Above: Anita standing at the top of a hill in Nyamirambo (we ran up it on our first run and near died)

Above: Janice walking home from the hospital

We have a quiet couple of days, which is not a bad thing. Sunday afternoon we took a taxi to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It was an excellent exhibit but very heartbreaking. It is so hard to believe that these wonderful people we have met lived through such an awful crisis. It is incredible to see how they have healed over the last 15 yrs and how much progress they have made. I suspect that many other countries, religions, ethnicities etc. could learn from their example.

Yesterday we had one of our best days of teaching in the OR. We were with one of the first year residents, Alfred, and got to do a whole case with him. The nurse anesthetist was great to let Alfred be in charge and he demonstrated some organizational/preparation skills that we have been trying to teach. Also, the general OR atmosphere seemed a little less hectic than usual so we actually got to do some intraop teaching - felt almost like home.

Today on the other hand was much less productive. Two of the residents worked with a team from Australia doing cardiac surgery, one was post call and the other was in the ICU so that left us no one teach. We had a nice day preparing talks for tomorrow and generally just relaxing. Anita had a little time to do some exam prep for herself so I think this helped to relieve some of the worries of missing all the exam prep that is happening back home.

Steve, Anita and I went out for another run. We all agreed that we must be getting more acclimatized to the altitude. Although the hills are still very challenging we do seem to be breathing a little easier. We are even starting to wonder if the locals are starting to get used to the white people running around in spandex as there seems to be a few less stares. We do get many shouts of encouragement and still a few kids running with us.

Tonight we will finish up our talks for tomorrow and prepare to go to Butare tomorrow night. We are looking forward to the chocolate crepes at Hotel Ibis and perhaps a swim in the pool at our hotel Credo.

Janice and Anita