Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

As usual we have been very busy.  For the last 3 1/2 weeks we have medical students from the University of Zimbabwe with us.  They have just finishing their 3rd year of 5 years and so don't have a lot of clinical experience so far.  They do 2 clinical rotations in rural areas in their 5 years and so this was their first time "in the bush."  This group had someone we knew--Jonathan Fernades who came in June and July last year during his school holiday to do some clinical experience.  It was nice to have him back again and meet new students, futures doctors in our country.  They left on Wednesday and found out they all passed their end of year exams and now officially 4th year students.  Congrats to them! Last weekend we had an area youth conference from Friday through Sunday morning.  The church was very full so over 500 youth attended.  We ended the church service on Sunday with 10 baptisms in my pool. We have a new visitors that arrived on the 6th of October, Amy

Friends of Chidamoyo have financed a chicken laying project to bring in income for the hospital. We took arrival of 100 chickens on the 17th of September and by the beginning of October the eggs started coming.  We have built 2 chicken coops and all 100 chickens are doing very well. We started with 5 eggs one day and a week later we are up to 65 eggs a day.  We sell the eggs to staff and at our Tuck Shop (Snack Bar).  We have encouraged our patients to eat eggs each day to get better and go home sooner (is this a conflict of interest?)!  We seem to be selling out each day and we are so thankful for this support.  Thank you to Friends of Chidamoyo for this help.  We plan to order 150 more chickens soon. Chicken coup Laying chickens

On Sunday the 7th of September we were joined here at Chidamoyo by Nicki, Justin and baby Noah and Tom came to visit to follow up on the schools program that Major is helping with in our area.  They spent 2 days visiting the projects they have in our area and dedicating a new school, Devare.  We have 4 schools in our area that their organization, ZRSDP, have helped with and we are thankful for their support and help to improve schools in are area.  We were happy to meet Nicki and Justin's first child Noah who was 4 1/2 months old.  Congratulations to them! On Friday the 12th of September we welcomed Bart, Cathy and Jennifer Holdener when they landed from Sacramento, CA in Harare.  Cathy and I met in 1975 when we began our nursing program at University of California in San Francisco.  We both started work at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento when we graduated in 1977 and both bought houses in the same housing development in Sacramento.  All my years I have been in Zimbabwe I