Kibogora - The missionary hospital

The hospital is on the hillside. (Everything in Kibogora or Rwanda for that matter is on a hillside.) It overlooks beautiful lake Kivu. It is one of only two hospitals in the country of Rwanda that is sanctioned by the U.S. State Department. Therefore some patients travel many, many miles (by foot or ambulance) to reach the hospital. The patients are accompanied by their family or friends. The family members or friends provide the patient's meals and do the laundry of the patient because the hospital does not provide these services. The patient must bring their own sheets if they do not want to use a mat on top of a vinyl mattress cover. Of the patients I met, most had no sheets.

Here is picture of the hospital:


Here are Carol and Chuck talking with the lady in admissions/medical record room. This is also where patients pay their hospital bills. $1.25 U.S. per day. Most cannot afford this amount. The hospital is subsidized by the Free Methodist Church and donations from others.


The hospital pharmacy:

Central Supply - where surgical instruments and linens are sterilized and stored:

This is the operating room. Frank is removing a malignant tumor from this woman. There is no follow-up treatment in these cases. The cancer is either completely removed by the surgery or it is not.


The hospital kitchen. The kitchen is a covered shelter where family members can cook for their patient.

I asked this lady what she was preparing. It is a gruel of molasses and corn meal. Sounds, like sweet grits!!


I did not take pictures in the wards out of respect for the patients. But it was common to see two people in a bed. The patient and their family member. The family member sleeps with the patient. There is a mens ward. A womens ward. Pediatrics, Obstetrics and of course the roped off areas where patients have such contagious diseases as cholera or meningitis.

Oh, I almost forgot. As I said in the beginning patients who cannot travel by foot, arrive by ambulance. Here is an ambulance transporting a lady to the hospital. Many people travel for hours to get there.


Because they have to travel so far, the ambulance crew consists of the four people carrying and a back up crew follows along to rotate the work.