Merry Christmas 2015

-
MERRY
CHRISTMAS!

Thank you for your support this year.  As we gather to celebrate with our friends and family the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ, may you have fun, laughs and a great time.  No stress just JOY!


It hardly seems like Christmas here with 90+ degree weather and fans blowing to make us survive!  Tuesday this week, Carolyn and Nancy (Major’s daughter and niece) came to make Christmas cookies for our present opening on Christmas Eve.


The presents are wrapped and stocking filled--except for the chocolate which has to be in the fridge here because of the heat!


Our Lake Union Crew lost one member Wednesday (returning to Seattle)  and 5 more are joining us the same day.  They have been hard at work on the roof and trusses this week.  A crane came on Monday to help lift up the heavy metal trusses.  They have really made progress and are working so hard in this heat!!  I think they pray hard for cloudy skies each day but so far it has been very hot this week and no rain since Sunday.  


We had a staff party yesterday, Christmas Eve  at 1 p.m. with a grocery bag of flour, sugar, soap, oil, rice, and a T-shirt in it for all 107 staff members.  We hope this will start their Christmas out with good wishes as pay day is after Christmas this year and hard for our staff!


Christmas Eve we had a Candlelight sing and Bible reading of the Nativity at the hospital and then we went home to open gifts--Major’s family and myself.   Our Lake Union Crew group (15 people)  joined us this year for Christmas cookies, tea and coffee and opening presents.  They brought some “White Elephant” gifts to give to each other!  We had a great time!  


This morning (Christmas) we had church at the hospital at 9 a.m. and then tea and bread for all who come.  Then at 1:30 p.m. I  cooked lunch for 25 people--Ham and Chicken and all the trimmings! Off course first thing this morning my hot water pipe under the sink broke and all morning they have been trying to fix it--so no water in my kitchen while I cooked the big meal!  


However you celebrate--Chidamoyo wishes you peace, health and happiness in 2016 and may Santa bring you all you wished for!

Carolyn and Nancy making cookies


Seattle work team putting on the roof of the Waiting Mothers Shelter




 New dining room used for staff Christmas party

 Kathy, Major and Dr. Isala enjoying the lunch

 Staff enjoying the lunch

Cooks who made the staff lunch

 Major leading the Christmas party for staff

Candlelight service Christmas Eve


 Nyamutora family singing at Church service

Lake Union Crew joined us for Christmas Church


Texan preaching and Gil interpreting--Christmas church

Major, daughter Carolyn and niece Nancy singing for Christmas service





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unpacking cintainer, interviewing a new doctor

-
Image
It has been busy this week unpacking the container that arrived recently.  We have been unloading it a truck load at a time and bringing it up to the hospital to unload.  Carolyn Mereki has been helping to unload and sort and then she delivers it to the different departments. We are really happy with a lot of good supplies that we are unpacking to use at the hospital. We are putting the barrels and boxes in the hallway outside my office and opening them when we have time.  It is always fun to see what we get! On Friday this week we traveled to Kadoma (1 hour south of Harare), about 4 1/2 hour drive for us.  We met up with Mashoko administration to interview 6 people for jobs at Chidamoyo and Mashoko as doctors.  We have tentatively made decisions, but have another 2 people to interview--so please pray with us that we choose the right doctor. The doctor strike continues since 1 March.  No settlement and government hospitals only doing emergencies so we can't really refer o
Read more
-
Image
 I stopped chemo in mid-February and the oncologist tried a period of Immunotherapy by itself to see if it would work.  In March I started to produce a lot of abdominal fluid (ascities) and had to go to the hospital every 2 weeks and then every week to be tapped to remove the fluid.  They got off up to 8.8 liters a time which gave me a few days relief before it would come back.  It made it hard to breathe without laying on my sides and I couldn't really eat without pain. So, I was in bed a lot of the time. They decided I needed to start Chemo again with the Immunotherapy.  My Oncologist said it was not time to give up yet!  He said the chemo helped before to shrink the tumor a bit so they felt if I could shrink it again I wouldn't have to go for tapping.  I was all for that. He did remind me there is no cure only remission and that I have months not years to live but he felt there were other drugs to try if these don't work.  I am usually not in pain so I am so thankful for
Read more

Happy Boxing Day

-
Image
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!
Read more