Joanna (a PA student from Canada), and two local doctors,
Anne and Stephane. Louise had asked me
to give some talks on acne, eczema and psoriasis, which was helpful as that was
the bulk of the problems, which we saw.
On the afternoon of July 3, the Kings, Joanna, and Otavia,
who is a rising Sophomore Morehead-Cain scholar from Italy, and I went to Lake
Kivu at Gisenyi and enjoyed an idyllic overnight at a Catholic retreat
center. We had a special birthday
celebration for Joanna that day with homemade cupcakes. The next day, after a walk, we had a fun swim
in the lake full of races by Moses and Lydia.
We returned to Musanze to have a dinner and celebration for Louise’s
birthday with the same group and additionally, Fiona and Chris, who are
missionaries with AIM from Australia, Peace, Jane, and two men who work with
Caleb on the hydroelectric project (Roger from England and Jesse from
Asheville). It was a lovely time!
Having heard of Sonrise Orphanage for years, I was thrilled
that Louise arranged for Joanna and I to go with her to see about 50 students
there with skin issues on Saturday morning.
The head prefects, Grace and Allan, helped us and then gave us a tour
and lunch. It was nice to see where
Hillary will be. Around this time, we learned from Pastor
Prosper about the delay, so we went home and played a board game, walked, and
had dinner with Pacifique, who is a friend of the Kings and comes monthly to
stay with them.
Although I was sad to start the time at Gikomero late, I was
thankful to be able to go to the 7:30 am English service at the Anglican Church
in Musanze/ Ruhengeri that Bishop John had built. The best part was to see the final
performance of the children’s choir
singing a song Lydia wrote and which I had seen practiced by the kids
with much fervor. I am still singing
this song to myself. After a time of
Bible study on Genesis 49, we returned home with about 12 people to whom the
Kings gave bread or pancakes as well as tea.
After a time of praise and prayer, some stayed to address some
concerns. The Kings are constantly
helping others in a discerning and generous way…I mean constantly. After Lydia, Louise and I came back from a
walk and a trip the Mountain Gorilla Lodge, we heard some bleating in the
King’s yard, which confirmed the gift of a goat as thanks by someone.:) Joanna kindly rode 2 hours with the driver to take me to Kigali
and made sure I found Pastor Prosper and Eugenie. As well, we met up with my friend, Greg
Meyer’s sister, Caritas, for whom I had a very full bag to give. I cannot tell you how special this time at Musanze was and how welcome I felt by all. I truly enjoyed everyone I encountered.
Community continued right away with our friends at Shogwye
and the team. I am going to focus on our
time at the Health Centers now. On
Monday, the entire team sans Eric had a tour of the health center there as part
of our time. On Tuesday, we also all saw
the one at Gikomero. As Louise told me,
the health centers are the backbone of the health system in Rwanda, which is an
impressive one with much accomplished with few resources. It is so exciting to see that since Andy came
six years ago and heard of many women walking miles in labor, that all women
now give birth in the health center. The
center in Gikomero has existed for a year and seven months and is possible
because they have that wonderful water source that we partnered with them
on. It is amazing that now they serve a
population of 15-20,000 and deliver about 20 babies a month along with
providing a complete immunization plan similar to ours. One strong focus is family planning, and they
were refreshingly open with this and their prevention and treatment of
HIV/Aids. The rate of HIV and maternal
transmission is similar to ours due to all of their efforts and foresight. They use a solar power system for power. We have heard repeatedly from Bishop Jared
and all of the pastors of attending to the people here holistically, and one
sees that so clearly at the health center.
It is very inspiring and exciting to see.
Today, Lee and I and Marieke, who is an oncology nurse in
Amsterdam and is with another group here, had the pleasure of going to Shogwye
Health Center and teaching a mid-wife from Gikomero(Marie Claire) and a nurse
from Hanika (Jessica) and one from Shogwye (Providence) as well as the
directors from Hanika and Shogwye. I
used some wonderful laminated cards with common dermatologic conditions in
English and French from the American Academy of Dermatology with pictures and
treatments outlined. Lee talked about
common eye conditions they may see, which engaged them. After that, the three of us asked a lot of
questions, and they asked us many in return.
One thing we wondered was why the incidence of malaria, which had been
very low, had suddenly risen to 8%. We
had speculated on various things. Marie
Claire explained that since the incidence decreased, people stopped using their
mosquito nets; thus, the rise. By the
end of the day, we all exchanged much and had gotten to be friends with emails
traded. They all requested, and we are
excited to see about 50 dermatologic patients together on Friday morning in
Shogwye.
Lastly, one of my favorite things has been morning devotion
at 7:45 with the diocesan staff. We have
read through Proverbs 20 over the past two days and have focused our days on specific
verses to meditate on after discussion.
I have felt such a sense of community in every arena and give thanks for
all of these lovely people who love the Lord so much.
My love to Andy, Cate, Laney and Claire (the 13 year oldJ) along with Cappie and
Ellen and all of my family and dear friends, whom I miss so! Carrie
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