Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

On Jan 2, I worked in the morning since it was a holiday here and then in the afternoon headed for Harare with Major, his wife Patience and his daughter Carolyn and son Michael.  We were able to meet up for a few minutes with Dr. Jono Mbangani, from Australia and his brother Desmond from Botswana and see them after many years away.  Dr. Mbangani was our doctor here from 2002-2005 before they moved to Australia.  He and his wife Eva recently lost their oldest son in November this year due to a freak accident.  They had planned this trip home to see relatives before this accident and so it was a hard trip home for them.  We were happy to see Dr. Mbangani and talk for a few minutes before they left and we left as we were on our way to the airport. At 0105 a.m. on January 3 Major, Patience and Carolyn and I boarded an Ethiopian Airlines jet and headed off on a 1 week vacation.  Michael was suppose to join us but had to go to South Africa to write some exams at the last minute.  We fl

Yesterday (Saturday) 20 of us from the hospital headed out to Mukowe (1 1/2 hours away) at 7:30 a.m. for a Gala to encourage the people in the area to be tested for HIV.  Our 2 doctors, nurses and counsellors and nurse aides came.We had a theme of "Start the New Year Right--Know Your Status!"  We went with 5 cars and our tractor and trailer! We offered HIV testing and also Male Circumcision (which decreases your chance of getting HIV and helps to decrease Cervical Cancer in their partners) and blood pressure checks.  We set up in the classrooms for the circumcisions and for the testing and counseling. We started with Health Education and we had a lot of questions and answers for prizes.  We also had soccer matches for the men and netball matches for the women.  The band got people up and dancing and they all really enjoyed the day. We estimate about 400 people came. We tested over 300 new people and only a few were positive--so we were happy for that.  We did 30 circu

We finally had the long awaited opening of our beautiful new Waiting Mother's Shelter on Thursday morning.   The Shelter was built over 6 weeks starting in December 2015 and ending the end of January 2016.  We had a few finishing touches to do and put in electricity, get beds and mattresses and paint.  We finally got it all done and then planned the important ceremony to get it opened! We had our Minister of Parliament, the Honorable Dr. Gandawa, as well as chief Dandawa and many of our local Headmen and the community.  As would have it we started the ceremony and immediately we had torrential rain!  We quickly moved to the veranda of our OPD clinic and with the rain pounding the tin roof we heard some of the words spoken!! We went for a lovely lunch and waited for the rain to let up and then returned for the Waiting Mothers now here to sing and put on a skit about how important it is to deliver in a hospital--not home! The Chief officially cut the red ribbon and then eve