Muraho, Welcome to Patty's blog: Tristan edition.
It's about time I started blogging, I suppose. It's day 5 of my trip, and it feels like I've been living 48h days, (as it often does when I travel... I think it has something to do with my brain never being in autopilot, inundated with new sights, sounds, smells, and feels) so there's a lot of catching up to do. Strap in.
2015-01-07 17:15 AST: Air Canada flight AC662, Halifax to Toronto, Seat 13C (Emergency Exit row). I was experiencing many feels, having recently said farewell to my loving wife and 2.5y-old daughter, who mercifully seemed to think I was just going to my neighbor's house: Rrrr Wanda's. She still thinks I'm there. Excited to embark on a new adventure and re-visit the country I had a brief but memorable encounter with, 5 years earlier in medical school (http://tristantanzania.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-20th-muraho-rwanda.html). Jitters about a first day in a new hospital system, where patients and many staff typically don't speak English, not to mention the prospect of working within a system that has many drugs that I've never even ween in Canada. Trepidation for our simulation program and the grand plans we had to implement effective sim for the residents. Sheepishness for not having spent more time learning Kinyarwandan. Exaltation for the emergency exit row's extra leg room... you get it. Many feels.
2015-01-07 17:45 AST : AC 662. Turns out many of the above mentioned feels were just hunger.
2015-01-07 19:12 EST: Air Canada Lounge, Toronto. Big thanks to Dylan Bould, the head of CASIEF, for getting me into the lounge in Toronto (and then later in Istanbul). He was coming to Rwanda for a week to get to know the program and people there and happened to be on the same flights as me. If you haven't already, immediately go and fly 50'000 miles in order to qualify for lounge access. You won't be sorry. I actually showered in Istanbul, in a smart-shower that could bluetooth sync and play music from my phone. I never knew how much I needed a smart-shower in my life until that moment.
2015-01-13 22:30 CAT: Nyamirambo district, Kigali. This joke is wearing thin and I'm getting tired, so I'll skip to the highlights.
1) Rwanda is awesome. Basically, read Patty blog, then ditto.
2) Because of Patty's previous trips here, tireless work in Canada, and having been here a week prior to our arrival, we hit the ground running. The apartment is great, the kitchen shelves were stocked, the Serena hotel welcome mat was laid out, the plans for teaching were solidified and we had a ride from the airport at 02:30 in the morning. We really felt quite spoiled. An entirely different experience to my last solo trip to Rwanda.
3) Patty's birthday party was good food and great people
4) Academic day meant attending a morning report, where the night staff have a chance to present interesting cases from their call shift, and discuss upcoming ones for the day. Its a great mechanism for teaching and bringing the anesthesia department together to a shared mental model (see Patty, you're not the only one who can use communication-ese in a blog). I was able to make some suggestions for a little-one coming for surgery that seemed well-heeded and resulted in less anesthesia time for his developing brain.
5) Supervising the senior residents with their lectures and providing tidbits of what limited experience in anesthesia I have was rewarding for me, +/- them. We had some good discussions and delved deeply into some complex respiratory physiology.
6) The sim center is fantastic and the communication sim we held was well attended and the residents performed beautifully. Overall, a very engaged and bright group. I'm lucky to be sharing a month in the ORs with them. I'll learn as much as they, if not more :) The simulation hardware we're using are paired iPads running SimMon software. It's super easy to use and brings a level of realism to the sim that is vital for getting people involved.
7) Literally 100% of the remaining un-accounted for time is spent at the Serena hotel, where they must think we are living... I still don't know how I feel about our spa membership at a 5 star hotel in Rwanda, which is one of the nicest pools and gyms I've been in. Again, lots of conflicting feels. I've been eating really well though, so it isn't hunger this time. (google "feels meme" if you're confused).
8) Follow me on twitter @tdumbarton1 and @CAS IEF and on facebook for other updates and to see pics and 140 character brain droppings from Dylan.
I'm not going to apologize for the length of this post... you were fully warned up front.
More to come :)
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