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Cyclones, hot weather, new borehole

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It has been a busy two weeks at the hospital.It has also been the hottest March I have ever had in Zimbabwe in my 38 years of living here.We had 1 ml of rain in the whole month.Everyday it has been 100+ degree heat and down to low 80’s at night.It hasn’t given us much energy to do much but work and sit by the fan!
In mid-March there was a huge cyclone that came in through Mozambique and hit our Eastern border.Many people lost their homes and all they had, including over 200 dead.It was quite a tragedy for our country.Many areas got rain from the cyclone-we got a bit of clouds for two days, but not a drop of rain!
Many people dropped us emails to see how we did through the cyclone.We were fine and not even a drop of rain. Thanks for all of you who were concerned for us.
Every Friday morning after devotions we have a continue education for a medical staff.The nurses take turns and our doctors and visiting staff to present clinical cases.We always have fun and have a great learning time.  E…
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Drought continues, trip to Zambia, New Mattresses, Elliot's birthday, Research team here

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It has been a busy month with visitors, lots of activities and no rain!We are in the midst of a drought that is affecting most of southern Africa.So on top of all the problems with the economy and shortage of money, inflation and loss of value of the local currency, we are now facing drought and lack of food and it is more than another year until a harvest!Life is about to get a lot harder for all in Zimbabwe.It was in the newspaper this week that most suburbs will only get water for 2 days a week starting now to ration the water.No rain expected until November or later the end of this year—so that’s a long time to ration.My house is Harare has a borehole but the water table will go down a lot!
On the 21st of February we went to a clinic 2 hours from here to add more children into our research study.I took my 3 visitors and our research assistant and we drew the 43 kids.Most are not doing so well so we hope to get them on better drugs so they can do better.We had a fun time going out a…
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Rain, beautiful rain!

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Well things have quieted down a bit in the country.Still no buses moving in our area and a few Kombis.This has kept our patient load down a lot, bringing in only the most serious patients.Many are coming in Scotch Carts or paying someone with a private car to bring them.
This last week we have had lots of rain in our area which has been great.Some of the maize might be saved in our area.We have enjoyed rain every day since last weekend and cloudy skies which helps keep the land wetter.Keep praying for rain!The southern part of the country will have drought this year.With the bad economic times in the country this means many will be without food.
This week I had 3 young college graduates join me here.Claire, is from Illinois and has been accepted into a Physician’s Assistant program in Boston that starts this fall.She was here in Jan-Feb 2018 and decided to come and join us again before she starts school.  She is here for 5 weeks.
Elliot and Serva are recent graduates of University of Was…
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Tense times in Zimbabwe

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Sorry it has been a month since I have written anything.   A month is almost gone from 2019! Life has been busy and interesting. We celebrated New Years Eve at Batanai by having a band come and play music and hold a church service until midnight!  We didn't tell anyone but people were on the road waiting for something to happen!  We started the music and over 200 people came!  Then we showed movies and sang and danced the whole night to welcome in 2019!  At 6 a.m. we served tea and bread (there had been a shortage of bread over Christmas so we had been saving to have enough for NY Day!).  People had a great time and especially lots of kids came. We gave out sweets to all the kids the next morning!  We rested the whole day and then a heavy rain came as we headed for home and work the next day! On the weekend of January 11-13, Major and his wife and son Michael and I travelled to Juliasdale (3 hours East of Harare) into the mountains to attend the Memorial Service for my friend, Glady…
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Christmas Celebrations 2018

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Christmas 2018 has come and gone and soon 2018 will be gone.We had a great Christmas time with many activities and we look forward to a bigger and better 2019!
On Christmas Eve we closed the Outpatient Department at 1 p.m. and had our annual Christmas lunch for our staff.It had been up in the air if we were having a lunch this year because of the food shortages we have been suffering from since October.Also, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get out of the hospital and home in time.It all worked out and we had a wonderful lunch with Major as the MC and lots of jokes and dancing!
We always give a bag of groceries each year for our staff and this year we were finally able to find enough groceries for 100 people to put in the bags.For awhile we were thinking they might be an empty bag only.We were able to get 2.5 kg of flour, 2 kg of sugar, 2 kg of rice, 1 liter of oil and 1 big bar of soap.We were able to get the funds to buy the goods and Major found the groceries, running around Harare…
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