Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

This week we have been busy unpacking the container in between seeing patients and on Thursday night we started some heavy rain that has continued through today (Monday). We have had almost 3 inches of rain in the past 3 days and more on the way.  The greatest gift is it cooled us down and this morning it was down to 72F at 630 a.m. when I ate breakfast instead of 85F it has been.  What a relief! Saturday and Sunday people were out in their fields plowing and planting.  It is the official start of our rainy season and we pray it will be a great year! Saturday we had our support group for kids ages 10-15 with AIDS.  The counsellors spend time having them draw a tree of life to find out what they like, what they want to grow up to be and any problems they are having living with AIDS.  We had 38 kids who came even though it was raining hard.  They also got their meds refilled and we gave them some tea, bread and eggs eat.  They seem to really appreciate this group.  We have time to

This week I was invited to speak on behalf of ZACH (Zimbabwe Association of Church Hospitals) at an International Pediatric AIDS conference.   The theme was “Start Free, Be Free, and Stay Free.”   I presented preliminary studies of our research project looking at 307 kids in our area and how well they are doing on drugs. We are proud to say that we have had not one baby born to an HIV positive mom this year that was positive so far this year.   The government has set this as their goal for 2020 and we have already reached it! The conference was a good time to see many old friends and talk to other people working in the field.   We were the only hospital that presented as all of the other presentations were from NGOs doing work in the country. The conference was all day Thursday and Friday and so Major and I came in Wednesday so he could pick up a truck we had in the shop here.   He picked it up and called me 15 minutes later and said he had only made it about 5 miles from

This week has been a busy week with lots going on!   On Monday we continued a tradition we have at Chidamoyo of blessing cars whenever someone gets a new to them car.  Dr. Isala bought a car for his wife--a Jeep Cherokee and so we went to bless it with singing and prayer.  It is always a special time and a time for us to share in their joy! On Tuesday Major and I drove to town.  I needed to see my doctor and we had a lot of running around to do.  We split up into 3 cars as our driver had pulled in one of our cars that needed a new oil pump.  We got everything done before the stores closed at 5 p.m.!  The beautiful Flamboyant trees were blooming bright orange and were so beautiful--as the Jacaranda's fade the Flamboyant's take their place. Wednesday a new container arrived from Sebastopol, CA  and we got it unloaded off the truck without any problems.  We are so happy to receive it and by Thursday we had started to unload it a bit and have started sorting all the medical

This week has been a busy week at the hospital, but we had some slow afternoons, giving us time to catch up on cleaning up around the hospital and catching up records (finding those green ART cards!) and one afternoon I got some of the nursing staff to walk with me for 30 minutes around the hospital for some exercise! On the 2nd of November (Wednesday) we received devastating news from Australia.  Our doctor here from 2003-05, Dr. Jono Mbangani and his wife Eva, lost their 16 y/o son who suffered severe brain damage from a Halloween prank.  They had airlifted him to Perth where he stayed on machines for 3 days.  They live 700 kms south of Perth in the town of      .  He died on the afternoon of 3-November and they will be having the funeral next week.  Please keep this family in prayer.  It is such a shock to all of us and we are so thankful they are strong Christians.  We hope to see them in person in December when they come to Zimbabwe for a family vacation to visit home.  This t