Lots of work to keep us busy!

-

We have had a busy start to the new year as the Lake Union Crew continues on our Waiting Mothers Shelter.  Every Wednesday team members leave and new ones come.  We have met many people and they have all been a wonderful help to our project.  They are finishing the project on the 27th of January and they are ahead of schedule--so that is exciting.  Many people have remarked how beautiful it is!

Nicki Nichols from the group came 2 weeks early to work with us in the hospital.  She is an RN and Massage Therapist and she has been teaching the staff massage and we have been practicing on each other--they liked that!  She is now spending her last week with the group and she and 2 other ladies have been cleaning and sorting a storeroom.  This is a big help to us and we always need to be more organized.  Last week another group cleaned a hallway out!

Last week one of the builders that came was Dr. Julie Heyn.  She is a cardiologist in Seattle and she was a big help to our doctors and patients.  She would help us in the morning and then go dig trenches after that!  We so appreciated her work.

Of course our Seattle team was celebrating the Seahawks victory on early Monday morning our time.  They brought out their 12th man flag to hang on their project!

We have really had 2 weeks of hot and dry weather to start the year.  What crops were planted were drying up and wilting!  It was great joy that last Sunday evening it started to rain and we have had some good rains since then for a week--it has cooled us down and we appreciate that!  We lost power for a couple of days due to the storms--but got it back.  It was cloudy and cool and rained a lot to day so we are thankful!

One of the Lake Crew members, Ellen is a doula in the US and she has been working with our waiting mothers.  She had friends who donated for her to give cotton wool and soap and other gifts for the waiting mothers, so she handed them out on Friday to over 40 waiting moms!  They were so excited!

On Friday we were happy to announce that Dr. Nura Isala, our Medical Superintendent, paid labola (bride price) for one of our nurses, Loraine Mutimusakwa--we had a fun time congratulating them at devotions.

Last night our surgery team from Harare arrived.  Mr. Chihaka and Dr. Kajese came to do 3 hysterectomies and 3 hernia and another surgery for us.  We are so thankful for this volunteer time they put in for us.  Mrs. Kajese was able to join us and they brought their 4 month old daughter Alexis with them.  Major's daughter and niece babysat her today so she could help be a scrub nurse.  They left at 4 pm and I went to nap for a couple of hours!

Seattle fans from Lake Union Crew


Lake Union crew and local volunteers 4th week

Nikki leading massage class


Dr. Munodawafa and Dr. Julie working on a cardiac patient


Lake Union Crew putting on the siding



 Cutting the siding

Making shelves for our storeroom

 Cleaning the storerooms



 Ellen handing out the goodies to the waiting mothers

Surgeons here for work

 The new Mrs. Isala


No and Shield Kajese with daughter Alexis

Comments

  1. http://superiorpapers.orgFebruary 8, 2017 at 6:05 AM

    Hi its really new start for new year and It is a very important moment of life when you give your hand in the hand of other person and believe that he will never leave your hand at any cost. appreciated.

    ReplyDelete

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