Road to Rwanda----tetanus shots and hot water heaters

 

These have been busy, busy days, so I will post a few reflections a day for a while to try to catch up. 

On our second day here I cut my finger very badly cutting up vegetables. Every time I took the bandage off for 2 days it bled copious.  When I had my check up in the US right before our return, the doctor wanted me to get a tetanus shot, but since I did not have an open wound, it would have cost $70.  I knew tetanus shots were available all over the world, so I declined. I decided I had better get one here after cutting myself. It was not quite so easy as I had hoped. Admin at the school had to call around to figure it out. Then the wonderful man who has ferried us all over took us to a pharmacy, where they found the tetanus serum and I paid $6 for it. Then we had to drive to a clinic.  The man’s cousin was the one who gave me the shot for $9.  $15 for the whole process, but a little more hassle.

We have not had hot water since we arrived. This would not have been a problem in Indonesia where the temperature was from 80-100 every day, and in fact we did not really have hot water there.  But, although it is not cold really here, I am not prepared for cold showers.  Well out of the set of 7 apartments where VVA (our school) rents 3 apartments, none had hot water heaters which worked. After waiting for 10 days, they came this afternoon, Sunday, and supposedly fixed them.  We will see.