Back on Line!

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We went into withdrawal when our Internet service went off on the 8th of May through the 18th of May!  We enjoyed having nothing to do for several days, but then knew when it came back we would be busy--catching up! Praise the Lord we got it sorted out with a new company and we are back on line!

Last weekend on Friday the 13th our surgeon from Harare came with Dr. Kajese and his wife and baby and we started surgeries at 9:20 p.m. and went until 1:45 a.m. and then they came for dinner.  We went to bed at 2:30 a.m. and up by 6 a.m. Saturday to get started at 7 a.m.  They went all day until 4:00 p.m.  They did 11 cases!

They left and we made up the beds in the guesthouse for the next visitors who arrived 2 hours later, Paul and Melanie Fudge from Florida and Dr. Kris Singh from Florida.  Paul and Melanie have been here several times and they are teaching for 3 months at the Bible College in Harare.  Kris is their Dentist and goes to their church.  They invited him to come and work at Chidamoyo for a few days. We are so happy they did!

Paul and Melanie stayed the weekend and on Monday headed back to Harare and Kris stayed with us until early Friday morning.  He worked hard for 4 days!  He saw a total of over 300 patients and pulled multiple teeth on them!  He worked so hard he got blisters on his hands!  He worked until 8 p.m. one night and until 6-7 p.m. the other nights--not even stopping for lunch!  He was the popular guy!  We haven't had a dentist for 6 years come and so people came from all over. Many decided to have a tooth pulled that was just barely giving them some trouble--just in case no dentist comes for a long time! It was amazing.

Since people were coming for the dentist many came for clinic visits too and so the whole week it was very busy for all of us!  On Monday night just as they finished, Julie, our medical student intern got called to help scrub for a C/Section!  She just jumped right from the dentist room to scrub and got home at 7:30 p.m. for dinner!

On Wednesday we were joined by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) HIV Director in the Country and our ZACH-HIV program manager, both from Harare, for a 2 day visit to talk about our outreach programs and lessons we have learned in HIV care over the years.  We spent a lot of time talking and planning.  

On Thursday they joined us for an outreach ART/Immunization clinic and before we left for the clinic they helped us draw CD4 blood.  At the clinic they weighed and measured kids and then helped me draw kids for our research project on adolescents.  We kept them busy and they were late leaving for home!  We got home at 6 p.m. in time to help the dentist see his last few patients.

Friday was a more relaxed day at work and Julie I started work on organizing our ART clinic.  It was also Major's 52nd birthday!  He had gone to Harare to take Dr. Kris to leave for home, but when he came home we had dinner and celebrated his birthday! 

 The second group of students from Zimbabwe Christian College arrived last night for the weekend.  We spent the morning teaching them about visiting  sick patients in the hospital as ministers.  They will be here for dinner (12) tonight and go out to preach in our churches tomorrow.

We look forward to a slower weeks next week-ha-we can always hope!

Harare team doing surgeries with our team

Julie, our Med student helping with the surgeries


Dr. Kris pulling teeth


Julie became a Dental Tech for the week to help Kris

 Dr. from CDC put to work


ZACH HIV person put to work drawing CD4s

 ART Outreach clinic

Zimbabwe Christian College students


Major's Birthday

Major's family--daughter Carolyn, sister-in-law Juliet and wife Patience






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