Rwinkwavu Visit

Though we live in Kigali, Rwanda's capital city, Bethany will be doing work with each of the three sites where Partners In Health runs a hospital. It sounds like the one she'll visit most often is the Rwinkwavu site. She was there a couple of days last week and I came with her this week.

PIH Sites in Rwanda

Burera District:
• 150-bed Butaro Hospital
• 15 health centers

Southern Kayonza District:

• 110-bed Rwinkwavu Hospital
• 8 health centers

Kirehe District:

• 120-bed Kirehe Hospital
• 14 health centers

The Rwinkwavu site (or Rwink in PIH-speak) is about 87 kilometers (54 miles) from our house in Kigali (Remera Neighborhood). It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to drive to on the way here, though I'm convinced I could have cut 30 minutes off that time if I was driving :-)  Here's a link to a satellite view.

There are some hospital buildings just up the hill from the road, and then a large administrative building above the hospital. There are a series of dormitories just south of the complex, which is where we're staying, in a VIP room with our own bathroom. They've just built a new maternity building near the hospital and are almost done with another admin building next to the first. Bethany will have an office in the new building, which we saw when we toured it yesterday. Currently, she works out of the central dining area in the admin building, which has wireless and an amazing view overlooking the valley below and the hills beyond. There is a TV in this area and I watched a re-play of the Sweden - France game (which had an AMAZING goal by Sweden's Ibrahimovic in case you missed it - unfortunately all links on YouTube have been made inactive because of UEFA copyright claims) with some of the employees and people in for a training while I participated in a webinar on my laptop. It was a very strange experience as I spoke with two people in the U.S. and one in Brazil while watching a game from Europe using very modern technology while looking out over the valley and not really seeing a single electric light for miles in any direction.

For the most part, all meals are communal, with staff getting food either from the hospital (for lunch) or one of two large houses in the area (breakfast and dinner). The picture below shows Bethany and some friends at lunch yesterday, which was great. Sounds like most meals are rice and beans heavy. Lunch yesterday included french fries (or chips, as they're called here) and some steamed banana dish (called Matoke I believe), which Bethany really likes. Dinner last night was more rice, beans, matoke and a salad fresh from one of the PIH-er's garden complete with fresh bib lettuce, onions, avocado, and boiled eggs.  Breakfast was some bread, coffee, and a very yummy onion and cheese omelet.

I've had some work to do, so I've spent a lot of my time on the computer, but also got in a nap in the grass overlooking the beautiful scenery. I listened to a few Kinyarwanda (local dialect) lessons, though I can't say I remember much beyond "Muraho" (hello). There are lots of birds everywhere I've been in Rwanda so far. I really like the large raptors that fly overhead sometimes, but haven't been able to get a good picture. The small bird below is one that kept visiting me while I was playing on my computer. Have no idea what kind it is, but he seemed friendly.

 

Post-Thursday Lunch Update: Bethany requested that I post my pictures from today's lunch as well. We had rice, matoke, and some peas with eggplant (a small, local eggplant that is a little bitter). We ate with some of the employees and I checked out the cooking area. They make huge pots of food when they cook and have set-ups to do many at the same time. Pretty impressive.





Afterwards, we walked down to one of the local bars (one of the two) and had two Cokes. 400 RWF each for the 30 cl size and they were cold (the one I had yesterday was the same price, 50 cl size, but un-refrigerated).

TVS StaR Sport 125

The little motorcycle Bethany mentions in her post is actually a TVS StaR Sport 125. The bike is made in India and has a 124.8 cc single cylinder, 4 stroke, air cooled engine. The engine is rated at 7.56 kW of power at 7,700 rpm (just over 10 horsepower) and has a listed maximum speed of 93 kilometers per hour (almost 58 miles per hour).  

It has four gears, but they aren't set up the same as bikes in the U.S. Instead of being 1 down, 2, 3, 4 up, with neutral in between 1 and 2, this bike has neutral all the way down, and then 1, 2, 3, and 4 going up. Confusing when you coast into a stop light not knowing what gear you're in and just automatically shift all the way down to what you expect to be first gear.


The bike weighs 118 kg (260 pounds), so you can almost pick it up and carry it up steps if you need to :-) Of course, it is rated for no more than a 130 kg (286 pounds) carrying capacity. Let's see, if I weigh 175 pounds, that leaves 111 pounds for Bethany and whatever gear we're carrying.


The best feature is the fuel efficiency. It is supposed to get 85 kilometers per liter... that is 200 miles per gallon. Our 16 liter (4.2 gallon) tank should last 1,360 kilometers (840 miles). Not too shabby. I wonder if severely over-weighting the bike and then trying to ride up steep hills will effect the fuel economy?


The bike we got isn't on the TVS website (made only for select export markets), but it is supposed to be the Star City bike (http://www.tvsstarcity.com/) with a 125 cc motor. All details above come from the user manual.


