Much of my time as a midwife mentor is spent working with midwife students.  Here is a picture of a student from Rwamagana School of Nursing and Midwifery-impressing the staff with her presentation (powerpoint!) on Postpartum Hemorrhage.  Discussion was followed by demonstration-500cc of "blood" colored liquid-with jello!  Modeling fun demonstration and audio-visual aides in East Africa...Thank you Oliva!

At Muhima hospital...it's always someone's birthday.

Newborn assessment with midwife and medical students.

These are the people in my neighborhood..

How long has it been?  Not two months!  Two years?! The leaves are changing back home in Ithaca, the basil is almost done, the tomatoes are picked and canned and sweet new apples are at the Farmer's market. The days are likely a bit shorter, the sun setting a little earlier and rising a little later.  But here on the equator, the sun rises at around 6:00am and sets at around 6:00pm.  Daily.  Birds begin their sweet morning songs at 5:40 am, followed by the roosters...then the busses, moto-taxis, people...all of us greeting the day.  Making our way to work and then later, back home again.


But finally, here is a bit of my experience to share.  I wanted to wait for a time before writing, because I didn't know anything!  I didn't want my blog-voice to be that of a tourist seeing the world with my upstate NY eyes.  But rather I hoped to integrate a bit into the experience of living in Rwanda.  For now-until January-this is my home.  This is my hospital. These are the children in my neighborhood, this is the woman whom I buy banannas and pineapples from while I practice my Kinyarwanda, Muramutse! Amakuru?  Nimeza.

Here is the view from the back door and a nearby neighborhood.