Oh, hey! I
didn’t see you there. Please come in. Welcome to my blog post. Firstly, Patty
has taught me a lot over the first week I have been there. Not so much about
how to survive in Rwanda (that’s pretty easy->Serena Hotel) Her teaching has been about
communication. Let me give you an example (completely hypothetical of course),
there is this concept called “graded assertiveness’. This is a kind of
education jargon. It was hard for
me to understand this at first; but, it goes something like this:
On the plane here
Patty: “ Mat
maybe you could think about blogging”
Mat: “Haha yeah maybe”
At the apartment on the first night
Patty: “ Mat you should really think about blogging it’s a
great way to keep in touch with friends”
Mat: “ I
generally prefer to use email and text!”
At the Serena hotel at the end of the first week
Patty: “Mat take your computer out and blog”
Mat: “ yes mom”
And here we are.
Rwanda has DEVELOPED since I was last here in 2008. There
are large parts of the city I barely recognize. Many more roads are paved and
there is construction everywhere.
We went to the military hospital today and the renovations
are impressive! I particularly like the pediatric wards. Bright green walls
with murals of my child hood favorites. Mickey and Minnie, Tintin and the best
is 2 kids playing video games. I was particularly happy to see that Barney and
Dora were excluded-both way overrated. The glaring omission was of course the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. No peds center is perfect. At the IWK we have a
giant T-Rex with sharp
teeth chasing a butterfly. Oh and
a bee with an enormous stinger.
Anyway, sometimes it seems the change of pace is slow, but it
is happening. I believe change is easier to see when there are large gaps in
time before returning. I can only
imagine what Rwanda will look like in another 6 years.
I hope it will not be so long before my next visit!
First blog entry of my life complete.
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