Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

After an Army take over on November 15 which was called a "non-coup" we had a roller coaster week as the country decided what would happen next. On Friday the 17th the ruling political party (ZANU-PF) met and dismissed President Mugabe as their President and called for his resignation by Monday the 20th or they would start impeachment hearing against him.  Saturday the 21st the crowds in the streets of Harare and throughout the country filled with people celebrating the decision.  Many were calling it their new Independence Day.  They went up to the Army and hugged them for taking over.  All colors of people in the country turned out. Sunday night we sat around the TV as Mugabe called for a press conference and then didn't resign. Tuesday the 21st the Parliament meet and started Impeachment steps when all of a sudden a letter arrived which was read announcing Mugabe's resignation.  The MPs stood and cheered and danced--something never before witnessed ...

Work has been busy as I catch up from being gone for almost 7 weeks.  I have been busy working on an application through the Japanese embassy to get a digital X-ray machine.  We are praying for this wonderful gift to the hospital to be granted. On Monday the 6th of November a new visitor, Emily Wade, from Florida, came to work with us for 6 weeks.  She is a new RN graduate from August and we are happy to have her work with us.  She has been working with us at the hospital and Thursday we went to Batanai to draw Viral Loads for people that attend our ART clinic there.  She is excited to be here and will be a big help to During our weekly in-service meeting for nurses on Tuesday this week,  a patient came walking up to us and fell on the ground and soon we heard the plop of a baby coming out!  So during the in-service meeting we stopped to finish delivering the baby!  A big baby boy.  We suggested she name it Inservice! We have had so...

Major and I had a whirlwind last week in Santa Rosa, CA before we headed for home on the 24th of October.  We saw many friends, ate lots of meals (Major's favorite), enjoyed some rain and had to go out of town to do shopping because of the fire that hit Santa Rosa. We left at 1:30 p.m. from San Francisco on the 24th and flew to Hong Kong where we had 5 hours before we left for Johannesburg, SA where we had 3 hours and then arrived in Harare about 12:30 p.m. on the 26th. We were met by Karen and Ben Pennington who left the next day for the US.  They took us to the townhouse and we had a new dining room set that Pennington's gave me as they were packing up to retire to the US.  It is beautiful teak and fits so well on the townhouse! I am really going to miss them as they w It was 91 when we landed in Harare and so we knew it would be even hotter at Chidamoyo!  We enjoyed the air conditioned car on the way home! Major headed for a haircut and I ran to the bank...

The devastating fire in Santa Rosa continued for almost 2 weeks.  The house where I was staying in Santa Rosa, Sylvia's, we had to be evacuated for 6 nights.  Luckily no homes in the area were touched and there was no smoke damage in the house.  We never lost electricity so our freezers didn't defrost. On the 11th of October I left for 3 nights and 4 days with 5 of my best friends from UCSF Nursing School.  We had a reunion to celebrate our graduation 40 years ago.  Karen Lahl hosted us at her family cabin in North Shore, Lake Tahoe.  Karen is from Vacaville.  Then we had Cathy from Sacramento, Jean from North Carolina, Leslie from Vermont, Cheryl from Burlingame, CA and myself.  We spent 4 days talking non-stop and catching up. We enjoyed the beautiful Lake Tahoe out our front door and went walking to see some of the sights.  We hope every 5 years to continue the tradition!  What fun we had!  Amazingly no one looked much olde...

We had a wonderful progressive dinner on Friday the 29th of September in Seattle.  We went to 4 different houses in Wallingford neighborhood and enjoyed a home tour, history of the home and wonderful at each house along with 11 wonderful people to share it with.  Thank you to all the homeowners who donated the proceeds to Chidamoyo Hospital. On the afternoon of the 30th of September we flew home from Seattle to my hometown of Santa Rosa, CA.  We arrived home to a wonderful sadza and oxtail dinner cooked by Sylvia Majoni-Brown. We have spent the last week traveling and doing shopping--getting ready to go back to Zimbabwe. Sunday morning we left with good friends and Chidamoyo board members, Patty and Gary LeDonne, for the final SF Giants baseball game of the season at ATT Park.  We enjoyed a fun game in beautiful weather and it was won in the bottom of the 9th by a home run from the Giants!  After the game they threw autographed balls into the seats and P...