Holiday Surprise

Yesterday, July 6, 2016, turned out to be a holiday in Cameroon.  Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the fast of Ramadan, which is a national holiday here in Cameroon.  Following a busy morning of surgeries at the hospital, including removing a large benign ovarian tumor, I discovered that at noon we were done for the day.  It was a beautiful day here at Mbingo, and the hiking here is amazing.  The 16 year old son of another missionary physician offered to guide our family up into the mountains to see the waterfalls from the topside of the waterfalls!  The beauty of these lush green mountains speckled with waterfalls is an amazing contrast to our home in Arizona.  

This little chameleon wasn't too happy that we discovered him while on our hike. He blended in beautifully with the plants that he called his home.

Anna (left) and Amber didn't seem to mind at all that they were standing next to a 1,000 foot drop behind them.  

 This is one of the many waterfalls that can be seen from the front entrance to Mbingo Baptist Hospital, although from the hospital the waterfall is way off in the distance.  Let's just say that this is much more up close and personal!

In a previous blog I had mentioned that the boundary of the land of the hospital is the top of this mountain range and down into the valley below.  The man who donated the land to the hospital believed that the mountains would prevent the spread of leprosy from going over the top of them.  When we reached the top ridge line, we found this barbed wire fence that I suspect was mostly to keep the herds of long horned cattle from toppling over the cliffs, but I couldn't help but think that this was one last "barrier" for the leprosy from going over the mountain.

From left to right: Teresa, Allan, Andrew, Amber, Ty Nowatzki, Anna.

How Mbingo Baptist Hospital Came to Be...

Mbingo Baptist Hospital is a 45 minute drive up the hill from Bamenda, Cameroon, which is a 7 hour drive from the port city of Duoala.  The hospital is nestled along a beautiful, lush green mountain range speckled with waterfalls.  It is a place of such beauty that it begs the question of how could the hospital have ever afforded to purchase the land here.

In the 1950's, in a quest to build a hospital for patients suffering from Hansen's Disease (leprosy), the founders asked one province to build a hospital for their patients, however, out of fear of this dreaded disfiguring disease, they were turned down by the first province and then the second province. The hospital founders then came to Bamenda.  The owner of the land at Mbingo brought the hospital founders up to the top of the mountain behind the proposed location of the hospital.  He believed that the mountain would provide a natural geographical boundary that would prevent the spread of leprosy.


While standing on the top of the mountain, the land owner stretched out his arms as far as they would go and said, "You can have this area" including everything up to the beautiful, majestic green mountain ridges and down into the valley below.

The hospital founders then went out and staked out the property lines and in 1953 opened Mbingo Baptist Hospital as a leprosarium.  Although the hospital still has a leprosy (Hansen's Disease) ward, it also has large surgery, medicine and maternity influence, along with orthopedics, ophthalmology, ENT with speech therapy, and physical therapy and rehabilitation.

It is here that my family is serving for the month of July.  Today, July 4th, was my first full day in the operating room here (except for a little seven year old girl with perineal trauma that I operated on over the weekend).  Later this week I will show you inside the hospital and reveal the inner workings of this place and the ministry that is provided here.

Phoenix to Minneapolis to Paris to Douala, Cameroon

The day before departure is the hardest day.  Trying to pack everything so that each suitcase weighs 50 pounds and finishing up all of the thousands of loose ends at the office, the task can be daunting and is always exhausting.

But today it seems that we, as a family, have done it better than ever before.  On the eve of another great adventure, to go and to serve, to make new friends, to encourage others, to heal others, to touch people and to be the light of the Gospel to those we serve.

Tomorrow will be endless hours of flying and waiting at airports; reading, listening to podcasts and audio-books; trying to sleep in airplane seats, and eagerly awaiting what lies ahead of us as we gradually make our way to a tiny corner of the world, outside of Bamenda, Cameroon.  

Mbingo Baptist Hospital through the eyes of a visiting physician and surgeon and a family of six.  These pages will allow you to peek through our eyes at what lies ahead.  Check back in after a few days and hopefully the internet connections will be functional and ready to share with you a glimpse into this corner of the world and the people who live there. 

The Hole in Our Gospel

This past February (2016) my wife, Teresa, and I were walking out of a hotel lobby in Houston, Texas, to catch a flight home back to Arizona.  Teresa had just been engaged in a conversation with a man named Steve James, a nurse anesthetist who founded an organization KenyaRelief.org.  (Steve James has a remarkable story of his own.  Here is the link.)  As we were climbing into the vehicle Steve handed Teresa a copy of the book The Hole in Our Gospel by the CEO of World Vision, Richard Stearns.  Teresa started reading it and told me that I should read it as well.  I downloaded it and started reading.  

