Before leaving Burundi, I got the opportunity to go visit a hospital in the town of Kibuye. Kibuye is about 30 kilometers south of Gitega, and is near the waterfalls.
Although visiting the hospital was on my "to do" list before leaving Burundi, I ended up visiting because a friend of mine was sick, and needed help from the hospital. So, Peter, the driver Joseph, our friend and I went to Kibuye. I would like to share more information, but it may not be appropriate. Things are looking good now, but if you could pray for my friend, I would appreciate it.
A few months ago, three families and two single people came from America to help out at a hospital in the town of Kibuye. The people and families in the group combined their last names and the group goes by the name "McCropders." There are about 8 adults, and 9 children (17 people total).
Although visiting the hospital was on my "to do" list before leaving Burundi, I ended up visiting because a friend of mine was sick, and needed help from the hospital. So, Peter, the driver Joseph, our friend and I went to Kibuye. I would like to share more information, but it may not be appropriate. Things are looking good now, but if you could pray for my friend, I would appreciate it.
A few months ago, three families and two single people came from America to help out at a hospital in the town of Kibuye. The people and families in the group combined their last names and the group goes by the name "McCropders." There are about 8 adults, and 9 children (17 people total).
The McCropders have been planning to come to Burundi for a long time. First, they lived in Kenya for a couple of years to make sure the group worked well together. They looked for a place to move to, and decided to come to Burundi.
Once in Burundi, they spent the first three months learning Kirundi, the local language. Several of them already know French, so that is good.
They have been in Kibuye and have been working on projects and adjusting to the area. This past month, the doctors in the group have started working with the other staff in the hospital, and are working on getting integrated into the hospital's staff.
The McCropders chose Kibuye because:
- The hospital is a mutual effort between the Burundian government and private organizations.
- The hospital is a teaching hospital. Students doing their residencies and nurses from Hope Africa university come to the hospital for education and training.
- The hospital isn't in a city, but a more rural location where help is needed the most.
The Kibuye hospital has been around a long time. Since it's connected to the government, the government is pretty good about keeping the electricity going. It's an established hospital, so a lot of procedures and resources are setup already to help people.
I heard about the arrival of the McCropters in Burundi, but it was a miracle I ran into one of the McCropders in a local store in Gitega. I'm not in town much. His name is John. John is an eye doctor. He gave Peter and I a tour of the hospital, and showed us some of the projects that are happening.
Part of the hospital is being renovated to have an eye clinic. The clinic will have two rooms to do eye surgeries.
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| Future office and reception desk for the eye clinic. |
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| Future eye surgery room. |
One of the McCropder's is a surgeon. So, some work is being done related to surgeries. A couple more operating rooms are being build, and renovations are going to be done to the clean rooms (the areas where you prepare and clean up before and after surgeries). Below are some pictures of the clean room now, but I'm not sure if it's in use now or not. There are only one or two surgeries happening a day currently.
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| Clean room |
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| Clean room |
By the gate, they are also creating an emergency room. It will be where patients are first received, and where an ambulance can come with patients in emergency situations.
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| Emergency room building. |
Along with medical needs, the hospital is also involved with a nutritional program. The hospital helps make a mixture used for porridge to help with people's nutrition in the area. The program takes three or four different seeds or grains, heats them up, grinds them, and puts them in bags to be distributed to people.
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| Workers preparing grain. Sometimes, rocks need to be sifted and picked out of dry foods. |
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| Barrel used for cooking grains. |
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| After cooking, the mixture is ground up into powder. |
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| The powder is put into bags, and the bags are distributed. |
On the tour, I was able to see other parts of the hospital like the maternity ward, isolation ward, vaccination center, pharmacy, labs, patient rooms, etc.
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| Peter and John in the maternity and prenatal "waiting room." |
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| One of two labs. |
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| Pharmacy window |
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| Training room |
In Burundi, if someone goes to the hospital, someone else has to come along to look after them. Meals have to be brought to the person, the hospital doesn't provide them. The hospital has an area where people can cook meals. Peter said it was the first time he had seen a cooking area available at a hospital.
There aren't washers and dryers here. Everything is washed by hand and line dried. Here's a picture of the "laundry mat." Clothes and sheets are strung up inside and outside the building.
Before lunch, I was invited to see where the McCropders are staying. They are currently living in a row of four townhouses. In the future, the townhouses will be used to house guests, and they will have houses further down the hill.
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| Heather, the ex-chemistry teacher. |
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| Field and small church near the hospital. I played some soccer with the local kids. |
I met Jason and John's families. During the day, Jason and John's wives teach the McCropder children. They are looking for someone to come out and teach the kids. Anyone interested? I was excited when I found out that Heather is an ex-chemistry teacher! Eventually, she will be helping with the hospital as well.
The McCorpders have a blog. Below is the link. :)
