First Week at Site Pt II

Monday

Back on the job, bright and early, I went to the 7am staff meeting on time only for it to begin 30 minutes late.  I wasn't too thrilled at waking up at 5:30 to be on time to a late meeting, but I was still in good spirits throughout the meeting; we (the volunteers) had already been warned that nothing in Rwanda starts on time (I guess CP time is CP time for CP all over the world lol).

After the meeting, my counterpart and I walked into the HIV/AIDS building of the health center and he pointed ahead and said to me, "Go and talk to those people about AIDS."  As I wasn't sure exactly what I was supposed to say regarding AIDS, I gave him a funny look. I guess he read the look on my face because he changed his mind about having me start a random conversation with the people about AIDS and told me to come with him. He ended up giving me a rundown of the services of the health center instead and shared with me the mission statement and goals and strategies that the health center has had in effect since 2000.  Once he was finished briefing me on the services of the health center and stuffing my brain full of a bunch of random information, he proceeded to say, " You will be first."  I said, "What do you mean?"  He said, "Of all of the volunteers, you will be first.  You will know Kinyarwanda the best and you will know all of the Rwanda health services first."  I proceeded to say, "I don't need to be first, I just need to be good at what I do."  This isn't a competition for goodness sake!  You are giving me too much information at one time!  And he said, "To be good is to be first.  You will be first."  I just left the subject alone at this point.  I'm not sure who ingrained into his head that the volunteers were in a competition to see who could do the most the fastest, but I'm really going to need him to simmer down with all of that; this guy is stressing me out already.

Tuesday

I woke up at 5:30 again today only to be on time to the late meeting!  It was terribly hard getting out of the bed this morning so when I realized that the meeting was going to start just as late as it did yesterday, I thought to myself, I'm going to be late tomorrow too, just like everyone else.  I know this isn't the best way to deal with the situation, but I really hate waiting for no reason (patience is one of the many things I am hoping to attain during my time in Rwanda).

Once the day finally kick started, my counterpart took me on a tour of the entire facility.  The facility is made up of an HIV/AIDS building, a maternity building, and a main building which houses the check-in area,  pharmacy, immunization center, hospitalization rooms, etc.  Also on the health center grounds is a cook house for the families of the patients (if a patient must be hospitalized overnight, the patient's family is expected to come and cook for them), a police post (which is a blessing...it makes me feel so much safer), and  the house of the Titulaire (head of the health center).  For the rest of the day after the tour, I shadowed one of the nurses in the HIV/AIDS building and helped her count out and package ARV prescriptions for the HIV/AIDS patients.  After this, I worked in the lab for a while and got to help check blood samples for malaria parasites. 

Wed

So today, I kept my promise to myself and decided to be late to the 7am meeting that never starts at 7am.  Apparently I chose the wrong day to be late because

when I arrived at 7:30  ALL of the other staff members were already there and the meeting was almost over.  This was oopsy #1 for today.  Oopsy number two was when I decided that I would take an extra long lunch break since after lunch I never really do anything anyway; my counterpart is always gone after lunch so I kind of just wander around and talk to the patients to practice my Kinyarwanda.  My lunch is supposed to be from 12-2p, but I decided to go back to work at 2:30 (I figured the extra 30 minutes wouldn't hurt).  When I arrived back to the health center, all of the office doors were closed and locked and I had no idea where everyone was.  I saw one of the umukozis (cleaners) and when I asked her where everyone was, she pointed to one of the closed office doors and said that everyone was in a meeting.  Ohemgee! Not again!  Here I am late again...the second time in one day!  I was a little apprehensive to knock on the door as I didn't want everyone to see me walk in so late, but I did anyway and once the door opened, I realized that this was no ordinary staff meeting.  The supervisors from the sector hospital were there!  I quickly walked in and sat down, making sure to look at the ground to avoid locking eyes with anyone.

Once the meeting was over and everyone left the room, the District Health Officer (the person in charge of all of the health initiatives for my district) called me over to him and I just knew I was in trouble!  He said, "Do you remember me?"  I lied and said, "Yes, but I forgot your name."  He said, "I am John Bosco, the District Health Officer."  I smiled and said, "Oh yes, I remember."  I was still a little apprehensive, as I thought I was just two seconds away from being scolded.  Instead of scolding me, he proceeded to ask (in English) if I was able to understand what was being said in the meeting.  I told him that I was able to pick out a few things.  He then gave me the gist of what the meeting was about.  Apparently last year during the audit (or whatever they have here), the health center I work at rated the lowest in the district for quality.  The health center has these meetings on the last Wed of every month (at least now I know what days to not be late) to discuss how they can improve the quality of their services and get their rating up.

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea