Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

Some days it is not hard to know I am in Africa. Today I spent the whole day starting AIDS patients on ART (drugs to treat it). When doing a history on one of the patient’s they named their 6 children: #1—Pride #2-Perserverance #3 - Purposes #4-Prejudice #5-Polite #6-Pretend Where else but Zimbabwe can you get such wonderful names? Then on my way to the Lab a patient stopped me and needed her VD taken. When I said VD—she said yes VD and when I looked at her card she was a hypertension patient and I figured out she meant Bp! As I keep the office doors open where I am counseling and the open to our outside courtyard, a chicken wandered in today. Not something you normally notice in a hospital in the US—I wonder if they are JACHO approved. Then I went to the outpatient department and saw a person sitting with his chicken in his hands—to pay for any drugs ordered and another one had left a pig tied outside for the same reason and we could hear it squealing throughout the hospital! Does he ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR—2010! Well today is January 2 and so far it has been uneventful New Year. We closed out-patients on NY Eve at 1 p.m. and finally got to go home about 2 p.m. for the day. I spent the rest of the day taking down Christmas decorations (5 big plastic bins) and my tree—by 6 p.m. 5 guys came to carry it and my tree off to my store room. As I get older is sure is nice to have help in carrying those heavy boxes! At 7:00 p.m. we started movie night at the church. They watched 9 to 5 and then a Jet Lee Kung-Fu which was the hit with everyone. The church was packed and people even looking in the windows! We had a church service from 11-12 to ring in the New Year and at 12 they beat the church bell and blew the horn on the truck! It was nice to see the community come to some family time instead of going to the township and drinking to bring in another year! Friday I took the day off and Lori went to the hospital and I continued to take down decorations and clean my house. I was swea...

Well Christmas 2009 has come and gone. We enjoyed many activities which included our local community. On Wed December 16 we started with the movie “The Nativity” and then had to cancel the movie on December 18th due to a heavy storm. Our chapel is still full of our bartered food for hospital services so we have to show the movies at my outside movie theater and so if it rains we have to cancel! We did show a movie on Saturday the 19th and on Sunday the 20th the youth group did a drama for the crowd who came to church on Sunday night at the hospital. On Monday the 21st and Tuesday the 22nd we showed Christmas movies and then on the 23rd we went caroling around the mission. The tradition here is that we start with a small group and as we go house to house those people join us—so by the time we finished we had over 200! We gave sweets to all who came! Tuesday the electricity went off and has not come back since. We sent people on Wed and Thurs to get ZESA workers to fix the problem but al...

I had a wonderful time being home from Nov 4-Dec 13! I have been to almost every store here and anywhere i traveled, have 3 full suitcases to go with and am glad to be going home to warmer temperatures. They had a record breaking 3 day cold of 24 (-5 C) F while I was here--that was one record I didn't care to be part of! I have had lunch and dinner with so many friends and family--I am sure i gained weight! Thanks you for all I got to see and catch up with and sorry I missed some of you. Kim, Dennis and Kathy--2 of my 4 siblings! Keep in touch by email :sistermakate@gmail.com I celebrated Christmas with my family all day yesterday. We started the day with 3 of us girls having manicure and pedicures and ate crab sandwiches and crab Louies! We ended by playing Triominos and Attach Uno--what fun! I am carrying back money to buy 75 matresses so far--thank you for all who helped! I'll be in touch after I am back! Merry Christmas to all and may 2010 be a better year for you and the ...

Well it has been 6 weeks since I wrote something because I was in the U.S. After dealing with chronic Urinary Infections and then bleeding from my bladder I decided to hope on a plane and see a uroligist in the US after my family doc in Harare said "I don't really know what to do for you anymore!" So on Nov 2 I left Harare with a foley in and smartly thinking--I can sleep for hours since I don't have to get up to go....then.... Between Joburg and Harare about 3 hours into a 10 1/2 hour flight my foley got blocked, I was in agonizing pain and tried to figure out a way to irrigate the foley that had got blocked with blood clots! In the small airplane toilet i tried everything--we nurses are always inventive--but having no syringe I finally gave up and went to the steward and asked for scissors or a knife! He looked at me funny and asked "what for?" (like I would tell him I wanted to hijack a plane or something) and when I explained he gave me some blunt ...

Sorry to have been off for a couple of weeks but have been having some medical issues. After months of chronic UTIs I went for an IVP which was normal, no stones and within 12 hours started pain and passed a stone! So much for tests! I had Major drive me to Harare to see my doctor because of the excruciating pain and about at the end of our dirt road felt a lot of pain and then relief! I knew that bumpy road was worth something! All the way on the road I was curled up in fetal position not talking and Major was sure I died and kept asking if I was OK ! I couldn't talk because it would hurt more and so he talked more! Funny now that I look back at it, not when I was using my Lamaze breathing techniques! That pain was something else and the drugs didn't touch it--and let me tell you I tried quite a few! Now I am feeling better and only missed 1 day of work so that was good timing! My doctor in Harare gave me more drugs which helped a bit but seemed to make me more sic...

Some pictures from a recent trip to Kariba Hi from Kathy