Sunday 23rd February, 2003

With all the news on war and rumors of war I thought I would try and share some good news that has been happening here on this side of the world! We have had an exciting past 2 weeks here at the mission. Of course, it doesn't take much to be entertaining out here in the bush!

On Friday night March 7th we decided to have our first dinner to honor long term staff members. All staff who had worked 10 or more years at the hospital were honored. We had 22 people-5 (including me) who have worked 20+ years! We decided to have a special sit down dinner and each person was able to invited 1 guest--so with our Administration and guests we expected 46 people! I was elected to cook dinner for everyone! We had roast beef (23 pounds), mashed potatoes (40 pounds), peas (10 tins), gravy (2 large pots), rice (12 pounds), coleslaw (4 cabbages and 4 packages of carrots) and chocolate cake (5!). I took Friday afternoon off to cook and hired people to peel potatoes! They peeled for 3 hours straight! As I was cooking the electricity went out 2 times for 30 minutes--I was beginning to panic! But got it all done, the tables set with dishes and silverware and candles and flowers. We made special certificates and gave money to each of the recipients! Many staff members commented that they thought they were eating out at a hotel! We had a wonderful time and there was only a small pan of mashed potatoes left over, which we shared with the patients the next day! We hope to continue each year honoring people from 10 years onward.

At 5 a.m. on 11th of March our 40 ft. container that had been sent by a medical missions organization, FAME (in Indiana) arrived. In a country that has been struggling with a drought all year--it had been raining for 5 straight days before the container arrived and the day it arrived it continued to rain! We were getting the remnants of Cyclone Japheth off the Mozambique coast which caused flooding in Eastern and Northern Zimbabwe! What maize wasn't burnt by the sun got washed away by the floods in many areas!

The plan was that the truck would back up into a pit we had dug and they would roll off the container with our tractor pulling it! Of course the container weighed 12 tons! It was a good idea, but with all the rain the truck immediately got stuck in mud trying to back up! They spent several hours digging and pulling it out with tractors and finally at about 5 p.m. the truck managed to back up into the unloading area! It was quite a sight to see so many people helping to dig and pull. We got the whole community involved and there were so many "experts" offering their advice on what we needed to do. It rained the whole day! The builders and workers working on our building project got pulled to help--everyone was soaked! I kept running out between patients checking on the progress and taking pictures! We had school kids lined up to watch--what entertainment!

Finally they got about 1/4 of it off onto the loading platform and we decided it needed to be totally unloaded before we could easily get the container unloaded onto the platform--so at 7 p.m. we started to unload. Most of the men had worked from 7:30 a.m. in the morning without stopping and no food! Finally at 8 p.m. we stopped for the night and fed everyone! The next morning we started again--it continued to rain the whole night and into the next day!

We got it all unloaded and then easily rolled the container (now empty) onto the platform! Then getting the truck out was another story! Immediately they got stuck again and it took several hours to dig and pull them out before we could send them on their way! I am sure they were sorry they took that job! It continued to rain for 2 more days and finally on Friday after 10 straight days of rain we saw the sun again! We were beginning to think that the container was sent as the "ark" we needed to float out of here on!

After we unloaded it all we loaded it back up the next day! Our poor workers were so tired! We wanted to keep the things in the container for safety and unload bit by bit. I spent 5 hours on Saturday morning working with 4 ladies unloading and sorting through things! It was so exciting to see things that were in the container and we are sorting through things for Makonde and here and some of things we will also share with some of the government hospitals as barter for our patients to get treated!

We were down to our last package of suture we could use for C/Sections (and we need 2 packages for 1 C/Section) and we were unsure what we were going to do! One of the first boxes we unloaded in the rain (on Tuesday night) I spotted suture! It was like Christmas! We haven't even been able to buy any here--so to get some we were so excited! Mrs. Kwatchenera who works as our theater aide (operating room) was dancing and ululating when she saw it too! Of course Friday evening we had a C/Section to do!

We are also so excited to see progress on our AIDS/Education Learning Center which we started to build on in January. We finally were able to get several bags of cement and get started. We were down to a 2 day supply of cement left and heard that there was cement at a township about 20 miles away. Sunday we sent the trucks and drivers to buy all they had and we got the last 130 bags they had left. We had to make several trips and on the last trip a man showed up to buy 40 bags of cement and was very angry to hear we had bought it all! We still need to find about 20 tons more to finish the project, so we keep hunting! God seems to provide when we need it, so we keep building! Now we are trying to find brickforce (put in between the layers of brick for strength! It is like a treasure hunt trying to get all we need for building in this country! Keeps us busy and etertained!

We are in a hurry to get to roof level by mid-May since we are excited to announce that we have 2 work teams coming to help with this project. Also a special team of 3 people from my church in Sebastopol, CA; will arrive on May 23rd for a month to help in getting the roof on the building and directing the work teams coming. Bob Coibion, Gene and Sue Beckstead came in September 1999 as part of a work team from Sebastopol who put the roof on our Maternity wing and new theater (operating room)! So when I wrote and asked them to help with this roof--they said yes! So I am busy stock piling groceries, so we have enough food to feed everyone. The 2 work teams are coming from Adventure Christian Church in Roseville, CA and there are 10 in one group for 3 weeks and 9 in the other group for 3 weeks! Keep praying for these people as they prepare to come!

Major and I will take off for Harare tomorrow to spend 2 days running around trying to get supplies for the hospital. We finally got some TB drugs for the hospital yesterday so that we can give full treatment to our patients again! We didn't get alot--so it may run out again before too long! We will come back on Saturday morning.

Just got word that our 20 foot container sent by Ringwood Presbyterian Church in NJ arrived in Harare and is in the process of being cleared by customs! It should maybe get here next week. I wonder if the same trucking company will agree to come again-ha! Now I just need time to unload and sort it all----help!

Started this morning with a C/Section at 3:30 a.m.! Got home in time to shower and get ready and go back to work at 7 a.m.! We haven't had a middle of the night Section for awhile--so we can't complain, too much!

Take care and keep in touch!

Love, Kathy