Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

On Friday the 22nd of July we welcomed three medical students from Norwich, UK; Xavier, Nic and David.  Xavier came last year for a few days with another student and liked it so much he came back with more friends.  They are final year students and so they are enjoying all the pathology and work they are doing here.  They are so excited to do anything and so I am using them to do anything!  They have been busy drawing blood for our research project and helping the doctor in surgery and with OPD.  They have assisted in 2 C/Sections.  They seem to be having a great time. On Sunday evening the 24th we were joined by Larry and Cheri Gail--our dearest friends and founders of "Friends of Chidamoyo"(like us on Facebook! ) They brought with them Charlie and Lee Ann winners of our "Trip to Chidamoyo" at the auction last year in September.   They are writing each day and posting on Facebook about their trip so follow it there.   They are here for 2 week...

As soon as Major and the guests got back from Rhino Camp and the long dirt road they took to get home, we turned around and they repacked and off we went to Harare, 4 of us (Michael Miller, Abbey, Major and I) were driven in by Michael Mereki. We got to Harare at 10 p.m. and left at 7:15 a.m. the next day for the airport to fly off to Vic Falls.  Michael Mereki stayed in Harare to run errands for us.  We arrived in Vic Falls at 10:30 a.m. and off to the Bed and Breakfast to check in.  We walked the Falls and went on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River and then to dinner at the Boma where you can eat a bit of warthog, impala, croc tail, etc. and eat a Mopane Worm and get a certificate.  Michael and Major ate--we watched! The next day Abbey and Michael were off to raft the Zambezi and Major and I went to town and walked around.  We were shocked to be able to use an ATM and get US$ out--something we haven't been able to do for months in Harare and Chinhoyi. ...

On Sunday last week we had a "Big Sunday."  This is when 6 churches meet together to have one church service and fellowship with each other.  The normal 3 hour service went to 4 hours as everyone had to do special music and sing!  It was a lot of fun and a great time for all.  They killed some goats for the visitors to eat with sadza. Monday was the 4th of July and even though Mondays are always busy at work I managed to run home in time to BBQ hot dogs and hamburgers to go with our traditional American food of potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, deviled eggs, carrot sticks, potato chips, and all the condiments.  We had 14 people (5 Americans by birth)  to share the meal and it was great fun!  Of course it was very cold when we ate outside and we ended up around the fire we cooked on!  July is our coldest month and gets down to mid 50's at night! We spent the week unpacking 2 containers and my visitors Caleb, Amanda, Michael and Abbey kept ...

On Sunday last week we were happy to see our container arrive on our way to church.  By the time we got of church they had pulled a 20 foot container off the truck. This container came from Sebastopol and had been sent in February.  We had been looking forward to seeing it!  Tuesday we opened it and pulled out a load of boxes and Amanda and Caleb and Michael spent the last few days unpacking and sorting things.  We still have a long way to go--but we are finding so many great things we really need!  Yeah!  How great it has been to pull out things we have been out of.  Caleb, Abbey, Amanda and Michael have been working on organizing our Duty room where the nurses desk is.  Everyone appreciates it and it is so organized and well labeled now--so it is easy to find things to us.  Now we can put things from the containers direct into the duty room to use. Major and Abbey went to Harare on Wednesday--expecting to be gone 1 day and ended up co...