The hospital here belongs to Shyira Diocese of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda. Before coming Bishop John Rucyahana will have to approve of your application. You must write a letter to him and ask for permission to come and serve here. Send him an email via us (calebkking@yahoo.com) and we will forward it to him with a letter of introduction. It is also helpful to add a CV so that we can see what experience you already have. In your letter you can explain who you are, what you hope to do or learn and for what time period you would like to come to Shyira etc.
As you are planning to come and live in Shyira, we would like to give you some information.

Beforehand:  Get your immunizations and start taking malaria meds.  Your local health dept will likely have a travel section, or simply go to your local doctor.  The CDC web site at www.cdc.gov is helpful.  Feel free to ask us if you have any particular questions.

Consider reading a book about Rwanda: The Rwanda Crisis, Prunier; Land of a Thousand Hills, Carr; We Regret to Inform You, Gourevitch are a few titles of the more popular books.

What should I bring?  Since Shyira is up in the mountains, it is usually colder here than in other parts of the country (and we also get quite a bit of rain, too). So the following might be useful: a sweater, light (rain-)jacket, flashlight with extra batteries (better: SOLAR), camera (with batteries), towel, sunscreen, bathing suit, comfortable walking shoes, insect repellent, a French dictionary, pictures of your family to show people, a water bottle, plug adaptors, if needed, a flash drive or CDs if you plan on downloading pix.

What should I wear?  It’s fine for women to wear pants, except for church on Sundays where it  is better to wear skirts, but we advise against shorts or short skirts while you are here in Shyira. Keep your midriff covered.  It’s fine to wear scrubs at the hospital.  Men usually wear long pants unless they are doing sports.  Ties are usually not necessary unless one is preaching.

Can I bring anything for the people there?  Feel free to bring things for the people here—small gifts, any clothes you don’t want anymore, but we do ask that you ask us before you give anything away.  We don’t want to set up the expectation here that every visitor will be handing out gifts.  Also, if you give things away to children, they tend to chase us around afterwards asking for the same things, and it’s not really good training for them to learn to run after every foreigner they see, asking for handouts.  If you have access to medical supplies, we can always use any medicines, sutures, surgical instruments, gloves, etc.  Email us for further details. 

                  Currency: As of Feb 2007, there are about 550 Rwandan francs (RFr)/dollar. And 700 RFr / Euro.

How much money should I bring? Here are some costs to keep in mind:
Transport to airport round trip costs us approx $100 (per car, not person), including the driver’s fee, because fuel costs $4 a gallon, and the roads are bad, so the vehicles require a lot of maintenance.
Staying in Shyira: The Parish has set a price of 5000 RFr a day as a contribution for their guest house; we charge $125/month to stay in the apartments; this covers cooking gas and the house help. Allow about another $125/month for food and $50-$100/month for incidentals-postage, phone calls, trips to Ruhengeri, Kigali, etc.
If you come for a few days only you will have to pay $5 per night plus costs for food.
Getting around: Our drivers can take you somewhere in the hospital vehicles when they are available—we charge 200 RFr/km which is our approximate cost.  That makes a round-trip into Ruhengeri about 12,000 RFr, for instance.  Van taxis are a lot cheaper (because they fit 18 people into the space of 10)—they are available into Ruhengeri from the bottom of our hill for 300 to 500 francs each way.  The public bus (similar conditions) is only 200 francs each way.
You may want to change some money for phone calls, souvenirs, etc.  Keep in mind that the money changers here charge very little, so that can always change back what you haven’t spent with only a 2% loss.

Note: Do not bring travelers’ checks for unless you want to use them in Europe coming or going, because they are quite hard to cash.  Bring $50 or $100 bills, dated 2001 or more recent.  Older bills are not accepted for seeing the gorillas or at hotels, but may be exchanged on the street for a lower rate—right now, for instance, you can get 55,000 francs for a 1996 $100 bill on the street, instead of 57,000 for a new one, and a small faced bill might fetch 50,000 francs.  Banks won’t take them.  There are no ATM machines in Rwanda.

Where is Shyira?  Shyira is in the Northwest area of Rwanda, due south of Ruhengeri.  We are about a 3 hour drive from Kigali.

What is Shyira like?  Shyira is quite rural, although, like almost all of Rwanda, it is fairly densely populated.  We are up in the hills and there are some scenic walks.  There is no electricity except for a generator at night for two hours only (voltage is 220).  Guest accommodations as of now have running water but no running hot water.

What is the food like?  We eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, beans and rice and meat on market days (Wed and Sat).  Some people like to bring power bars or other snack bars to have on hand. Keep in mind that there is no refrigerator at our guesthouse apartments.

Alcohol: Alcoholism is a big problem in this area and at least two of our staff have histories of drinking problems.  In general, the Rwandan church is less comfortable with moderate alcohol intake than Western churches.  We have decided to keep the hill voluntarily dry.  Keep in mind that, even outside Shyira, you represent us.

Photos: You probably don’t need to ask people permission to take their pictures, but, if they ask you not to, it would be polite not to.  Don’t take pictures of the airport, police, or anything government or military or you may find your camera confiscated.  You have to pay extra to take video at the gorillas, but if you have a digital camera with video capability, no one seems to notice.

The language is Kinyarwanda.  Few people in Shyira speak English.  About half our staff speak French, but if you were to break down on the road coming or going, you might well find no one around who speaks either French or English.

Church: is in Kinyarwanda on Sunday mornings; we also have an English service every other Sunday afternoon. We would expect you to attend the curch service.

Internet access:  We have a small Internet Café on our hill which runs off our satellite and either generator or solar power.  The charge is 500 RWF/hr.

Phone numbers:  Caleb +250 0830 7417, Louise +250 0883 6095, Bishop John +250 0830 3260. Iris & Matthias +250 08744905