Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

Lori, Major and I were happy to get away to Kariba this week for 4 days. Kariba is located NW of here about 3 hours and we rented a house right on the Lake. We enjoyed seeing the Lake so full that 3 of the gate on the dam wall are opened and have been opened for the last 2 months. We had hippos on our lawn during the day and night—brings a new meaning to “lawn mower!” We also enjoyed driving around and having elephants come out to see us in the road! Major was trying on Zambia’s for Lori who was looking to buy! We had a great time and really relaxed and got away from the work—what fun!

Hey Obama may not be very popular in the US—but he is still very popular in Africa. One of my young patients recently had his shirt on and when I asked to take his picture he said “bama!”

ZESA is the name of our electricity company—we say that it stands for “Zimbabwe Electricity Seldom Available” and it has proved true for the last 2 weeks. It was only coming on at anywhere from 8:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. and then off by 5 or 6 a.m. for the past 2 weeks. Even on Saturday and Sundays when we tend to have electricity for the whole day—it was off all day. Finally today it has been on since 10 p.m. last night and it just went off as I wrote this sentence (6 p.m.). I have 14 people coming for dinner so had to run outside turn on my propane tank and move all the dishes to the gas stove. Just got back and then as soon as I got everything changed to the gas stove in the back room, the guard came and said the doctor needs the generator for a vacuum extraction he is doing! So should I switch everything back when the generator comes on? We now have a new registered psychiatric condition here called “ZESA anxiety.” When the electricity comes on you never know for how long or when i...

APRIL 1st Well April 1st is like a national holiday in Zimbabwe and especially at Chidamoyo, people can’t seem to wait to start “fooling” each other! Of course I enjoy getting into the mood of the day and first thing in the morning I had my guards going to Major’s house saying they were needed there. When the guards went one said “I am not sure if sister said I should see you or she needed to see you” so Major decided since he didn’t need him I must need him and went off to get dressed. Then his wife reminded him it was April 1st! Then I sent one of my visitors to Major’s house who by this time had over 10 people sent to his house and they figured out he had been fooled! On my way to the hospital I stopped next store and got Lori out of bed saying “C/Section—get dressed I am waiting.” She got in the car and a drove her about 10 feet and asked her what day it was and she said April 1st and I said “you are a fool!” She was not happy I woke her up for that!! Then I got to the hospital and...

THE MATRESSES HAVE ARRIVED! Because of the generosity of many people we were able to buy new mattresses for all of in-patient beds. Many of you gave gifts at Christmas to us for this purpose! We found a man in Harare who made them for $50 each and through a generous man in Harare (his home is Chidamoyo) he arranged for the mattresses to be made and sent by truck to us in Karoi. We were able to pick them all up in 2 loads! The patients are very happy and enjoying a more restful night because of you! Thank you to all!

It has been awhile since I have written but life continues on. Sometimes it is discouraging, but we manage to keep going. In Zimbabwe we keep going on hoping for change and always “making a plan!” We manage to roll with the punches and keep coming up. Reminds me of those inflatable bozo clowns we had when we were kids, with weights in the bottom. You punch him and he comes right back up and always with a smile on his face! The hospital work continues to be a challenge. First we almost ran out of TB drugs—and all there is nothing you can substitute and it is important not to stop treatment and cause resistant TB. No one seemed to have any. We “borrowed” some from Makonde Hospital and we have enough for 1 month and assurances that more are on the way “soon.” Of course we have a lot of assurances for many things in Zimbabwe and they never seem to materialize—so we don’t hold our breath anymore because people aren’t going to revive us from all our apnea spells! Next we had a shortage of IV...