Getting ready for Christmas!

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We said good-bye to Amy Heather, our nurse from New Zealand on the 25th of November.  After 2 months with us she was part of our Chidamoyo family and hard to see her go.  We wish her well as she makes decisions to serve the Lord in third world missions.

We met for lunch with Dave and Becky Altman from Indiana, in Harare, that have been teaching at Zimbabwe Christian College for the last 4 months.  We had a great lunch and then they did me the favor of taking Amy to the airport so I could get on the road to Chidamoyo earlier!  I prayed all the way home not to get a flat tyre since I was by myself and when I got to the township I prayed a thank you for that request!  Boom 1 minute later--a flat tyre!  God does have a sense of humor!  I called Major and he came with the guys to fix the tyre and he drove me home!  They were a bit delayed as Major saw another snake on his way to get the car at my house!  That is the 6th cobra we have killed at my house in November!  Too many for me!
I got home in time for the doctor to leave for a 3 day meeting and so I did his work and mine for the next 4 days!  That was very exhausting running back and forth between his exam room and my office!  God was good and we made it through with no big problems!
On Saturday the 29th I started my Christmas decorating--it takes about 2 days!  I had to get it done that day as we have no time after that with our busy schedule!  Carolyn Mereki came over to bake some Christmas cookies for me while I decorated.
Then on early Sunday morning one of our Nurse Aides, Antonio Mashunje's, son died of diabetic complications.  He just turned 32 and I had been following him for 15+ years as a diabetic.  It was so sad for all of us.  We spent the day getting them ready to go home to their village for burial.
We ran to Batanai to make some building decisions.  That running means 1 hour each way on a bad road!  Got to see my rural home which is almost finished.  We plan to spend the 4 days of Christmas (25th-28th) there.  We will leave after church on the morning of the 25th and have all the Mereki family there--we counted 30+--that we will cook for!  We will have an overnight church meeting on the 27th that will start with dinner and go all night until morning church, to do a house dedication!  I am very pleased with the house and it is up on a hill and the wind blows through and keeps it quite cool.
Monday we worked and then left at 12 to go to the funeral of the young man who died of diabetes, Tafadzwa.  It had poured all night long on Sunday--our first real rain of the season--65 mls!  So the ride which should have taken 40 minutes--took 1 hour including getting stuck in a river bed.  I left Major and another of our nurses to get it out and the ladies and I walked on to the village (about 2 kms).  It was very dark and cloudy like it might rain, but we finished the burial without rain, ate and quickly drove home to finish up our work at the hospital.  I finally got home after 7 p.m.
Tuesday Major and I flew to South Africa to have a few days Christmas shopping and pick up his son Michael from University.  He just finished his first semester and did very well.  We started feeding him as he has been living on Top Ramen noodles for several months since he doesn't like to cook much!  He is eating up!
We enjoyed our first day in the land of plenty hitting 3 malls, Nelson Mandela Square and not even having time to eat lunch!  We walked a lot which was great exercise for us!   Came back to the hotel exhausted at 7 p.m. with take out to eat and fall into bed!
We have a few more malls to hit and then fly home on Sunday afternoon and we have a visitor from the US arriving 3 hours after us!  Life is busy, as usual!


 Kathy and Amy


Dave and Becky Altman with Amy


Carolyn baking Christmas cookies

The tree is up and decorated!

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The stockings are hung

Batanai Rural house is almost done

Kitchen from the house

2 bedroomed house with a patio in between all under one roof

Getting stuck in the mud on way to funeral

Michael and Major at Nelson Mandela Square

Major and Kathy with Nelson Mandela


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