Currently I am sitting in Dulles International Airport waiting for my flight to board. There are two hours before boarding even starts. Never late to an airport when my mother is in charge. It has been a whirlwind month at home since returning from San Francisco.
In case you haven't heard, I'm moving to Rwanda, East Africa for a year. Last fall a fellow RN that I met in Haiti after the earthquake messaged me with this job opportunity. She told me that she knew I had recently finished my MPH (Master in Public Health) and thought of me when she saw the job description. What is the job you ask? I am officially a Clinical Mentor for the Rwandan Ministry of Health (MOH) working on the Human Resources for Health (HRH) Program. I am an employee of the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston as full-time faculty, essentially contracted to the Rwandan MOH for a year. Several years ago the Rwandan government asked the US government for a change in funding. Much of US international aid goes to programs designed for specific diseases, like HIV/AIDS and malaria. However, Rwandan has been experiencing an issue with what is known as "brain drain." They are loosing their smartest and brightest to other countries because they cannot educate them and then the best of the best never return. So the US government agreed to provide funding for 7 years for health system strengthening by providing faculty to teach. Thus, I ended up with a job in Africa.
I will be teaching clinical skills, not lecturing as far as I'm aware. Approximately 70% of my time will be spent with nursing students and their clinical instructors and the remaining 30% of my time will be teaching staff nurses. At this time I don't know much else. The program changes as it progresses so I've been told to expect the goals to shift and change as the year passes. Makes sense. The program is going into year three.
I feel as though I should be more nervous or excited or anything, but it still feels very surreal. I was panicking about the weight of my luggage, but it all worked out well when I checked in. Four 50 lb bags checked, plus my carry-on, and my backpack as my personal item puts me in the 250-300 lb range of stuff I'm taking with me. That might sound excessive, but when you've been told to bring bug spray, sunscreen, and conditioner for a year... you'll learn how quickly your bags get filled.
I'm contemplating now how one gets on the upgrade list as I notice some of the sleeper seats are still not filled. That would be pretty awesome, however I never seem to be that lucky. I am going to keep this post short as there really isn't too much else I can tell you. My layover in Brussels tomorrow morning is a few hours and then I will have a direct flight to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. I should land roughly 12:30 pm EST and then on Thursday head to the town of Butare in the south where I will live. After a few days of searching (and hopefully finding) housing, I will return to Kigali for a few days of orientation and then finally start work sometime in September. I'll have more to report once there, until then, here's to adventure!
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