Monday at the Hilltop Hotel, Kigali Rwanda started on a
very cold note (for me coming from the tropics). I headed out just in time to
grab a quick breakfast before heading to our seminar room at exactly 9:00am. By
now, almost everyone (including participants and GHA officials) were
seated. Later that morning, we would have ODL students from Kenya and another from
Uganda arrive for the summer school.
The day started with a warm welcome from the Summer School
organizer, Lisa Wood, who we all later agreed was one of the most organized
person in the world! Afterwards, we all
a good time introducing ourselves (all 20-something of us) giving short details
on our course of study, area of work, countries and a little bit of fun-facts
here and there.
Dr. Liz Grant then gave a welcome speech in which she
reiterated the need for a multi-disciplinary one health approach to solving
Global health challenges; a core focus of the Global Health Academy, University
of Edinburgh. She also discussed the newly established Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), which she mentioned as a very core part of our lives as students and health
professionals, as we work to make the world a healthier place for all. She also
chipped in a short note on her passion/work in Palliative care and gave a
brief introduction on Dr Mhiora Leng, our upcoming keynote speaker for the
welcome dinner coming up later that evening. Generally, I found Dr. Grant’s speech quite moving and
inspiring especially when she got to the topic of Palliative care and medicine.
I had never given the subject that much thought until then and at that point,
it suddenly became more meaningful and important to me.
A short coffee break followed and then we had Professor
Michael Thrusfield lecture us on some basics in Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Of course, this was not the first time any of us had any encounter with
Epidemiology and basic statistics but apparently, a good number of us had
struggled with it in the past. However, Professor Thrusfield was such a patient
and detailed teacher, as he took his time to start from scratch and give us
building foundational blocks on Epidemiology and Biostatistics. We had frequent
short practice times which were very helpful in applying our understanding of
the topics. I met with him after the class for further explanation on some problems
I had with the topic and he was indeed obliging.
After lunch (and lots of networking!), the sweet soft-voiced
Ms. Marshall Dozier handled an interactive session with us where she spoke on
tips and tricks of Literature search as a student of The University of
Edinburgh. Ah… we learned so many erstwhile unknown tricks ranging from the use
of Mendeley and endnotes to organization of files to accessiing full text of
abstracts in journals etc. it was altogether a cohesive and interactive
learning experience and Marshall was ever so patient to answer all of our
questions.
This ended our session for the day but there we still a
social event to later in the evening – the welcome dinner!
The Welcome dinner was one of the Summer School highlights
for me. Now, without exactly planning it, Yusuf and I came dressed up in our
traditional Nigerian attire. This caused quite a scene and in all modesty, I guess
it added some color to the overall social gathering. After the initial networking session, Mhiora Leng was invited
to give her speech on Palliative care and medicine. In the speech, she gave us
some insights into her work especially in Uganda and around East Africa. She enlightened
us on the need to promote Palliative care and institutionalize it in health
systems in African communities. She also explained that Palliative care takes
into consideration the emotional, spiritual, psychological and socioeconomic
factors of health-care especially in cases of terminal illnesses. It was quite
impactful and I am sure that everyone who listened had one or two key points to
take away. I did.
Yusuf and I in our ethnic Nigerian attire
Excerpts from "Auld lang sang "
Picture credits - Charity Waweru
Picture credits - Charity Waweru
Thereafter, to keep the “party” going, we had song
presentations from each table representatives. James Akoko taught us an
interesting Kenyan folk song, I presented (after some “sabotaging”) a Yoruba
song from my native Nigeria and Mhiora gave a nice rendition of an English
song. Thereafter, Mhiora made us form a big circle (“….. like your mother’s
cooking pot” - as said from my place in Nigeria) and
we sang “Auld Lang Sang” while doing the accompanying Scottish dance.
Later that evening, I thought, even though I was slightly
frustrated with the hotel for their somewhat erratic internet connection and for
the hot water tap that kept gushing out cold water, I was still glad to be in
the beautiful city, Kigali.
.... Till the next series of #KigaliSummerSchool, Ciao!
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