June 2009

We continue to be so busy. This week we have been a part of a National Immunization week where we do immunizations here at the hospital and out in our outreach clinics to try and catch up all the kids measles and polio vaccinations. The team going out has been seeing over 500 kids at each spot and they are doing 2 sites a day—so they are getting back after 9 p.m. each night and using their headlights to give injections! As we have lots of moms and babies coming here to the hospital for immunizations it also increases our patients seen in outpatients. They usually decide, since we are here, we might as well be seen for our flu, headache, etc. So we keep very busy!

Even though all hospitals are back open, in reality not much is happening except in mission hospitals. The government hospitals have little staff, no equipment, supplies, drugs, gloves, etc. so people are still coming here from far away areas and keeping us very busy. I am at work at 7 a.m. and on the go until 6 or 7 p.m. many times a week not making it home for lunch. This past month we had 119 new TB patients and we are heading to even more this month. Many people come here because we have a working X-ray and they can barter for their services.

Since the first of the year we have been bartering for our services since most people don’t have Obama dollars which is what the country works in now. We have a chapel full of peanuts, sunflower seeds, ground nuts, cowpeas, beans and maize. Recently in order to help people save their foodstuffs we started taking manure and thatching grass. We went from working for peanuts to working for sh-t! It is quite interesting to see what people bring each day—we will take anything. It also is teaching people to quit saying we have nothing—we make them pay something!

We are making peanut butter from the peanuts, cooking oil from the sunflower seeds and using the rest to feed the patients. We haven’t had to buy food for the hospital in over 6 months—so this has been a blessing to us!

I went to SA in mid-May to see a doctor there. My friends, Ben and Karen Pennington took me down—so I got to lie down in the back of their truck and watch videos the whole way! We went through the boarders in record times and had a good week in the land of plenty. The doctors there found out I had a very resistant bug in my urine and tried me on 3 different meds. I came home on an injectable drug for 7 days which helped but didn’t kill the infection all the way, so sent for more medication and finishing up another 7 days of injections this week. I am feeling much better—can go 3-4 hours without having to run to the toilet but the infection is still there. I may have to go back to the doctors in SA in July.

Major and I are off to Israel on Monday—so will be out of touch for the next 2 weeks. We are meeting up with Larry and Cheri Gail, friends from Seattle to travel, and going to a wedding of a son’s friend in Jerusalem. We are so excited and anxious to get to summer weather and longer sunlight hours! We are in winter now and it has been down to mid 50’s some night! We have Bible study and our movie night outside—sometimes people come with 3-4 layers of clothes on because that is cold for us! I use my electric under blanket I bought in South Africa to warm up my bed!

I signed up for face book to look at someone’s face book—then found out I was given a site. I don’t really have time to check it out with my limited time for e-mail and electricity, so keep sending me notes on this e-mail. Just answering my e-mails takes up the time I have!

We are preparing for our national conference which is August 13-16. We are busy putting in new toilets; we built a block of 4 flats for accommodation and getting our water systems up to par. We are expecting 3000+ people for 4 days and it takes a lot of work and planning. We have 5 cows to serve!

Things seem better in Zimbabwe in that stores have food and we can get most supplies we need for the hospital and building—as long as you have US$. Not much change seen in the unity government and all of our staff get $100US/month. Whether you are a doctor or sweep the floor everyone gets $100/month which is not making most people happy in the government. More doctors and nurses are leaving the country. This week our staff went to get their pay out of the bank and the bank had no cash!

Take care and thanks for your continued support in prayers and financially. We really appreciate it and thrive because of all of you. We visited a new church started 2 years ago at Makowe—in Mujinga area on Sunday. It is a 2 hour ride. We were so excited to see how the church has grown to over 250 people and are so strong. We had provided them some drought relief in Feb through kind donations of donors and this Sunday they paid us back for helping them with bags of sweet potatoes, maize, cowpeas, verges, fruit and beans. All things we can use for patients at the hospital! We were so thrilled to see people appreciating the help and wanting to help us in thanks. This makes us so satisfied to see people wanting to help us after we helped them! We are helping a UK organization to build a school in this area and they are starting this month to build.

Continue your prayers and it is great to hear from many of you in e-mails!

In His Service, Kathy