Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

Stewart and Dez oainting in peds ward The framing for roof completed on nurses station Louise, Veronica and Gilly at work folding gauze Bob on his way out the door to airport Patrick and James Easen Gilly Withers holding baby in theater Well this past week was a busy week with people coming and going. People always ask me what a typical day/week is like for me at Chidamoyo. I always reply there is nothing typical and you just go with the flow. This week the flow was more like a flood! We started with 11 people for breakfast on Monday and thenMajor left with 3 visitors to Mukowe (2 hours away) to see one of the school programs that James sponsors with his organization ZRSDP (Zimbabwe Rural Schools Development Program). The rest of the group spent the day counting pills, doing statistics and the men painting the new windowsills in the new pediatric extension. Bob was finishing up the frame for the roof on the new Nurses’ station/trauma room. The school group wasgone all day until abo...

Lifting up the trusses Bob and his team working on the roof Stewart getting window panes ready to paint The UK ladies at work counting and bagging pills The phone shop Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick I was able to spend last Sunday afternoon with a long time friend Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick from Washington, DC who came in to be a comsultant for a University of Colorado and University of Zimbabwe program held last week. It was great to catch up on things. Another busy week and 6 more visitors joined us on the 19th from the UK. Mike and Gilly, Dez and Veronica and Lorraine and Stew all from the UK arrived to help us. Mike and Gilly run our UK Chidamoyo Trust who have helped us with many projects at the hospital. They were half partners on our new building project of the Pediatric extension and the Nurse Station/Trauma room. We quickly put the men to work painting and the ladies counting pills and doing some needed paperwork! They left Thursday early morning for 3 nights and 4 days at Rhino Camp in ...

Major touching the Rhino Bob and Rhino mom and baby Seth, Major, Kathy, Cheryl and Bob Bob and Major elephant watching Elephant greeting So how does it feel to be able to not only see a black Rhino but touch one? Black Rhinos are on the extremely endangered list with less than about 200 in the world left. They have been pouched for their horns used for aphrodisiacs and dagger hangers for some years. We went this Friday 9th of March through Monday the 12th to Rhino Camp and wonderful safari camp on the shores of Lake Kariba about 46 miles down the lake. It is on the edge of Mutusadona National Park and there are 14 known Rhinos in this park which is over 200 miles long and wide. What was our chance of seeing Rhino? We hoped for the best! Our second day out we woke up to hear the Rhino were near camp and after breakfast drove less than 500 feet and a mother and her baby were laying in the sand of the shore ta...

Bob and crew working in new Pediatric addition Breaking through from the old room into new addition Kathy, Beth and Joyce Frasure Dwain, Tammy, Marilyn, Bruce in back row and Jim, Kathy, Joyce and Beth in front Jim preaching on Sunday morning Our first X-ray patient with the new X-ray It is always fun to have visitors we know and recently this past weekend we had 2 doctors and their wives who have worked here. Dr. Jim Frasure and his wife Joyce, a nurse worked here from 1972-1978. They returned with 2 of their daughters, Kathy and Beth who had lived here as young children. Also Dr. Dwain Illman and his wife Marilyn worked here for 2 months in 1990. We also welcomed a nurse from Indiana, Tammy and a man who works for FAME, Bruce. FAME is an organization in Indiana that collects medical equipment and sends it to many people throughout the world. We received a container from them several years back. The group of 8 arrived in time for dinner on Friday evening. We had a wonderful reun...