No ZESA, No water--Same Old Story in Zimbabwe!

New roof being nailed on
The roof going on

Nailing the new roof on to the Peds extension

Dr. Kajese, Dr. Kellert and Dr. Miller at work

Bob and men putting up the roof tresses

Dr. Seth Miller at work

Today I woke up and had a shower! Wow that was exciting. For the last month we have been struggling
with water here. Whenever we don’t have
power (a lot of the time in this rainy season) we can’t pump water with the
electric pump in Borehole #2. The diesel
pump has been giving us a lot of problems and finally gave up the ghost. Then we fixed up an old small generator
engine to use but it kept dying after 1-2 hours—so without electricity we
haven’t been able to pump enough water to keep up with the usage.
Everyday we send the lorry with barrels to get water from
the dam for mopping the floors at the hospital, keeping the toilets
washed. Then we send another vehicle to
the hand pump borehole to pump drinking water for the patients, cooking for the
kitchen and hand washing water.
Scrubbing for surgery someone is pouring water from a big pitcher over
your hands as you scrub!
One day I decided I really needed to do laundry. I found a barrel and put it under the rain
sprout off my roof at home. I prayed for
rain and we filled the barrel. Then I
emptied buckets of water into the washer and we got power that night I was able
to wash a load of laundry. Only in the
morning did I realize where I put the soap in the washer is where the water
comes in from outside and so when I put water in direct to the tub—the soap
didn’t get in! So had to wash it
again-ha!
I am getting expert at filling up a bucket and getting a
bath in my shower and getting my hair washed each morning. Running out to the drinking water for cooking
and washing hands and to the rain water for the bath and laundry!
We are luckily getting a lot of rain this week. We got 193 mms since last Sunday. That is a lot of rain and keeps my barrel for
the house full!
This week our electricity went off early Monday
morning! Came back on Tuesday about noon
for 3 hours and the next storm hit and knocked it out and nothing since! So we have been turning our generator on for
1-2 hours a day to get some X-rays done and Lab work. Yesterday we had 2 major theater cases and we
were all happy as the generator had to be on 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours
in the evening so we could get our batteries and computers charged! Wow, we felt good!
Then to get up this morning and have a real shower out of
the shower head, even if it was cold (no electricity to make it warm) that was
so great! I was singing in the shower
and dancing (mainly jumping from the cold water hitting me). We are happy for small things in life here!
We were happy this week when the lumber and tin for the roof
for our new Pediatric extension arrived.
Took 3 weeks from when we ordered it and about 5 days of the suppliers
saying it is coming today for sure, until it finally arrived! Builder Bob is so happy and they are moving
fast to get the roof on in between the rain we are having!

We are happy that on the 5th of February Dr. Seth Miller from New Mexico joined us. He just finished his medical school in Brisbane, Australia and is starting residency in the US in July. So he is here helping us for the next 4 months.
Of course this week there has been no phone with no
electricity! So we have been having to
Skype calls to people here and there. Major
was in Harare from Tuesday taking Kirsty to her plane—she arrived back in London
safe and sound this week to 10 degree
weather-ha! Major returned on Thursday
with Cheryl from Chinhoyi and his kids from school since it is exit weekend. They are excited to be home.
Last night had Major and family and my 3 guests and me for a
pizza dinner and they ate 4 big ones up before our prayer time.
We keep hoping that the electricity may come back
anytime. This afternoon I am working off
my small generator and catching up with email and have a fan blowing on
me! Wow this is heaven!