Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

I was asked to come yesterday for a priest dedication at Chitiki, about a 30 minute drive from us. A young man that grew up in that area was dedicated and took his vows and this was the celebration at his mom's house. We got there at 10 a.m. and we were the special guests. We had tea with the new priest and 3 others who had come to celebrate. Then there was a 4 hour church service. Lots of singing, dancing and talking! Then we had to eat before we could rush off. We ate sadza with a rubber chicken! I took Major's 13 y/o daughter Carolyn who started laughing when she tried to eat the chicken and she couldn't tear a piece off with her mouth because it was so tough. It all sent us into giggles which we had to hide! Finally we left at 4:30 p.m. and back to Chidamoyo in time for night church. I was kept awake on and off all night with a lady not progressing well in labor and finally at 7 a.m. we did a C/Section, not an easy start to a Monday morning! lori is off to Hara...

Well this has been one of those weeks. Nothing went as planned but we survived. Since we have a visitor here we can blame them for everything—so Liz it is your fault! We started the week with 2 holidays—Hero’s Day on Monday and Tuesday. This is to remember the people who fought in the war for Independence and died. We keep our out-patient department closed during the holiday and so only have to make rounds on in-patients, but there are always people who show up because they don’t know it is a holiday! The doctors were gone for 6 days and so I was the one holding down the fort. The in-patient rounds were made, 2 ladies who had high blood pressure and were pregnant were started on induction, several discharges were made and we actually were home before 1 p.m. each day and not called back to work. We had time to work on projects at home and relax. Then Wednesday came and the doctor did not make it back because of car troubles—so I had to do in-patient rounds, do some procedures i...