Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

Dr. Kellert on far right with Sylvia, Major and friend in Seattle in July Well summer has finally come and with a vengeance. It has been not less than 118 for the past 4 days! Last night it was 92 when I went to bed at 10 p.m. and no electricity, so no fan until finally at 11:30 p.m. the electricity came on and was off by 5:15 a.m. We all feel very lethargic and can’t wait to jump in the pool after work. With no electricity during the day this week it makes it hard to work in our offices without air from a fan. I run and do as much paperwork outside my office on the veranda in between patients to get some air—even if it is hot—it feels cool! Somehow we have to figure out how to work outside, but most patients might object to be examined in the open! We have some exciting news to share! I was contacted in June by Dr. Cheryl Kellert from Washington State. She is an OB/GYN that I worked with in 1989-1991 in Santa Rosa, CA. For years I have been trying to get an OB/GYN to come on a workin...

The Jacarandas in bloom in Harare! Jeep Wrangler--Sahara Handing over of the keys of the Jeep from the salesman Mr. Blantyre Major starting the Jeep Back of Jeep Major and the New Jeep This has been one of those weeks (I have been saying that a lot lately!) Our new doctor—Dr. Kabanzi has been all by himself as Dr. Kajese went off to pick up his new car from the Zambia/ Zimbabwe boarder over the weekend and planned to be back here by Monday. On Monday he received word that his father-in-law had a stroke and was in the hospital and so he and his wife left for Bulawayo to assess the situation. While they were taking care of the father-in-law in the hospital, his own father visiting his sister in Bulawayo got sick. He recently had one kidney removed in February and now was anemic with cardiac failure and his only kidney left seemed to be in renal failure. So the whole week they have been trying to get proper medical care for the fathers, which is always a challenge in Zimbabwe. I got bac...

Pediatric extension going up Putting in the window frames Attaching the extension Remodeling for the new X-ray room Unloading X-ray machine X-ray machine and developer arriving Walt Chamberlin and Major teaching at seminar Church leaders and ministers at seminar Working in theater with my new hat! New scrub top and hat Opening birthday gifts We started a week ago Sunday with my 57th Birthday. I don’t mind saying how old I am because God has blessed me with the years to live and I have done and seen so much, I feel blessed! As one of my refrigerator magnet say “Lord I can’t die yet, I have so much to do and am so far behind, I have no time to die now!” I had a great birthday—a quiet day of church services and after Sunday night church at the hospital I celebrated with dinner and a movie with Major, his wife Patience, Dr. Kajese and 2 visiting medical students we had visiting from Harare. They were here for 3 ½ weeks with us doing their 3rd year rural rotation. After the movie they s...

Dr. Zimudzi and Mrs. Mereki with Dr. Kajese behind at going away lunch Dr. Zimudzi and Mr. Mereki Dr. Zimudzi, Mr. and Mrs. Mereki Foundation for addition to Pediatric Unit Morning devotions at outpatients This has been a very busy past 2 weeks. I am sitting here in the dark writing this, as ZESA just went out! It was on from 10:30 p.m. last night (Friday) until 6 p.m. tonight so can’t complain too much. Last week everything seemed to go wrong! Monday was in Harare on Monday to get car parts for 2 of our vehicles that were down. One of our doctors was on off days with one of our working cars and my vehicle was the only one working—so off he went to get parts in Harare. Left at 4 a.m. and back at 11 p.m. He got the parts and then we left at 4 a.m. again for Harare to interview a new doctor for Chidamoyo. I drove so Major could rest. We did the interview and hired a new doctor—Andrew Kabanje who will join us mid-Sept or so. Major then went off to sort out more things and buy for the h...

Major and Michael staking out the house Measuring the house Major and his cousin Reggie marking the outdoor dining room World Vision and team from Bristol,UK with our 2 doctors Last week started with visits from church members from Bristol, England who came out with a World Vision team to see some of the projects they have supported in our district. They worshipped with us at church on Sunday and then I cooked lunch for 20 people. World Visions helps us with drugs and equipment for the hospital and so we have been happy to be working with them. We enjoyed having them out for a few hours of fellowship and meeting new friends. Wednesday I spent in Harare for a patient conference that concerns an MDR-TB patient that we have in our treatment here at Chidamoyo. MDR which stands for Multi Drug Resistant is a growing problem in Zimbabwe. There are 25 known patients in Zimbabwe. This is a difficult disease to treat and needs special medicine provided on...

Crocs they shot in the river that attacked our man we worked on Kariba sunset Michael and Carolyn Mereki Major and family on safari in Kariba Mereki family and Kathy at Kariba Our Peanut Butter thieve! 3 lions looking at us! This week we had a 4 day weekend with Monday and Tuesday being Heroes Day and Defense Forces Day. I went with major and his wife Patience and their 2 kids, Michael 18 and Carolyn 14 to a safari camp on an island on Lake Kariba in Mutasadona National Park. We left at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and after getting a bit lost we made it there in about 8 hours. It was dirt road and some 4-wheel drive parts to it. When we got lost (we drove by the turnoff) we actually drove through a river bed and Patience yelled “lion!” and there was a big female standing up on a ridge near us. We looked around and saw a male and one more female. We continued on and came back the same way when we decided we had missed our turn and s...

Unpacking boxes All the boxes we need to go through! Thank You Medical Teams International and all our donors! Rehab Tech with some of his new equipment The container was full! The container arrives God is so good! This week a 40 foot container from Medical Teams International arrived at our door step! This container was packed with medical equipment and supplies that will be so beneficially for our hospital. Many of you donated money to cover the cost of $23,000 to buy the goods and ship them here. It was sent at the end of April and arrived here on the 19th of July! There is over $500,000 worth of goods in the container! We quickly had to unload the container as it had to go back with the truck that brought it. It took 2 hours and 10 people helping but we moved all the boxes into the chapel (where the peanuts had just vacated!) and all the boxes are now stacked up and ready to go through. As some things were unloaded we immediately sent them to the departments. Our Rehabilitation...