Thank God that guy broke the toilet!

We began our day in the OR/ICU, continuing to be impressed with the enthusiasm, commitment, and motivation of the medical students and other health care practitioners here. Bona, a new anesthesia staff person who joined us in Halifax for 6 months a couple of years ago, thoroughly impressed Patty and I with his excellent management of a difficult neonatal case, in which he was a fantastic role model for the anesthesia technicians and residents in displaying his leadership and communication skills under pressure - we were very excited to see him being so effective in action!
The afternoon was spent in true Rwandan style, waiting over 2 hours for our driver to take us to Butare. I guess there was some mix up in organizing a driver, and of course remedying the problem here is not so simple as picking up a phone and calling the driver... first, one must go to the Ministry of Health to speak with someone, and that person will then go about making the arrangements. Then someone else needed to accompany the driver to our pick up location, we dropped that person back off at the hospital, and then finally, we were on the rode to Butare.
The drive was incredible - amazing green rolling hills, children skipping home from school dressed in cute little uniforms with bright smiles, and tons of new construction everywhere. Our driver was friendly and very safe and we arrived in record time.
Our hotel was a place Patty had stayed many times before and the people were very friendly. Unfortunately we were given rooms in the basement and they reminded us of rooms in a Norman Bates movie. Then as if someone was watching over us the porter was trying to help us with the toilet and he broke it! The next thing we knew we were up on the first floor in lovely rooms and had a great (and much needed!) night's sleep.
Today we're off to Butare to continue our enthusiastic teaching with some of the very keen new first year residents.
Terri

The evening got much better because we had a delightful dinner with Dr. Jeanne the Head of Anesthesia. She has a wonderful way of laughing off all the many challenges they face.