Richard Stearns previously had been the CEO of Lenox.  You know, the fine china manufacturer.  He was challenged to become the CEO of World Vision, and take an enormous drop in income, to lead an organization that is an Evangelical Christian humanitarian aid and advocacy organization that was founded by Robert Pierce (who coincidentally founded Samaritan's Purse).  Bob Pierce had written in the pages of his Bible "Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God."  

As the father of twin Chinese orphans, my heart is easily moved by hearing the plight of orphans.  My Bible has highlighted James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  (New International Version)  

Reading Richard Stearns' book illuminates the tremendous need to the widows and orphans of Africa.  I have found myself devouring the pages of this book with every free minute (and I think that even though Teresa had a head start, that I have surpassed her progress into it's pages.)

Aerial View of Mbingo Baptist Hospital, Bamenda, Cameroon

At the end of June we will be leaving as a family, along with our "son from another mother" Ty Nowatzki, to go and to serve at Mbingo Baptist Hospital in Bamenda, Cameroon, West Africa. An entire room of our house has become a staging area for 18 suitcases (donated by friends), that will be filled to 50 pounds each full of beautiful new German stainless steel surgical instruments, new reusable surgical gowns, 50+ boxes of surgical sutures, silver impregnated surgical dressings, a beautiful new surgical headlight and new pair of surgical loupes.  These will be treasures to the operating room at Mbingo, where brand new top of the line surgical supplies are not easily acquired. 

The suitcases that we are bringing will also be left as gifts for patients at the hospital.  Luggage is extremely expensive in Africa, and considered a luxury, and therefore many people in Africa travel with bags and boxes filled with their personal items.  One of the many things that my family will be doing is working with the many orphans living at an orphanage supported by one of the spin-off ministries near the hospital.  

For all of you have have donated generously to this trip, we are incredibly grateful.  Any money raised from now until we leave will be used to fund the annual expenses of the children at the orphanage.  If you would like to be a part of our team, you can go to this link and type "Sawyer, Allan" into the box that says, "Find Dr./Medical Professional."  Thank you!  You are making a difference in the lives of thousands of lives by helping us to bring supplies, teach, and love on these people.  

Under the Veil

Honestly I didn't want to know what to expect going to serve in a predomintly Muslim area of the world and in this particular area of northern Togo.  How open would these patients be seeing a male gynecologist?  Would they be open to a Christian physician praying in Jesus' name for them?  Would they talk to me?  Would they allow me to examine their most private parts?

Well, I was in for a very pleasant surprise.  Typically as soon as these veiled women walked into my examination room, the veil that covered their faces would be lifted.  Although their husbands typically answered the history questions for them, this was usually due to necessity, as frenquently their husbands could speak French and the women could not.

I was even more surprised that after I had completed the history taking and needed to do a gynecologic examination, that there was not even a hint of hesitiation.  I would turn my back to put on my headlight and my examination gloves, and would find the patient disrobed to an appropriate degree, and completely willing to allow me to examine them.

But even more remarkable to me was, at the end of the visit, I would always ask through Sylvie, my medical assistant and interpretor, if I could pray for the patient.  Not a single one refused.  It was nearly always a very simple prayer, but the effect that these prayers had on the patients was remarkable.  Often the husband would extend his hand, and do the typical regional handshake (grasping the right hand like a normal Western handshake, then reaching above the thumb to the wrist, then back down to a normal shake, then pulling hands apart down to a snap against each other's fingers, following by pulling ones' hand back to his own chest).  At this point these men always had a huge smile on their faces, and typically would say, in English, "God bless you."  These men were so grateful that I was helping their wife.  One man inparticular, after I cared for his wife, brought in his sister and his second wife to see me as well.  (Did I fail to mention that this is a polygamous society?)

On that same point, one of the women that I did a prolapse surgery on, at the time of discharge she had a huge smile on her face and said, in English, "God bless you!"  She was from Burkina Faso, and did not speak English or French, but she had memorized this phrase in English to say to me out of gratitude when I discharge her from the hospital.  I was really touched by this expression of gratitude.

