Busiest week ever!

This week is the busiest week we ever had maybe ever!  Monday we had a busy day and 11 of us continued in the hospital and at home.

Tuesday morning Caleb and Amanda led the nurses in-service on wound care--something they have been doing a lot since they have been here.  This was their last week with us.  We were able to give out Fanny packs and Stethoscopes that had come in the container to all our staff who came.  We are so thankful for all these gifts.

On Tuesday we were joined for a few hours at lunch by the Director of UNAIDS in Zimbabwe, Michael Bartos and his wife Mary.  We had a good talk about our AIDS program and they toured our new Waiting Mothers Shelter and we presented the need for more beds as the ones we have were provided by UNFP.  He is passing our need on to the right people at UN.  They also gave us a generous donation to our hospital.  They joined the 11 of us for lunch--so that day we had 13 for lunch.

Cheri Gail and Abbey Carson decided to treat us to a great dinner for Larry and Cheri and LeAnne and Charlie's last dinner. they cooked up stirfry and sweet potato pie and apples fritters--wow!  We bid them farewell on Wednesday morning as they left with Major for 2 nights at Rhino Camp.  We had such a great time with them and their time went by so fast.  They went to several schools to give out soccer balls.  We got our last container totally unpacked and Larry helped Major type up some work he needed to do.  Cheri and LeAnne kept busy doing vital signs and helping Maternity patients.  Charlie fixed some things for me and helped in our outreach clinics and worked unloading containers and sorting throw the chapel!

We had one night with only 7 of us and then on Thursday 6 people from Harare came.  They are people we are working with on our research project on adolescents and also a new doctor who is going to do research here.   She is a pathology resident from Stanford University in CA and will be helping our Laboratory do some basic pathology tests along with her research--so we are excited about that.  The IT people came and worked with us to put a form on a tablet that will help us capture our AIDS patients records easier.  We had a great time and for lunch and dinner there were 13 of us and for breakfast on Friday.

On Friday we lost 9 people who left after breakfast!  The three UK med students left for Harare after 2 weeks with us.  We appreciated their time with us.  they kept us laughing and they were very enthusiastic about our American food!  They loved all the different patients and diseases they saw here, nothing they will probably ever see in their future practices.

The 6 people from Harare also left after breakfast and Abbey decided to go to Harare and come home with Major on Saturday night.  So Caleb and Amanda and I had a quiet lunch with just three of us--I was actually so tired I slept through lunch.

Friday we prepared for the surgeon and anesthesiologist from Harare to come.  Mr. Kundiona and Dr. and Mrs. Kajese came.  They arrive at 8:30 p.m. after working in Harare and started right in on operations at 9 p.m.  They worked until 2:30 a.m. and then came home for dinner and went off to sleep at 3 a.m. and up by 7 a.m. to start work again.  Then they worked straight through until 11:30 p.m. Saturday.  They only stopped for tea time and something to eat once when we had to kick them out of the operating room for an emergency C/Section that happened!  

The Kajese's brought their sweet 11 month old baby, Alexis whom we got to play with, as Mrs. Kajese worked hard as the scrub nurse!

I did rounds so that the doctor could stay in the Operating Room for the day and work with the doctors and we had 2 women in labor with twins, and a baby we had to resuscitate.  Then one of the twins got stuck and we had to rush to get it out--the arm was bent by the head and not coming out!  Had to tell them to sew the patient they were working on quickly as we were kicking them off the table for the C/Section.  They moved fast and we moved fast and we were done in 30 minutes!

The doctors had planned to leave Saturday after work--but they were so exhausted.  They came for dinner at 11:30 p.m. and then slept from 12-4 a.m. and left for Harare at 4 a.m.

Major went from Rhino camp on Friday with Larry, Cheri and LeAnne and Charlie and then saw them off at the airport on Saturday morning.  Saturday evening he picked up our two new guests Tori Davis, a nurse from Reno, NV and Brenden Hinen, from Reno, NV.  They are here for 3 weeks with us.  They arrived at 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning--so after the doctors left for bed I stayed up to welcome them in!  At 4 a.m. I was awake to see the doctors off and then went back to sleep until 6:45 a.m. when I got up to clean up my house and put more wash out!

We have 2 holidays today  and tomorrow--so looking forward to catching up on some rest around the house.  We spent a few hours at the hospital discharging a lot of patients and catching up on some paperwork this morning.  

God definitely gave me the energy to keep going this week and we hope to take some deep breaths and slow down a bit this week-ha!  

LeAnne, Charlie and Larry and Cheri with Kathy when they left Wednesday

Mary and Michael Bartos

 Kathy with Michael, UNAIDS Director in Zimbabwe

David helping Dr. Munodawafa with a C/Section

 Xavier stapling the C/Section closed

Caleb and Amanda giving an inservice on wound care

Mr. Mujudgi and Major with their new Fanny packs

Nurses getting fanny packs and stethoscopes after in-service

Kathy and Cheri--20 years later!

 Research group from Harare and UK Med students on left

Abbey, Nic, Xavier, Cheri, Chantel, LeAnne, Major, David and Charlie at Sanyati River

Caleb being scrub nurse with David and Dr. Munodawafa

Major saying goodbye to Larry, Cheri and LeAnne and Charlie at the hospital on Tuesday

Dr. Kajese very tired doing anesthesia and Mr. Kundiona on right and Dr. Munodawafa assisting

 Alexis Kajese enjoying her bath

Brendon and Tori