Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

This past week we had 2 days of  rain--17 mls and 5 mls-- so we hope this is the start of our rainy season.  Of course as soon as the wind picked up, our electricity which had been out for 10 days and came back for 5 days--died again!  It has been 4 days without and we figure they will get it fixed in time for the next storm to knock it out!  Such is life here! We have really had a hot October.  Most days are up to 110+ and only down to low 80's at night, so without a fan when we have no electricity it is hard to sleep well.  I spent one night on the cement floor because it was cooler. Last week we had visitors arrive on Thursday from Bulawayo to hold a meeting for 20 local teachers.  They were from Family Impact, a Christian group that teaches teachers how to promote the family and good self image in their teaching.  They did many games and exercises with the teachers to teach them new ways to use in their classrooms.  It was very fun a...

On October 12 th our visitors, Sharon, Shanena, Wendy and Jill, nurses from Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California arrived in Harare.   Dr. Kellert and I used to work at this hospital and so we were happy to welcome our friends.   Dr. Kellert went in to meet them and they spent the night at the flat in Harare and arrived here on Sunday afternoon in time for dinner.   Of course our electricity went out on the Saturday night they arrived and we never saw it again until the 22 nd of October (10 days later!). All of the nurses are Maternity and ICN nurses in my home town and we have been planning for them to come and visit for a long time.   We put them to work in delivering babies, counting pills, getting pills ready for our ART clinic, helping with immunizations and Antenatal Clinics.   They are having a great time and were very tolerable without electricity and in our heat of summer.   All week it was 110+ degrees! They also brought suitc...

Wow this has been a busy last half of September!   On September 15 th I left Chidamoyo at 6 a.m. to get to Harare in time to visit Marcia Kay Thomson, one of our missionaries from Masvingo who had been in the hospital for cancer surgery and had some complications.   I went to see what was going on with her and was able to get her up and walking when I visited.   Spent the next 2 days visiting her twice a day to get her up and going.   While there, friend Zebedee Togarepi came for some minor surgery and ended up 2 days in another hospital in Harare—so I ran between hospitals to visit both of them.   Both were doing much better when I had to leave Harare. On Monday evening I met up with Dr. Ivirn Zimudzi, our doctor here from 2008-2011.   He is now a doctor in Namibia and was home visiting family for a few days.   It was great to see him and hear about his work. On Tuesday the 17 th , Gladys Jongling and I left for Bulawayo and spent the night ...