TIA

I'm not sure if it was a real phrase before the Leonardo DiCaprio movie Blood Diamond, but I have heard this a few times since my arrival. When asked why things don't seem to work out as planned, that is the answer: "This Is Africa"

I was told from many sources that international work can be challenging for many reasons, but number one is the logistics. Specifically, the Fellowship in Family Planning runs a workshop every year to prepare the fellows for their international experiences where there was ample explanation of the need to be flexible and patient. Thanks to the efforts of my mentors over the past few years, I was given excellent contacts at the teaching hospitals in Kigali and the medical school where I could possibly teach family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) topics to students, house officers (residents) and even possibly some other clinicians. The details of what I would be doing, the timing of my trip and what my objectives for the trip were never entirely clear because they kept changing due to communication, logistic, and global financial issues (i.e. my funding).

Thankfully, I was able to coordinate with IntraHealth to help them in their FP/RH teachings outside Kigali through the Twubakane program. A family planning fellow from the University of Pittsburgh was here about the same time last year and had an excellent experience working with them. The staff at Twubakane are fantastic and generous with their time. They have arranged for me to participate in a set of trainings on long acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) that are set up for next week in a few provinces outside Kigali: Muhanga, Ruhango, Kicukiro, Kamonyi.

After my arrival in Kigali, I met a couple of the Ob/Gyn faculty here on Monday. Dr. Jean-Baptiste Kakoma and Dr. Joseph Vyankandondera are extremely busy physicians who have full patient schedules, teaching, and significant amounts of administrative responsibilities; even though they made time to meet with me and discuss how I could be useful during my time here. It turns out that they felt I should help with the ultrasound course being taught by a group of British physicians this week. Crazy how things work out, but those Brits are staying at my hotel!

While in line to board our flight from Brussels on Saturday, I met a British Neonatologist and a neonatal nurse who were traveling to Rwanda to continue their work to improveing neonatal care and the education of health care personnel around newborn and pediatric care. It turned out that we are staying at the same hotel! They introduced me to their colleague who is a Belgian fetal medicine specialist now practicing in London who is here to teach a 2-day course in basic ultrasound. After lots of discussions about what we are all doing here and that I wasn't sure what I would be doing this week, it turns out that I will help with the ultrasound course. I'm glad to see how things fall into place and am looking forward to helping.

As I'm trying to learn French, I guess it is appropriate to say:
C'est la vie