Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

Dr. Palleschi and team finished up their last week with lots of work to see patients and help with our circumcision program and more surgery.  They also helped with Well Baby clinics and we had a great time with them. We left for Harare early on Friday morning the 23rd and that afternoon met with US embassy staff which included the embassy doctor, head of CDC and USAID and the American Ambassador, Harry Thomas.  It was an interesting meeting and we were able to talk about our work and how it does intertwine with work of CDC and USAID.   That day was also one of the groups birthday--Carlo Palleschi, and so we spent lunch and dinner celebrating his birthday in Zimbabwe.  We were happy that Dr. and Mrs. Kajese joined us for dinner.  Dr. Kajese was our doctor here when Dr. Palleschi first came to help us 5 years ago. Saturday the 24th we said good bye to the Palleschi team as they flew off home to busy schedules in Santa Rosa.  I took off for Chidamoyo ...

On Sunday the 4th of June we were joined by Dr. Darik and Mrs. Jo Taniguchi from Seattle, WA,  Darik is a GI doctor and Jo is a Family Nurse Practitioner that works in a GI office.  This was their 3rd trip here.  We are always happy to welcome them here (even if they are Seattle Seahawk fans!) and we always have lots of good fun and laughter when they are here.  They helped me with some paperwork and typing and saw patients too!  They also went out to help on a Well Baby Clinic. On Friday the 9th of June our surgery team led by surgeon Mr. Kundaona from Harare  and Dr. Shield Kajese and wife No came out to do surgeries for us.  After dinner at 8 pm they went to work and did 2 rooms at once and were done by 2 a.m. and then slept before having breakfast.  Then they came up to the hospital to go through some of the supplies we get in our container that are too advance for us to use here.  We called it the "doctor's garage sale."  T...

Our workshop near Harare that Major and I went to went well on 22-23 May.  We met with 10 other mission hospitals that are involved in AIDS work and shared our ideas and challenges in AIDS work at our hospitals.  We received an award for Success Stories in Operational Research for our 3 Research projects we are involved in to better lives of people on ART treatment. Major returned home on the 26th with a new to him family car.  He bought Dr. Megan's car when they left for the US--so we celebrated when he brought it home. Work has been very busy at the hospital and with only 1 doctor for the month of May it has been especially busy.  I have been seeing Out-patients everyday while Dr. Munodawafa was busy with in-patients and surgeries. On May 25th we had a holiday--Africa Day--and so got to work just in the morning and then enjoy some relaxing time in the afternoon.  Have been enjoying "The Crown" from Netflix. Since it was a holiday weekend our Nur...