5 Days without ZESA!
Mr. Mereki 20 years and Mrs. Mereki 10 years getting their certificate from Dr. Kabanzi
Presenting certificates
Long Service Award Dinner
Dinner for Long Service Awards
Dr. Kellert sewing up a legTOP TEN THINGS YOU LEARN WHEN YOU HAVE NO ZESA* FOR 5 DAYS IN A ROW
(ZESA is the name of our electric supply company in Zimbabwe and stands for “Zimbabwe electricity Seldom Available!)
10. It is your fault that ZESA went out because you bought extra meat, had 2 pigs slaughtered, filled the freezers full for a staff party on Saturday this week.
9. Everyday you struggle to call the ZESA fault line on Skype( because there is no cell phone coverage when there is no electricity) with your battery back up with a small amount of time before it will die, to report that you still have no electricity. The answer you get everyday is “has this been reported?”
8. You learn quickly not to wear that headlight flash light that is so great because it leaves your hands free to do things. As the only light in the room it attracts all the bugs to bombard you in your face!
7. When you have Sunday night church you can dose off discreetly and no one notices (unless you snore) because only the person preaching has a light and the audience is in the dark.
6. When Major came from Harare on Wednesday night and he stopped at the ZESA office in Karoi to see if they had worked on our fault, he was meet by a ZESA employee holding a candle, because their electricity was out, and asking “did you report the fault?” (Yes you have noticed that is the “only” question they can ask)
5. You have a constant battle at night whether you should put your mosquito net down and then sleep with no air all night because the air doesn’t seem to get through those small holes in the net very well, or keep the net up and let the bugs dive bomb you all night and hope a mosquito doesn’t bite you and give you malaria, but at least you felt some breeze during the night!
4. You try and stay up past 7 p.m. with a few solar lights which immediately attract every bug within a 25 mile radius and so you constantly are picking bugs off your body, under your clothes, and hair, until you finally give up and turn off all the lights and go to bed early!
3. You look forward to that cold shower in the morning (no lights, not hot water) when you get up because you have been sweating all night!
2. You invite lots of people over for lunch and dinner because you want to use up all your meat that is melting in your freezer. Meat every meal—wow am I happy or what?
1. The whole audience breaks into a cheer when last night during the community movie (run by generator) when ZESA came on! Even those who don’t have electricity in their homes are cheering because they know the hospital needs electricity for X-rays and Lab tests! And you go to bed with the fan blowing on your face and all seems right with the world!
(ZESA is the name of our electric supply company in Zimbabwe and stands for “Zimbabwe electricity Seldom Available!)
10. It is your fault that ZESA went out because you bought extra meat, had 2 pigs slaughtered, filled the freezers full for a staff party on Saturday this week.
9. Everyday you struggle to call the ZESA fault line on Skype( because there is no cell phone coverage when there is no electricity) with your battery back up with a small amount of time before it will die, to report that you still have no electricity. The answer you get everyday is “has this been reported?”
8. You learn quickly not to wear that headlight flash light that is so great because it leaves your hands free to do things. As the only light in the room it attracts all the bugs to bombard you in your face!
7. When you have Sunday night church you can dose off discreetly and no one notices (unless you snore) because only the person preaching has a light and the audience is in the dark.
6. When Major came from Harare on Wednesday night and he stopped at the ZESA office in Karoi to see if they had worked on our fault, he was meet by a ZESA employee holding a candle, because their electricity was out, and asking “did you report the fault?” (Yes you have noticed that is the “only” question they can ask)
5. You have a constant battle at night whether you should put your mosquito net down and then sleep with no air all night because the air doesn’t seem to get through those small holes in the net very well, or keep the net up and let the bugs dive bomb you all night and hope a mosquito doesn’t bite you and give you malaria, but at least you felt some breeze during the night!
4. You try and stay up past 7 p.m. with a few solar lights which immediately attract every bug within a 25 mile radius and so you constantly are picking bugs off your body, under your clothes, and hair, until you finally give up and turn off all the lights and go to bed early!
3. You look forward to that cold shower in the morning (no lights, not hot water) when you get up because you have been sweating all night!
2. You invite lots of people over for lunch and dinner because you want to use up all your meat that is melting in your freezer. Meat every meal—wow am I happy or what?
1. The whole audience breaks into a cheer when last night during the community movie (run by generator) when ZESA came on! Even those who don’t have electricity in their homes are cheering because they know the hospital needs electricity for X-rays and Lab tests! And you go to bed with the fan blowing on your face and all seems right with the world!
We kept Dr. Kellert this week. I made it sew up a lacerated leg this week. i told her you are a surgeon you can sew a leg closed--it had been a few years since she had to do that!
Saturday I cooked dinner for 30 people as we had our Long Service Award dinner. We celebrated 13 people who have worked 5, 10 and 20 years at the hospital. I cooked 4 pork roasts, 22 pounds of beef, coleslaw, 22 pounds of mashed potatoes, 10 butternut squash and 2 cakes.
ZESA came back on Friday about 9:30 p.m. and stayed on until 7 a.m. Saturday--just in time for me to have the pork roasts cooking and the cakes in the oven. Quickly switched to the gas oven and hoped the cakes wouldn't fall in!
The electricity stayed off the whole day so we turned on the generator for the party. ZESA finally came back at 11:30 p.m.! This morning it was still on so I quickly went to work getting a load of wash out. Soon my back veranda was flooding. Called Major and we quickly found that a rat had eaten through a plastic hose in the washer. We temporarily fixed it with duct tape and now on load 3 of washing and have one more to go!
Only a few drops of rain this week! We are very dry and need rain so badly! Keep praying for rain!
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