New Laboratory Building is Ready!

The long awaited completion of this building is finally official, and moving in would commence on the day that I left Zimba.

 I had previously posted photos of the mural in the waiting room, but here are some additional elements that were added... In addition, there were several signs and notifications that were needed throughout this building.

 In the waiting room/lobby.

In the phlebotomy room...

Another shot of the waiting room. 

This new building will be amazing to work in... especially if you could see the old laboratory facilities!

Here's a look at just one of the technician rooms, along with John, the carpenter who built all of the cabinetry in the new building.

New friends

 

The 2nd week in Zimba, 3 volunteers arrived and moved into the mission's guest house.  They included Mariah and Becca, med students from Kansas, and Julie, a PA from western Pennsylvania... They would be volunteering at the hospital for a month.

They are truly lovely ladies and we all became friends quickly... We tried to unwind a few times while I was there, like enjoying some ice cream sundaes after a long day.

Mariah even joined us one evening for some painting of a large mural background, as she enjoys painting and had endured a particularly stressful day at the hospital. I like to call it "acrylic therapy". ;0)

I am looking forward to keeping in touch, & seeing how God will use them and their talents for His kingdom.

Dinner at the farm!

Ashley has developed some really wonderful relationships while she was here in Zimba, among them with a woman who, along with her husband, owns a farm.  Mr. and Mrs. Montevance (I'm pretty sure that i just butchered the spelling!) kindly invited us to visit their home and to join them for dinner.
The farm, although simple, was beautiful throughout, and we could easily see the hard work and dedication that was required to keep everything here running smoothly.

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Mrs. M proudly shows off some of her layers ( that's chicken talk)

And here's what happens to chickens who step out of line... They become part of a delicious dinner.

These cattle were impressively huge!

 

Mr & Mrs M's granddaughter Claire cooks our nshima, which is made from ground corn meal, and is part of a Zambian's daily diet.  Loved their outdoor kitchen!

Ashley gets a demo of corn grounding, a critical part of making the nshima. 

And we finally sat down to a fantasic nshima dinner... Mrs M is that kind of hostess who will NOT let your plate ever get empty!

 

Needless to say, we were stuffed. 

a perfect Zambian sunset to end a remarkable day!

Rise Up and Give God the Glory!

Ashley came up with the wording for this mural, which we added to the recently new Radiology/Medical Imaging building... we were back and forth all week, struggling to decide on a design for the waiting area, and finally decided on this Baobab Tree, which holds a lot of cultural significance for the people of Zambia.

here's what the waiting area looked like before we got our hands on it... I would have loved to see Duncan's face when he walked in the next morning!

Duncan, who is the technician who provides xray and ultrasound services, is a great guy,and a pleasure to work with...

I spent a lot of time in this building earlier in my stay, replacing a lot of handmade posters with painted signs, hopefully making the Medical Imaging department more professional in appearance.

Butterflies...

On the last night in Zimba, we added this fun tree to the outpatient waiting room... I noticed previously that during the day, this room is always full of patients and families, patiently waiting to see a doctor.
So this mural will hopefully brighten someone's day!

Ashley stayed up with me for an allnighter to create this design, and we had a great time laughing, singing and joking in our sleep-deprived silliness... It's a very fond memory!!!

The emerging artist who didn't know that she had it in her!

 

 

Some small enhancements...

On the few final days in Zimba, I was able to add some inspiring graphics to some otherwise bleak areas..

 

...like this design in the men's ward.

 

And these small designs that were painted in the Women's Ward...



These were pretty simple designs and small, but will hopefully bless and encourage patients and families who are fighting physical and spiritual battles.

A Window for Baby

This is a piece that I painted in the small neonatal room that housed this little guy...

He was born on December 28th,weighing only a few pounds... Its common to not name babies who are born with smaller chances of survival, just "in case", and this little guy hasn't yet been named.

While I was painting this, the young mama, named Fiuness, was very interested in my paints... before I knew it, she had selected a bottle of pink, and a brush.   When I asked her if she wanted to paint something, she indicated that she wanted her nails to look like my toenails... how cute is that?    

So I offered to paint her nails...

of course, acrylic paint doesn't last long on fingernails, but it brightened her day.

The next morning, before stopping by to finish the painting, I stopped by the market and bought the last bottle of pink nail polish in Zimba (there were 3 other bottles of different colors available)  ;0)   

While I finished up the mural, Ashley painted her nails... It's always the little things, right girls?

 

A New Look for the Chapel

A little late, but here's a look at the chapel...

Before...

And after- 

This project took us forever, it seemed, but was so worth it!   Morning worship and devotions are held every morning, and are open to staff and patients, and anyone else from the area that wants to stop in...  so it is probably the area that is open to most, and welcomes a large diversity of people.

The trees that I depicted on this mural are modeled from real trees that I enjoyed around the hospital and mission complex... this is the Jacaranda Tree... love these trees!!!  Wish I could take it home...

  And these trees where everywhere, and had these beautiful exotic blooms all over-  however, nobody can tell me what kind of tree it is... I want one for my backyard!

Ashley helped by painting the chapel floor.  If you check out the photo above, you can see that she also painted "Jesus Loves you" across the front, per Pastor Chibula's inspiration.   Turned out great!

 

With Pastor Chibula-  This man is a blessing to his community and the hospital.  

His heart's desire was to create an environment of peace and calm when you enter the chapel... 

I was privileged to be able to help with that.

 

and with Ashley, my niece and art student...

although she will balk at this, she really was a huge help in painting during her off-duty hours.  

The grass in the background was actually painted by her

(we have an inside joke about that which makes me giggle whenever I think of it!)