I bought the bike from Sameer Hussein TVS at the base of the Kigali City Tower. It cost about $1,700 USD (1,030,000 RWF). That price came with two helmets and a quart of oil.  Since I brought some helmets from the states (and the ones included are cheap, molded plastic), I only kept one helmet and he credited me 7,500 RWF. He also has nice, expensive helmets (around $100), which Bethany might look at later. He let me pay in USD and gave me a 613 Francs per Dollar exchange rate. When I picked up the bike, he threw in a seat cover, tank cover with pocket, a vinyl document holder, and a TVS tee shirt.


Besides the bike, I needed to first get tags and a Tax Identification Number (TIN). This cost a combined 75,000 RWF and the shop was able to handle this for me, but I had to bring two passport photos and it took two days before I could pick up the bike. I paid for the bike when I picked it up from the store.  At that time I also had to get insurance. I got one year of basic insurance (covers other people only, but not our bike) for 40,000 RWF ($65). Insurance actually stays with the bike if I sell it, so if I sell it within a year the new owner would have the remainder of time on my insurance. To get new insurance (which is required by law) I can just go back to the shop where I bought it. They have two different insurance companies represented in the shop. The bike also comes with the first three tune ups (750, 2,500, and 5,500 kilometers), which are done at the warehouse / shop located near the airport. First tune up includes free oil, I have to pay for the oil at the next two (and oil filters at all three).

Almost every other bike in Kigali (95% plus) is a TVS GLX Victor 125.  Most of these are "motos", the motorcycle taxi that everybody uses. Similar engine, slightly different styling. We have a slightly larger fuel tank, the Victor has a disk brake in front (we have drum). http://www.tvsmotor.in/victor-glx.asp

We've arrived.....

We just finished our first full week in Rwanda – and the transition could not have gone smoother.  Part of it is that I am so excited to finally be here (and I think Nathan feels the same way)… it seems like this move has been a long time coming and that we have more or less been in transition since the end of January.  We have had an eventful and wonderful few months since January, but it’s not been settled.  Our first real activity here was to go grocery shopping and cook dinner – not terribly exciting, unless you hadn’t cooked dinner in months.

The fact that we got here as smooth as we did is a miracle in itself… we had a lot of bags.  A LOT.  I keep going back and forth between being embarrassed by the amount of stuff that we had and being thankful every time I pull out an unexpectedly highly useful gadget.  The guy helping us at the airport was super patient, and helped us figure out the cheapest option for getting our stuff here, and 24 hours later, we showed up in Rwanda, and all of our bags showed up with us.  That rarely happens with one bag, much less seven. 

Our life this past week…. We are subletting a really comfortable house until August.  Nathan is already getting a real African welcome to the house… the first few days we were without water just getting a low drip from the sink from our gravity water tank in the back.  The third day, when the water came back, the electricity went out.  We had a few days where we had one, or the other, but not both.  We were excited when we finally had both, allowing hot showers, but turning on the water heater causes one of the faucets to nearly explode shooting water from all seams. Oh well, he has already shown infinite flexibility and ingenuity, and patience…. probably the three most important skills needed to be happy here.

Other events – we got a small moto(rcycle).  I think its more like a put-put, apparently the engine is about 1/10^th of the size as Nathan’s last motorcycle, but apparently it gets 200 miles/gallon.  I started work – it’s a slow start (not unexpected) and I have PLENTY that I am still closing out, so not too worried.  I have already been to one of our more rural sites, and Nathan is joining me there next week.  We have cooked at home about every night, and are enjoying discovering what is and isn’t available, and of the things that are, what aren’t CRAZY prices.

There have been a few lowlights, on the list - The heavy pollution especially around dinner time when there is both traffic and cooking.  Apparently this will decrease in the rainy season.  Not always understanding everything or everyone, or worse, not always being understood. And the commute to our rural site has gotten more complicated as one of the bridges washed out a few months ago.  On the way to the site last week, I got out at one side, walked across and there was someone waiting at the other side.  On the way back, we went around the bridge – a 45 very bumpy, very narrow, very uncomfortable detour.

But for every lowlight, there have been plenty of highlights…  Being here with Nathan makes it seem like I am coming here for the first time.  Everyone (friends, colleagues, neighbors, strangers on the streets) has been super friendly.  And for me, my excitement for the work ahead seems equally matched by my colleagues.

We will be posting periodically on the blog (aiming for at least every two weeks), so keep an eye out here if you want more of a narrative of our time in Rwanda.  I will nudge Nathan to put a few posts on as well.  And please stay in touch… the world has gotten much smaller, and we should have regular internet and cell phone access.

And in case your curious, here is our current sublet (thanks, Justin M!): https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=-1.958776,30.103065&daddr=Boulevard+de+I+Umuganda,+Kigali,+Rwanda&hl=en&ll=-1.958686,30.103413&spn=0.002303,0.002739&sll=-1.958686,30.103413&sspn=0.002303,0.002739&geocode=%3BCWEqoiGj-JHFFcoZ4v8dyYLLASnLhYP7qqfcGTENcEzsRrpD1g&t=w&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=19&z=19