Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

We have had a busy couple of weeks here.   The good news is that on Monday this week we were in Harare for Carolyn Mereki’s (Major’s daughter) interview at the US embassy for her student visa.   She was in and out in 10 minutes.   She called her dad to pick her up and all she could do was cry.   He said don’t worry, it’s ok and tried to comfort her thinking she had been turned down and finally she was able to get out—I got it!! Since then we have been on the move to get her a ticket, start packing, doing her physical, etc.   She leaves in 2 weeks on August 12.   She will be attending Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, KY.   She is majoring in Business Administration.   She has received a full scholarship for her tuition, but we must come up with room and board and books which is about $5400 a semester.   We put out a letter of appeal to help and many of our friends have answered and given generously!   We are working on sec...

On Sunday the 8 th of July we celebrated Carolyn Mereki’s 21 st birthday with her family and the Dr. Moyo and Dr. Mudzingwa’s families with dinner and cake after Sunday night church.   Carolyn was so happy to reach this milestone and we had a great time celebrating. On Tuesday the 10 th we left Chidamoyo at 0500 am to drive to Harare and catch a flight to Johannesburg and then Durban, South Africa.   Major, Patience, Carolyn and I travelled and met their son Michael in Durban, who had flown from Joberg just before us.   We were spending 6 days together on a family vacation.   We have a condo right across the street from the Indian Ocean and a quick freeway drive to Durban city and surrounding areas.   We have gone to see the Moses Mabhida Football stadium and took a car up to the top to see the sights of Durban city and the ocean.   The 2010 World Cup final was held in this stadium.   We also walked along the beach front, went to Marine ...

This week we had visitors from our Research group from Stanford and Harare and those working here at the hospital from Tuesday until Thursday.   We had a great visit and we seem to be making good progress in our research study.   We have added 347 kids so far and hope to increase each month. We are seeing that our kids are doing better in their viral loads, which means their ART medication is working!   We are excited that most of or outreach clinics have achieved 90%  immune suppressed on ART which is our target goal!   Yeah for us! Since we had a little bit of extra time this week in between seeing patients, I have had Carolyn Mereki helping me to unpack boxes from the container.   She sorts like things together and then I tell her which department to take the items too.   We are so thankful for all who help to collect supplies, sort supplies and pack the containers to come.   We really use the items and are in great need. ...