As our first day of clinic, we set off this morning with the “Bridge to Health” organization to a rural outreach site about one hour away from Kabale. The site was set up in a primary school at roughly 7,000 ft elevation with beautiful hilly scenery lined with terraced farmland. I started off the day working in the maternal health clinic, which supplies pregnant women with vitamins, protein, and any necessary medications. The clinic recently brought in an ultrasound machine, which, with the promise to women in the area that they’d be able to see their baby, increased the number of mothers frequenting the clinic by ~175%. Here, I helped perform fetal measurements to provide these women with estimated delivery dates and detect any anomalies. This is probably the only ultrasound many of these women will have during their pregnancy. Unfortunately, we diagnosed a woman who previously thought that she was pregnant, with a molar pregnancy, which is not a viable pregnancy and puts her at risk for certain types of cancer. On a lighter note, however, I got to use a fetal stethoscope for the first time, something that we don’t use regularly in the United States!

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In the afternoon, I worked with the on-site dentist and assisted with tooth extractions (something I never thought I’d be assisting with!) because many patients present with tooth decay beyond necessitating a filling. In another life, I’d make a pretty good dentist. We returned to the apartments at roughly 6 PM, tired and ready for a good meal (of squash, beans, and fried pineapple for dessert!) and shower. The latter of which was much needed; the tub was red afterward from all the dust that I’d collected from the day!

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Uganda has been fascinating so far, but let’s talk about Rwanda first.

I flew in to Kigali, Rwanda last night. The air smelled like smoke – like a camp fire – immediately upon exiting the plane. It was nighttime, so I didn’t get to see the lush greenery around the airport, the colorful attire of the women walking down the street, or the hundreds of motorbike taxis driving down clean roadways until the next day. Cole, another student, and I were transported to Discover Rwanda Youth Hostel, where we met up with Mary Ella, another 4th year medical student like myself. She had the wonderful idea of heading to a fundraiser for spaying and neutering cats. After much apprehension (it was still nighttime, so I was wary) we headed to the event which had a DJ, tiki bar, a pool table, and many other foreigners. It was a very cool atmosphere and I got to try a local beer: Virunga Mist!

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This morning, we headed to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. This was a museum commemorating people who were killed in the 1990s. Almost 1 million people were killed and 250,000 of those people were buried at this site. The museum was very well done and had suggestions of how to prevent genocide in the future. It also outlined all of the effort that the country has put into bringing society together since the time when the division between Hutu and Tutsis was brought to such an extreme to cause those terrible acts.

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We had a quick bite to eat at the memorial and then headed to Uganda. It took about 3 hours to head across the border because Ugandans drive on the left side of the road and Rwandans drive on the right. However, in both countries, you are probably equally likely to find a car with a steering wheel on either side of the vehicle.

Upon arrival to Kabale, we were introduced to our apartments which are rather minimalistic (but have REALLY hot water ….Ahhhh…..). We explored around town a tiny bit, but then had dinner with the group of Canadians with “Bridge to Health”, an organization currently working with Kihefo. They’re a rather rowdy bunch that travels to rural under-served areas around the globe. For dinner, we had a Ugandan specialty: mashed plantains. It wasn’t very sweet like it sounds. It’s almost like mashed potatoes, but without the salt and butter.