Getting to the Mont-Gafula I neighborhood is quite an adventure. The unpaved streets, sand and garbage make it difficult to drive the Land Rover that is taking the five students from the University of Navarra's School of Medicine and the four doctors from the department of Gynecology of the University of Navarra to what will become their new home from June 3 to 17. Clínica Universidad de NavarraThe Land Rover, which will become their new home from June 3 to 17, will be driven to what will become their new home from June 3 to 17. "Kinshasa is like taking a step back in time" assures Itz Oiz, a 3rd year Medicine student from Navarra. "There are no traffic rules or traffic lights. The city leaves you completely disoriented". Even the cars drive at will, also in the opposite direction, and the lack of lighting does not benefit the visibility of those pedestrians who dare to cross the road. The welcome is to the cry of "munguele" ("white" in Lingala). Kinshasa smells of burning and papaya: the serious sanitation problem forces the population to burn waste to reduce it to ashes, making room for more bahorrina. Political corruption is a separate topic , which prevents governing a country with the dignity it deserves. There, you are either rich or poor, there is no class average . The wealthy reside in the central zone, the Gombe, where there is more civilization.

This expedition goes to the Monkole Hospital, a general hospital of reference letter in the area that serves more than 500,000 inhabitants. Their specialization program: maternity. Dr. Celine Tendobi, a gynecologist, is conducting her thesis on the incidence of cervical cancer in women: "I needed to obtain about 300 samples for my study", a figure that would have taken her "three years to obtain". Finally, more than 500 samples were taken in fifteen days thanks to the partnership of the group of the Navarra center: "Without them it would not have been possible, I am very grateful to them". The idea of this trip was conceived in the restless mind of director of department of Gynecology and Obstetrics Luis ChivaI wanted to establish an effective and affordable cervical cancer screening program in the Monkole environment," he says, "as well as to encourage solidarity among department and medical students. In the end, we have achieved all our objectives".

But not only this, they have also organized several sessions of training with the team of professionals of the hospital, such as the session "What patients expect from us: an anthropological vision" and a congress with local doctors on "Anatomy Surgical pelvis".

▲ Binza's maternity ward. In the background, María Caparrós and David Oliver. PHOTO: Ceded	▲ Mastectomy operation performed by Dr. Luis Chiva. Chiva. PHOTO: Ceded

For David Oliver, a student from Bilbao, it was the first time he had been screened: "If it wasn't for Dr. Chiva and Dr. Jurado, we wouldn't learn. And in the end it is easier than it seems," he says. "With Lugol - iodine solution - we could detect which patient was a carrier of the papillomavirus, a technique that is not used in Spain, but which is cheap and effective in Kinshasa. For her part, Gloria Segura, a future doctor and Catalan, recalls how a woman spoke to her during one of these free sessions offered by the Hospital: "She kept telling me not to leave her, she kept asking me questions about whether it was going to hurt or not. And I tried to reassure her by holding her hand".

In addition to this, they have been able to lend their time in the different maternity wards that Monkole has in other neighborhoods. Known as Antennas, they are appendices of the hospital in very small localities, far from the medical center, but which the latter is responsible for providing for the benefit of its inhabitants. "Being a mother in the Congo is almost like a tombola: it can go well or it can go badly," says the gynecologist from San Sebastián María AubáThe misery of the health resources is palpable". Associated morbidity, i.e. the presence of one or more disorders whose result can be fatal, is very recurrent. And he mentions the patient who died at operating room due to massive hemorrhage. Invasive coagulopathy they call it. Nothing could be done to save her.

▲ Gloria Segura at the maternity hospital in Binza attending to newborns. PHOTO: Ceded

Marta Amann, also from Bilbao and about to finish her programs of study, had the opportunity to witness six births in one day: "There you face the problem directly, with the person, not with the book". Unlike the internship she did in Spain, "in the Congo you learn the technique and the context, because you attend to the mother before, during and after delivery. You are up to date with her entire history.

Even Lara Núñez from Murcia, who has not yet had the opportunity to do an internship, remembers what childbirth is like: "The mother, while dilating, screams and prays in Lingala asking God not to abandon her. Not to let her die. Also during childbirth. And once the child is in her arms, she gives thanks that she is still alive.

Oscar Wilde said that "to be part of the good society, you have to feed the people". You will not have changed the world in just fifteen days, but you have certainly left your soul to nurture those minds eager to learn. They have taken the first step so that others can move forward autonomously.