My last day at AHTS 2026 went fast.
After the Youth in Digital Health plenary session, I sat down again to write. Before I knew it, it was lunchtime. That was when I realized I had missed the closing ceremony. The summit had moved so quickly that I had somehow written my way right past the official ending.
After lunch, there were field trips in the offing. Since I live in Kigali, I decided to leave those experiences to the foreign delegates. I had already spent three days exploring the summit, the exhibition hall, the sessions, and everything happening around the convention center. But there was one afternoon activity that caught my attention: golf.
It was an exclusive event for VIP delegates, and luckily, I managed to secure a spot. There was just one small detail. I am not a golfer. In fact, this was only the second time in my life that I had held a golf club. The first was at Falcon Golf & Country Club on the shores of Lake Muhazi.
So, no, I was not about to join the golfing crew for an 18-hole round. I had no business doing that. My plan was much simpler. I wanted to practice my swing, see what I could do with a golf club, and hopefully avoid getting in the way of people who actually knew what they were doing.
I showed up as a beginner and had a good session. My swing still needs plenty of work, but about an hour later, I could already feel a difference. The ball was behaving a little better, my swing was beginning to feel more natural, and I was enjoying myself.
Then I headed back to the clubhouse, where some of the delegates were hanging out with drinks in hand. The summit may have officially been winding down, but the conversations were still going. It had turned into a little post-summit networking cocktail, and I was happy to join them.
I sipped my mocktails and connected with people in a completely different setting from the conference rooms. There were no presentations to follow and no sessions to rush to. Just conversations, introductions, laughter, and people enjoying the final hours of an intense few days in Kigali.
Looking back, there was probably no better way to cap my AHTS experience. I had spent three days listening, exploring, writing, asking questions, meeting people, and discovering new ideas. On the final afternoon, I spent an hour practicing my golf swing before joining fellow delegates for mocktails and more conversations. It was an unexpected but fitting way to bring my AHTS experience to a close.