winds of change

It's been a pretty encouraging time here at Mukinge over the past few
weeks as we continue to improve the hospital and make some changes
here. Thanks to many donations from overseas, we've been able to finish
the expansion and rehab of one of our staff houses here and are starting
on two more in the next month. We're in the middle of building a new
dormitory for the nursing training college with funds from the Zambian
government. We have secured funds from the Churches Association of
Zambia and are building a gift shop to help bring in income for the
hospital and hopefully for local villagers as well. We have also
managed to find funds from the Biet Trust to build a new four-plex
apartment complex here at the hospital to improve our staff housing.
We've also been blessed to buy a new water pump thanks in part to
donations from home and finally install it after 9 months of struggling
so that around 20 of our staff members can have water and electricity
where they have been without for 9 months. I have managed to almost
finish the rehabilitation of the tennis court, which is looking
Wimbelton-worthy. We have purchased and installed a new internal
wireless phone which allows us to roam around the hospital and mission
station when on call, which is incredibly freeing and makes you feel
like you can get out and around without too much pain. We have also
managed to secure funding from Catholic Relief Services to finalize the
internet project here so that all of the staff homes at Mukinge will
have wireless access -- around 200 Zambians and ex-pats alike. Soon we
will embark on a rehabilitation of the administration block funded by
some donors of Lynn, our anesthetist nurse.
It's fun to be a part of things when they are moving forward. It feels
like we're able to make some headway on some projects that have been
maybe sitting dormant for too long. Thanks again for your support.