Arrival in Shyira

Dr. King and I arrived in Shyira last week just in time for the pizza dinner put on every Friday. At dinner I met the Kohl family, who are here for a year from Germany, Caroline, a New Yorker working in the hospital and soon attending physician assistance school, Stephy, another German, who is taking a gap year after high school to home school the Kohl children, Martin, a carpenter from Germany, and the parents of Louise King, here to offer their services as doctors for a week. Although I was happy to finally meet everyone and be in once place for a while, the 9 hour time difference was still taking its toil and I went to bed very early to unfortunately wake up very early.
The sunrise at Shyira is incredible; the light slowly creeps along the mountainous terrain exposing the lush, green vegetation of rural Rwanda. As the people begin their day by walking up the steep hillsides to fetch the water found near the top, the cool, thin, air allows the routine to go about comfortably. I have been working with Martin on building a community center, a project he has overseen for the entire 5 weeks he has been here. The foundation and walls of the fairly simple building have been completed just recently, so Martin constructed the rafters to hold the roof in place, a very necessary addition as the rainy season is quickly coming upon us. We have now completed 2 of the 6 rafters and only yesterday did we have the necessary manpower to put these gigantic wood structures on. While I enjoy the manual labor, it is difficult to help due to the language barrier. I unfortunately do not speak the local tongue Kenyawandan or French, but a smile and a helping hand goes a long way. Martin left today to Uganda and so I begin my work at the hospital tomorrow, working with Dr. Kohl in the maternity ward. As a practicing OBGYN, I am looking forward to learning a lot from him and seeing how Rwandans are brought into the world in Shyira.
I am so far enjoying this place a lot and although my meals consist of mostly rice and beans and we only have electricity 2 hours a day, I have found a lot of time to get to know some great people and enjoy some reading. The doctor’s kids are great and I have had a blast playing with them from time to time. I can’t wait to start shadowing in the hospital and it seems like the doctors are ready to show me as much as they can. I apologize for the lack of posts; our generator and satellite were down for a couple days. Thanks for reading and I hope to keep this up.