It is Friday night and we are in our hotel in Butare listening to the rain and sitting in the dark (power is out again which seems to happen everytime it rains). We had a nice dinner at Hotel Ibis and it is relaxing to be sitting here listening to the rain.

We have had a busy few days with teaching and travelling to Butare. Our teaching went well on Wednesday. We had Steve take a part an anesthetic machine and showed them how it works. They were all amazed! They have been using the machines every day but really had no understanding of how they worked. Hopefully they will retain some of what we showed them.

Wednesday evening we drove to Butare. The usual driver had a "problem" and sent his brother to drive us. The car was in poor condition (not sure the brakes worked or the wheels had ever been aligned). It was one of the scariest drives of our lives. Bewteen the car istelf, the bad driving, the fact that it was dark and the hundreds of pedestrians on the unlit road, I'm surprised we made it alive. I was actually glad to be in the back seat so I couldn't witness it all. I did hear Anita gasp several times and then the driver apologizing. Needless to say, we have arranged alternative plans to return to Kigali.

The OR teaching has been all over the place. The residents in Butare have definitely been supervised more than at CHUK and it shows in their clinical skills. However, there were a few challenging cases and the lack of equipment and drugs definitely made Anita and I sweat but everyone survived. There is also one resident who is clearly struggling and working with him makes for a very trying day.

Last night we ate again at Hotel Ibis and ended up staying out for a few drinks to relax after a stressful day. We ended up socializing with a physician from Denmark and 3 guys from South Africa working on the cellular phone systems. It was a very entertaining evening. The restaurant /bar was hopping with people as there had been a big cycling race come into town that day.

Tomorrow, we are off to Nyungwe National Park to see the monkeys and chimpanzees. We have arranged for our driver from last weekend, Emmy, to pick us up and take us to the park and then back to Kigali. We trust him completely and know that he will drive safely plus be an excellent driver. I suspect tomorrow will be a long day but it should be fun.

It is funny how we are looking forward to getting back to our apartment in Kigali. It has become our home and we feel comfortable there. Hotel Credo is a good hotel but the apartment in Nyamirumbo is our home in Rwanda.

Anita and Janice