Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

We had a good week before the end of the year although the hospital was busy after Monday was a holiday here. We did get electricity for less than 24 hours from Christmas Eve night at 8 p.m. until Christmas Day at 6:15 p.m. (only 1 hour off in the morning) and then a big storm hit and we were off again! the whole week we struggled with no electricity for X-rays and computer work, etc. NY Eve we broke off work at 2 p.m. and got a few hours to relax (take down Christmas decorations) at home before the start of our NY Eve celebrations at 7:30 p.m. We had a packed church with some of our local churches coming and the community. We sang, dance, had a video, prayed the NY in and then at midnight went outside the church for fireworks. We bought some Chinese ones at the flea market in Harare and we were unsure what they would do but they were fun--one rocket went into the sky and then head back into the crowd! They scattered and asked for more! After the fireworks we went back into the church

Our Christmas dinner theme was Hawaiian Retro Christmas--so we had dress 1950's Hawaii. Michael, Major's son decided to add some tummy to his costume to look like his Dad! Enjoy these pictures!

We had a great Christmas and hope you did too. I am sharing some of the highlights through pictures I am posting. We started the week by finding out that we made the NY times front page on Sunday the 19th of December. Wow--this was a surprise to be on the front page. Then we were reprinted in other newspapers and on the front page of my hometown newspaper on Monday the 20th. So if you haven't read it or seen the video (you must be in cave) here are the websites: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2010%2F12%2F19%2Fworld%2Fafrica%2Fzimbabwe.html&h=ofb0b http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/2001220/news/12201041 Thank you for all the kind words and some donations that have rolled in. We are in desperate need for a new generator and we think we might have the money soon! This week we spent 6 days without electricity as we had big storms last weekend which burnt up a power pole. ZESA had no pole to replace it with and so it took several days to find one. Wha

Well it is December and even though there is no snow on the ground—there are crops growing in the field, rain falling and days up to 90 degrees—sounds like Christmas for me! Major is back but he has spent the last 2 weeks in school in Harare to upgrade his ministry degree. So even though he is in the country, we still communicate by email and look anxiously to his return this weekend. Of course during the past 2 weeks the peanut butter machine needs new blades, the boreholes have broken 3 times and need new belts, rubbers and a pump, and the grinding mill needs a new circuit breaker, the chickens have some kind of skin disease and we need to pick a pig to kill for Christmas. Wow I can’t wait for Major to get back and take over those issues! Somehow I missed those classes in Nursing school on how to handle these hospital crisis issues! Now it must be my turn for holiday! Stacy, our visitor from TN left for Harare yesterday to spend a few days before she heads for Joburg on Monday