God's perfect timing

-

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 we sent them off to help with NIDS and they saw over 760 children!  They came home exhausted but willing to do it again for the rest of the week.  They come home tired and ready for bed each day!  Dereck stayed with us at the hospital to see patients.

It has been such a blessing to have these visitors with us at the perfect time when we needed them the most.  The last two days they have been gone from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. without their help our teams would come back at midnight.  God is so good to provide just when we need them!

On Friday the 15th of June I went to see my doctor here in Harare with my results from South Africa.  He feels there is something sinister still going on and wants me to go to the US and see a Gastroenterologist.  Guess what? Dr. Dereck Taniguchi is a gastroenterologist and so I have been able to have a free consult with him and he has suggested some tests to be done in the US, and where we should go from here.  God knew what people we needed when!   So I am making plans to go to the US in July or August and see a specialist there to figure out what is wrong.  Maybe I will find Dr. House yet!
 Sarah giving Polio drops
 Jo giving Measles injections
The people waiting for their Immunizations
 Rachel playing with kids at Immunization clinic
Derek and Kevin in theater
Dr. Taniguchi making rounds with Dr. Kajese and Dr. Kabanzi
 Rachel giving measles immunization
Sarah drawing blood for CD4 counts

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unpacking cintainer, interviewing a new doctor

-
Image
It has been busy this week unpacking the container that arrived recently.  We have been unloading it a truck load at a time and bringing it up to the hospital to unload.  Carolyn Mereki has been helping to unload and sort and then she delivers it to the different departments. We are really happy with a lot of good supplies that we are unpacking to use at the hospital. We are putting the barrels and boxes in the hallway outside my office and opening them when we have time.  It is always fun to see what we get! On Friday this week we traveled to Kadoma (1 hour south of Harare), about 4 1/2 hour drive for us.  We met up with Mashoko administration to interview 6 people for jobs at Chidamoyo and Mashoko as doctors.  We have tentatively made decisions, but have another 2 people to interview--so please pray with us that we choose the right doctor. The doctor strike continues since 1 March.  No settlement and government hospitals only doing emergencies so we can't really refer o
Read more

Enjoyable time away at Rhino Camp

-
Image
On Monday the 27th of July, Major and Patience and I left Chidamoyo for 4 days at Rhino Camp.  Its a 4 hour drive to Kariba and then a 1 hour boat drive down to Rhino Camp.  We arrived to large groups of hippo all around and some elephants munching the grass. Major and Patience went fishing twice a day and I went out on a game ride once each evening.  In the morning I enjoyed just sitting in the sun and reading my book while elephants walked by in front of me, munching grass. It was a wonderful and relaxing time.  Just a good time to get away and enjoy a change of scenery during Covid. Fishing wasn't that good for Major and Patience but they caught enough for all of us at camp to have fresh fried Bream for our last dinner there.  Major doesn't eat fish but the rest of it loved it! We returned home on Thursday afternoon.  Zimbabwe had started a very strict lockdown again due to Covid.  Now people have to have a letter from work to travel or otherwise stay at home. You must wear
Read more

Covid-19--The world has changed

-
Image
Throughout the world we are all facing big changes in our life.   Many are on self-quarantine; many are staying home because their state has been put on lock-down and all of us are trying to avoid getting this flu. It has hit Zimbabwe.   We have 5 confirmed cases—1 death and 1 doctor at Harare Hospital, in Zimbabwe.   They supposedly have only tested 150 people and as all of you are aware the results take 5+ days.  The tests are only available in Harare. We have few test kits in the country, no PPE and so nurses started a country wide strike today which means most hospitals are totally shut down.   Our local district hospital—which is our only other hospital in the district besides us—sent a message today to not send any patients as they were closed!   With no PPE you can’t blame people who make little money stopping work.   We hope it will cause some action from the government and not for them to continue to be quiet! We do have PPE here thanks to many donations from
Read more