by Fenton Rees
We have arrived safely in Kibuye, Burundi. The multiple flights from home were definitely long, but we slept some and arrived in fairly good shape along with all of our bags and boxes.
As we came into land at the airport in the capital city of Bujumbura, it was obvious that they were well into the dry season. Things looked a lot drier than when we had been here previously near the end of the year, which is wet season. Also noticeable was the distinct brown layer we descended through, almost like smog, but is in fact fine dust from the Sahara Desert that travels over a 1,000 miles in the dry season to get here.
On the 3 hour drive from “Buja” to Kibuye, we were impressed with how most people seemed to be working in some manner--whether at a road-side store, or carrying amazingly huge loads to market on bicycles. There is not much in the way of welfare here, so if you don’t work, you starve. This is such a contrast to Gabon, where we have been the last 2 years on multiple occasions.
Pat and I first visited Kibuye in October/November 2011, when there were no ex-pat / westerners living full time here, the electricity was off multiple times on most days, and the hospital had no running water. What a difference 5 years can make! Now there are about 50 westerners living on site (more than half are children), at least 10 new hospital buildings or houses, the water is almost always available, and they now have a back up generator. And only the really old parts of the hospital have that yucky smell of antiseptic, body odor, and something rotten that we encountered in 2011.
I have been quite impressed with the quality of the brick work in these new buildings. The fired clay bricks cost 1 cent each and a top-grade bricklayer/mason gets paid $3 per day, so they can build things quite inexpensively. Most of the cost is in the things that can’t be made locally, such as cement, rebar, roofing metal and any electrical stuff.
Caleb, the chief engineer / maintenance man here, gave me a list of 22 things to look at in the next 6 weeks: everything from installing two new power conditioners (to help protect the medical equipment) to fixing the electricity in houses where people get shocks. (Brick laying is their “A-game”, electricity not so much)! So plenty to do.
When we first arrived, they gave us an orientation tour, which was just as well, as so many of the buildings have been repurposed from what they were in 2011. Yesterday, Pat worked with the substitute surgeon who has filled in some for the full-time surgeon’s furlough, so the baton has now been passed and all the general surgery will be Pat’s problem. The fracture ward is overflowing, and orthopedics is not one of Pat’s specialties, so pray for wisdom for her. One frustration for Pat is that there is apparently money for new buildings but not for plaster to cast fractures (Go figure. This is Africa)!
The internet in our apartment is hopeless, so I have to sit outside to be nearer the router, so don’t expect quick answers to email questions.
So as we get into the swing of things, pray that we can use our time here most effectively for His Kingdom.