Two fast weeks in America

-

The memorial service for Jo Anne Minnis was held on Saturday the 27th of February.  It was very nice with pictures and videos and over 200 people came from all over to celebrate her life.  They had a wonderful reception with fresh Mexican food cooked there, a dessert bar by her granddaughter and a great time to catch up with many of the family.

We were happy to see Chidamoyo alumni Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick from Washington, D.C. and Chidamoyo board members and alumni, Patty and Gary LeDonne from Sebastopol, CA.

There was no graveside service, but we took some of the beautiful flowers from the service out to put on their grave after the reception.

We left the next day to travel 2 1/2 hours North to the small city of Solvang, CA.  This city is all built like a small Danish town.  We met up with my brother and sister-in-law Dennis and Kathy for 3 days at their timeshare they have there.  Kathy and Major visited many bakeries to try out all the goodies.  We spent a day at Costco and outlets shopping and got to have a fabulous buffet at a casino nearby.  It was great to see some of the family in our short stay here.

We then came back for 3 days with the Minnis's daughter Laura and her family.  We did more shopping (what else!)  We enjoyed a day with Bill, Reba, and Julie Harrison who drove over from San Bernardino to see us.  We served together in 1972-1973 at Chidamoyo.  Then they moved to Harare, when Chidamoyo closed in 1978 (then Salisbury) until 1981 and I stayed with them for almost 3 months when I came back in 1981 before I was able to move to Chidamoyo.  Bill was our pilot at the mission and Reba did many sewing and Bible Study groups for the women.  They are now retired and travel a lot in their camper.

Had dinner with more Minnis  relatives, lunch with the best friend of Jo Anne (Aunty Lil) and spent an evening at Disneyland.  We squeezed a lot in and now we are ready to go.

We leave at 3:30 p.m. to day (March 6th) to head back to Zimbabwe.  We have a 16 hears flight from LA to Dubai and then an overnight there and then on to another 10 hour flight to Harare!  We get home at 17:10 p.m. on Tuesday and plan to go straight home to Chidamoyo  (5 hours away) and back to work Wednesday!  Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts.  It has been a fast but great unexpected trip home!

 Memorial service for Ma--African flowers on left from Chidamoyo Hospital

 Major and Kathy with Dr. Lisa

 With Patty and Gary LeDonne

Major at gravesite

 Major and Kathy on their tour of bakeries in Solvang

Different sites of Solvang



Kathy and Dennis with Major


 Bill and Reba and Julie Harrison with Kathy

Major being Forrest Gump at Bubba's




Lil with Kathy and Major and Laurenrachel in Long Beach

 Disneyland


 Major, LR and Kathy at Long Beach pier

Disneyland



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Covid Lockdown--Zimbabwe style, Two new vehicles and Happy Birthday Major

-
Image
Not much to write about during these days of stay at home.   No traveling, no direct patient care, and best of all no suspected cases of Cornavirus here! I usually come to the hospital Monday-Friday 0700-1200  to do office work and Internet and go home after tea. Like many of you I have been spending a lot of time sorting, cleaning closets and drawers and getting rid of things I do not use!   Major loves to hoard so I dump it all on him!   I have almost finished all my closets and drawers and feel better about no clutter!  Major says if this stay at home order lasts for too long I might not have anything left in my house! We continue to see patients at the hospital.   We let 3 in at a time through our fence and we have our OPD outside with our staff in PPE. There are now officially 46 cases positive cases in Zimbabwe, 4 deaths, 18 recovered and 24 active cases out of 28,019 tested. (www.worldometers.info) There have been 5 cases and 1 death in our Province and none
Read more

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2020

-
Image
  For my birthday, this year I went with Major and Patience back to Rhino Camp for 3 nights of enjoying animals.   Major and Patience tried to fish but did not get much luck after promising bream to eat for my birthday.  Major caught a large Vundu but it is on the endangered list so he had to throw it back!  He was so disappointed. We enjoyed our time away and it was relaxing and incredibly beautiful.   They cooked me fish for one  dinner since Major did not catch one and a birthday cake!   Nice way to celebrate #66! We came back on Monday evening and by Thursday we were on our way to Harare as my stomach pain was getting no better.   I was referred to a new GI doctor who felt I was probably resistant to the antibiotics for H. Pyloria I was taking.   He changed drugs and I will take them for 2 weeks and see him after 4 weeks.   If I get worse, I may need another endoscopy to see if my ulcer is better and more biopsies.   So far not much change in 10 days.   We are praying for the b
Read more

ENJOYING HONDE VALLEY

-
Image
On the 25th of August I went back to see the surgeon about my ulcers.  After 9 weeks of treatment for ulcers I wasn't getting any better and was tired of being sick!  He did a colonoscopy and another gastroscopy.  More biopsies taken and no malignancies but this time it showed massive amounts of h. Pyloria, and infection in my stomach common in developing countries, and causes ulcers, so I was on the wrong treatment for 9 weeks. I started on a 14 day treatment program of antibiotics on the 28th of August and it seems a bit better.  Hopefully this will put an end to the ulcers and erosion in my stomach.  I have good and bad days but am praying this will end it! On the 2nd of September, Patience and Major and I took off for a short vacation to celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary. We spent the night of the 2nd in Harare and were able to have dinner with Dr. Shield and Mrs. No Kajese and their daughters Zoey and Alexis.  We had a great visit and kept our social distancing!  We bro
Read more