Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

Well this is a special week for the hospital.   We are in a special immunization push this week called NIDS (National Immunization Days).   Throughout the country every child under 5 years old is revaccinated for Measles and Polio and caught up with any other immunizations they might need.   This is always a busy time as many moms wait until NIDS and then they have to catch up.   The first day the team was gone from 8 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. covering 3 areas.   Sarah, one our interns who has been with us for almost 2 months, went out for her first Immunization clinic since she arrived and boy was it an experience!   She came home exhausted but willing to go back for more fun the next day!   She finally got dinner by 11 p.m.! We welcomed Dr. Dereck Taniguchi and his wife Jo and son Kevin and Kevin’s girlfriend Rachel from Seattle on Monday.   Jo and Rachel are nurses and Kevin is applying for medical school next year.   So the second day...

Today I was able to take a nice hot shower and with electricity! To me this was heaven! After 4 days this week of struggling with water we went to buy 2 new pumps for our boreholes—yes a constant issue! All this week I have been taking water from a barrel outside by bucket to flush the toilet and take a bucket bath! Since there usually hasn’t been electricity in the morning I manage to splash cold water on in a hurry, wash my hair and get out! Winter is here and it has been down to 48 this week—living in a fridge! We are all complaining it is too cold and looking forward to the October heat! I got my electric under blanket out and but it on the bed and set it so whenever the electricity comes on at night my bed warms up—yeah! The one thing about winter here is the deep blue skies with no clouds! It is so beautiful. Fires in the fireplace are also nice! This week I was sick in bed for 2 days, but managed to work a few hours in between fevers. I go to see my Zim doctor in Harare thi...

Revival at Major's village I returned from South Africa on Friday, May 18 th .   I was feeling better and I had more blood and urine tests run and were awaiting results.   Major was waiting to pick me up and I got to see Dr. Palleschi for a few minutes before he boarded his plane home.   He was kept busy for the 8 days he was in the country seeing many patients and teaching our doctors how to do scans, hernia repairs and prostectomies.   Dr. Kellert served as his scrub nurse some of the surgeries! We left the airport and spent the next 3 hours running to get things for the hospital before places closed.   We got blood, car parts and some electrical supplies, propane gas and groceries.   Ran into my friend Gladys who was in town from her home 3 hours east of Harare and we were able to sit in her friend, Sylvia’s flat and have tea in the dark—no ZESA!   Then we headed for home and got here 12:30 a.m. While I was gone a new visitor arrive nam...

Dr. Seth Miller   who had been with us for the past 3 months left on May 5 th for some time in South Africa before heading home to New Mexico and then on to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to begin his Family Practice   residence in mid-June.   He got lots of experience seeing patients and different diseases here, so we wish him well in his next 3 years of residency! On May 5 th we had the wedding of the century at Chidamoyo!   Bennie Munemo, a nurse at our hospital married Last Nyamaharo, a nurse and minister.   Last used to work at our hospital and moved 2 years ago to Harare to work in a prison work as a nurse and a minister for the church their.   Bennie’s mom, Mai Munemo, known as Mother also works at our hospital.   We have been praying and working towards this wedding for several months (years!). The 9 a.m. wedding finally started at 11:45 a.m. and with 8 bridesmaids, 8 groomsmen, 4 junior bridesmaids and 4 junior groomsmen, 6 flower girls, ...

Dear Friends and Supporters: I have not been feeling well for about 2-3 months now and at first they thought it was my gallbladder was infected, but it never settled down in a month of antibiotics and pain. My primary care doc sent me to a surgeon thinking it was still my gallbladder and needed to come out. He ordered a CT scan and then referred me to an Internist. I went to see the specialist on Thursday in Harare and after reviewing my Cat-Scan and a thorough physical exam he has concluded I have Lymphoma (Cancer of the Lymph system). He told me that in Zimbabwe there is no use doing any more investigations because most of the pathologists have left the country and the oncologists are not comfortable treating Lymphoma. She he suggested I go to a specialist in SA or US. I have chosen to go to S.A. to get worked up, have an exploratory lap to take the lymph nodes near my liver out for histology and so they can visualize my spleen. The enlarged lymph nodes near my liver what wa...

We received good news yesterday that Dr. Kellert was given a 2 year work permit to work here with us! We have been waiting for 6 months since she arrived for this. She has completed here three months at Chinhoyi Provincial hospital and has been cleared to work by the Medical council. We have been busy putting her to work. I wonder if they would have approved if they saw this as her passport photo—taken on her recent birthday April 4th!

Counting the Easter egg haul! Easter egg hunt Easter Brunch Sunrise Easter Sunday Sunrise service Easter sunday Blowing out the candles! Dr. Cheryl Kellert --Birthday Girl! Major opening the container Easter is always a 4 day holiday here in Zimbabwe. So Friday-Monday over Easter is holiday time. That means we work like our usual Saturday—go to the hospital by 8 or 9 a.m. do rounds, write discharges, do any procedures and see patients who don’t know it is a holiday and forget Out-patient department is closed, and hopefully get home by 1 p.m. and not go back in the afternoon. Friday we got to the hospital at 8 a.m. as a team was going out for ART outreach clinic and we got them ready to go. Seth went as the driver and helper. Then I saw some patients who “forgot’ it was a holiday and did discharges. Then I went with Major to open the container which arrived the day before. We opened to find so many wonderful and needed things. We only got a couple of barrels and some other t...