Genuine Rwanda

Friday I was finally able to get a true experience of Rwanda, something I didn't know would be possible in a group of 15 Americans.

In the morning two other students and I visited King Faisal Hospital, the top medical center in all of Rwanda. On our initial tour of the hospital it seemed really similar to Mary Greeley in Ames, although Mary Greeley doesn't have the distinction of being the best hospital in our country. After our tour, though, we met with two med students from Duke University who are doing a rotation abroad in Rwanda, and they gave us a much more real interpretation of the hospital.

A good way to summarize would be to say that I'm thankful for the healthcare we get in America. King Faisal is the best hospital in the country, yet these students said that they had patients routinely die from illnesses that you would never dream of someone dying from in America. The biggest problem they face is simply the lack of resources. This hospital has the only CT machine in Rwanda, and if you need an MRI you have to go to Kenya. The Duke students said they didn't even know how many CT machines they have in their hospital back home. Also, this is a private hospital - the public hospital is much, much poorer.

The organization of healthcare in Rwanda is very similar to its government organization. There are small clinics that serve local populations, and everyone goes to their local clinic first. If the illness is too serious to treat at that clinic, they are moved up to a larger hospital with more resources. The most serious cases would be the ones who go to King Faisal. It's a logical system; the only problem is the general lack of resources. Hopefully that's something the government will start to emphasize soon.

In the afternoon we met with the Minister of Education (yes, that would be the person who runs the entire education system of Rwanda). I'm amazed at how easy it is to meet people of importance here. I don't think I would ever meet a secretary of education or defense or anything like that in America. It just wouldn't happen.

Also on that note, I forgot to mention that while we were standing outside King Faisal we ran into the Secretary of Defense of Rwanda and talked with him a bit. No big deal.

Anyway, it was interesting to meet with the Minister of Education. She was really interested in our work here, and she was really interested in getting us to come back to Rwanda to teach. Rwanda really wants English speaking teachers right now, so they're trying really hard to get people from America through programs like the Peace Corps and WorldTeach. It's a little sad that Americans get teaching jobs before Rwandans, but I guess it's one of the dilemmas created by switching to an all-English teaching system.

The minister also gave us some interesting information about education in Rwanda in general. In the 30 years before the 1994 genocide, less than 3,000 students graduated from the National University of Rwanda, the only public university in the country. Total. As of right now, 15 years later, their are about 25,000 students currently enrolled in public universities. Presently, 45% of the Rwandan population is 15 years old or younger. The genocide decimated Rwanda, but the country has made some extremely impressive steps forward since it happened. The minister said that 98% of children in Rwanda attend school right now, which I'm positive is a completely false statistic, but the emphasis on education is admirable. As she said, they need to get the education system correct now, while the young generation is so large.

In the evening Andrew and I went out with the son of a contact Dr. Keino has here in Kigali. He's 20 years old, so it was really cool to spend some time with someone my age here. We went to a local restaurant to get some dinner, and it was like a completely different world. It was like we were finally able to experience Rwanda the way people here do, instead of from our bubble of tourism. He was also the first person who spoke to us honestly about Rwanda, giving us both the good and the bad of the country rather than the pretty image presented to tourists here.

We also stopped by his house for a while and met his family. His family is reeeeally wealthy (he may be coming to ISU next year), but it was still a really good way to get a sample of life in Rwanda.