Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

Lori, Major and I were happy to get away to Kariba this week for 4 days. Kariba is located NW of here about 3 hours and we rented a house right on the Lake. We enjoyed seeing the Lake so full that 3 of the gate on the dam wall are opened and have been opened for the last 2 months. We had hippos on our lawn during the day and night—brings a new meaning to “lawn mower!” We also enjoyed driving around and having elephants come out to see us in the road! Major was trying on Zambia’s for Lori who was looking to buy! We had a great time and really relaxed and got away from the work—what fun!

Hey Obama may not be very popular in the US—but he is still very popular in Africa. One of my young patients recently had his shirt on and when I asked to take his picture he said “bama!”

ZESA is the name of our electricity company—we say that it stands for “Zimbabwe Electricity Seldom Available” and it has proved true for the last 2 weeks. It was only coming on at anywhere from 8:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. and then off by 5 or 6 a.m. for the past 2 weeks. Even on Saturday and Sundays when we tend to have electricity for the whole day—it was off all day. Finally today it has been on since 10 p.m. last night and it just went off as I wrote this sentence (6 p.m.). I have 14 people coming for dinner so had to run outside turn on my propane tank and move all the dishes to the gas stove. Just got back and then as soon as I got everything changed to the gas stove in the back room, the guard came and said the doctor needs the generator for a vacuum extraction he is doing! So should I switch everything back when the generator comes on? We now have a new registered psychiatric condition here called “ZESA anxiety.” When the electricity comes on you never know for how long or when i