The rain came back!

Our friends came to visit again on Monday. They came in the house and we sat in the living room in our stupid, uncomfortable chairs. Emily gave them lollypops and I took some pictures and we played with the baby and she peed on the floor.
Tuesday, I helped out in vaccinating babies. I wrote in the baby’s ifishi (medical record) and gave polio vaccine. I also finally got up the soap for the clinic at the handwashing stations by the bathroom. I used a modified version of the tippytap. I was ashamed and thought it to be setting a very bad example that the health clinic did not have soap for people to wash their hands after using the latrines, so I asked the titilaire if there was any money in the budget for soap and she said yes, but was afraid that people would steal it. The genius of the tippy tap helps in many ways, not just to clean hands, but also to keep soap from being stolen! (I’ve posted pictures of the contraption in the Mwezi album on picasa) The boss from AIDS Relief came and we FINALLY got a job description! I am so happy. We ate lunch together with some of the other staff who were with him and it was awesome, having someone besides Emily to speak English to is always great. So, back to the job, we are here to help increase patient adherence to their ARV (antiretroviral) drugs and to make sure they are being taken care of sufficiently. Many HIV+ mothers fail to bring their babies in at the appropriate times to be tested. I knew this is what I was supposed to be doing, but he told us exactly where the clinic is failing, what we should be looking for and showed us the patients records, so we know where to mark these things, what information to look for and to get it filled in if its missing, etc. I am so happy. I enjoy doing all the crazy things they have me doing, but I guess I am the type of person that likes being told what to do. I was always frustrated that I didn’t have something concrete to work on. We had an electrical storm Tuesday night. I didn’t hear anything, just saw some flashing to the south, so it was either that or Burundi was bombing something.
So, on Tuesday, I taught “oh shoot” “dang it” and “darn it” and Wednesday after class the lab tech, a nurse and I went to the school and played volleyball and the lab tech missed the ball and said “oh shoot!” It was awesome.
THE RAINY SEASON IS NOT OVER!!! My goodness the rain came back with a vengeance!! It hasn’t rained in almost 2 weeks and today was a DOWNPOUR, a deluge. I wish all of you could experience Rwandan rain; it is completely inexplicable. The bad part is that it starting during class, so we had to walk home. We didn’t leave the clinic for a good half hour after class when the rain let up a little. I was terrified that I was going to fall again! The classroom was leaking really badly and there was a river, and I honestly mean river-it covered my feet, running through the building. I grabbed the converter box off the floor so it wouldn’t get wet and then went to pull out the plug and electrocuted myself. Not badly, but my arm felt weird for a while. The lab tech whom I played volleyball with on Wednesday while walking through the river said in English “I am swimming”. It was funny. I love it when they use what they learn. My shoes got covered in mud, as did my feet, and I slipped but didn’t fall. When we got to the little shops where everyone saw me fall last time, I could hear them all whispering in anticipation.
Friday, our friend who works in the town with the hospital hitched a ride to our village in the ambulance with some coworkers who had to come do some follow-up at my clinic. I showed her around the clinic and then made her lunch and caught a ride back with the ambulance to her town to stay the night with her. There were 12 people in the ambulance on the way out. We got to her house and made some guacamole and chapatti for a party at her neighbor’s house. We arrived at the party around 6pm and stayed until 11. There was a potluck dinner and lots of drinks and a dance party out on the lawn. It was really fun. The baby was dancing with us (he’s about 1 year) and was so dang cute. There was a little girl baby around the same age and I was dancing with her and she pulled herself into my arms and wouldn’t let me put her back down, so I danced with her on my hip for a long time. When the little boy came back, she let me put her down and she danced with him. We made delicious pancakes Saturday morning and then walked the half hour to the main road and waited for a taxi bus for another half an hour and finally made it into town 15 minutes before the bank closed. Emily and I went to the bank and our friend went to the market and then our other friend who lives in Nyamasheke met up with us in town. The our coworker from AIDS Relief picked us up and brought us to his house where we had a nice lunch and watched a movie. He had a friend in town and has two roommates, so we all hung out at the house a while then went to the hotel by the lake and went swimming in the pool. It was cold, but nice. We stayed at the hotel all night drinking and talking and finally got a taxi back to our friends house around 10. We slept at her house again, had some more yummy pancakes then hit the road to come back to Mwezi Sunday morning. We got to the main road, had to wait a while to catch a bus to Ntendezi, then waited in Ntendezi for the motos for a few minutes and then just decided to start walking. We walked for over a half hour when the moto showed up and took me home. Emily continued walking until it came back and picked her up, which took about an hour from when I left her to when she got on. So she walked about half way home (an hour and a half). We had gotten cheese while in town, so we had grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner!!