Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

Last week we kept busy with the Outpatients department and also more C/Sections kept coming in! We did one at 0100 and by 0700 Monday and we were doing another two on Tuesday, 15 for the month, so far! On Thursday last week 9 of us left about 11 a.m. for an 9 hour drive to Dewure Mission for our Annual Church Conference.  All of our Churches of Christ throughout the country came together and close to 2000 people were there.  Abbey Carson from Seattle went with me and the rest of my visitors all stayed home.  Everything is in Shona but the singing and dancing of all those voices is something you can all look forward to hearing in heaven if you have not heard it here on earth.  We had lessons, sermons, lots of fellowship and Abby was very popular to have your picture taken with.  Major and Patience and their daughter Carolyn, Zebedee Togarepi and his wife and Abbey and myself all stayed together in a brand new house that rents out 5 rooms--so we enjoyed that ...

This week started with 2 holidays on Monday and Tuesday (Hero's and Defense Forces Day)  and so we got to sleep in a bit and work only until 1 or 2 p.m. and we did our 2nd C/Section of the week on Tuesday morning during rounds.  We had to stay a bit later to get discharges and dressings done.  Abbey and Tori have taken over for Caleb and Amanda doing dressings each day. Tuesday morning we said good-bye to Caleb and Amanda who headed for home after 3 months with us.  Their time went by so quickly and they were a big help to us in many ways.  They arrived home in Kansas on Wednesday minus their luggage which caught up with them a day later. By Thursday we had another C/Section (#3) just when I got dinner on the table and sat down to bite my first bite--I got called!  The other guests decided to eat dinner and miss the C/Section  which would have been my choice too, but off I went and got home about 8:15 p.m. to finish my dinner before bed!  I ...

This week is the busiest week we ever had maybe ever!  Monday we had a busy day and 11 of us continued in the hospital and at home. Tuesday morning Caleb and Amanda led the nurses in-service on wound care--something they have been doing a lot since they have been here.  This was their last week with us.  We were able to give out Fanny packs and Stethoscopes that had come in the container to all our staff who came.  We are so thankful for all these gifts. On Tuesday we were joined for a few hours at lunch by the Director of UNAIDS in Zimbabwe, Michael Bartos and his wife Mary.  We had a good talk about our AIDS program and they toured our new Waiting Mothers Shelter and we presented the need for more beds as the ones we have were provided by UNFP.  He is passing our need on to the right people at UN.  They also gave us a generous donation to our hospital.  They joined the 11 of us for lunch--so that day we had 13 for lunch. Cheri Gail and A...