Patient Patients

Togolese people have to be the most patient people, exhibiting patience rarely seen.  These patients will show up at the hospital at 6 o'clock in the morning and wait all day to see the doctor.  My day would start with rounds at 7 AM followed by surgeries sometimes filling the morning.  In between surgeries I would run over to the radiology department to do a hysterosalpingogram on an infertility patient to see if her tubes are open, then return to the operating room.  Often it would then be time for lunch, followed by ultrasound clinic starting at 1 PM and then I would finally get over to the gynecology clinic around 3 PM where the patient patients had been waiting all day to see me.  They would just be lined up on the benches outside of my room, which was room 9.

There was never ever a hint of anyone being frustrated about waiting all day to see me.  Often it was me that was feeling frustrated by a stack of charts, each representing a patient along with their family and translator sitting outside of my door.

Inside the clinic room the following scene would unfold, with Sylvie (my medical assistant and translator) translating my history from English to French and then another translator translating from French to the patients' heart language.  Fortunately much of the history had already been recorded in the paper chart, but sometimes even these notes were in English rather than French.

Word had gotten out prior to my arrival that the specialist gynecologist was coming to the Hospital of Hope.  One common problem here was the result of these women having so many babies.  The pelvic floor prolapse problems were the worst that I have ever seen.  Many women came into the clinic with their genitals completely inverted inside out.

It seems that once I did the surgery to fix the first two of these, then the word really got out.  On the last clinic Friday that I was serving in Togo, a woman came to the clinic begging to see me.  She managed to first get in to see the pediatrician and explained that she had been to the government hospital nearby and had some type of prolapse surgery three years ago.

Dr. Kelley Faber, the pediatrician, sent her immediately over to my clinic room and was the next to last patient to see me in my clinic that last Friday.  When I examined her I realized why Dr. Faber had referred her urgently to me.  This patient also had a complete genital prolapse, with her insides hanging out.

I knew that elective surgeries were not done on weekends, but I was not scheduled to leave until Monday morning.  I wondered if there was some way that I could schedule her for Saturday morning, the next day.  I spoke with the physician's assistant in charge of the hospital "Doctor" Todd DeKryger.  He made some phone calls and got the permission of everyone so that this patient would not have to wait until the next gynecologist came along.

We put her on the schedule for Saturday morning, and I did the surgery in about 90 minutes, doing a vaginal hysterectomy along with a surgery that tacks everything back up inside to a ligament called the sacrospinous ligament.  The surgery went beautifully, and when I saw this patient on Sunday morning before I went to a French speaking church service, she was all smiles and incredibly grateful.

As I reflect on my time at the hospital, I am still amazed at the degree of patience that these patients exhibited, without any tempers flaring.  Their patience was only surpassed by their gratitude.  I was humbled by both.

Better Late Than Never

Let me apologize for those of you trying to follow my blog posts from Togo.  The intermittent and slow internet here has made it much more difficult to post blog posts than to post on Facebook.  I will be making more blog posts after I return to the states, but in the meantime, please friend me on Facebook if you have not done so already.  I have been able to post a lot on Facebook.

Also, Jana Cunningham, an NICU nurse from Banner Good Samaritan is on our team, and she has been writing wonderful blog posts.  You can find her blog at nicunursegoestoafrica.blogspot.com.

Several months ago a doctor arrived at the Hospital of Hope for a short term assignment.  The first weekend she was here, Dr. Kelly Farber said to the short term volunteer doctor, "Go get your bathing suit and let's go for a swim in the pool."  The visiting doctor replied that she hadn't brought a bathing suit.  Dr. Farber said, "Didn't you know we have a swimming pool here?" to which the doctor replied, "I thought you were joking!"

I must admit I could just not grasp a swimming pool in northern Togo, but sure enough, there is a beautiful L-shaped swimming pool behind a 10 foot wall.  A pool company from Texas had donated all of the equipment and manpower.  Alain Niles, one of the long term missionaries here, had dug the hole in the ground with the tractor.  The only difficult task with this is that unfortunately they built the wall before he dug the hole, which made the task far more difficult.

The result, however, is this beautiful pool for the families here to gather and enjoy a chance to cool off.  It was designed so it just gradaually starts off shallow and then gets deeper and deeper and deeper.  I have especially enjoyed going out late at night and cooling off before going to bed, as the pool is just across from the guest house.

Most of my surgeries have been gynecologic surgery dealing with horrible prolapse problems.  Unfortunately the photographs and descriptions are not amenable to publishing on a blog or on Facebook, but these women are so incredibly grateful to be restored to normal anatomy.  One woman who didn't speak French or English went out of her way to learn how to tell me "thank you" in English when I discharged her home from the hospital following a successful surgery.