The Doctors

I am so impressed with the staff at this hospital. There are three supervising doctors: Dr. Mpoo (pronounced em-poe), Dr. Fina, and Dr. Freidhelm. We have eaten meals with all three at our guest house and spent time with them in the hospital for teaching and patient care. Dr. Mpoo is a little older, very experienced, and I suspect, very tired. He has a characteristic laugh. "A he-he-he" in a higher pitch than you expect. He laughs often, even though his circumstances could make him very bitter or grumpy. He has the weight of the hospital on his shoulders as the medical director and his wife died tragically and suddenly this year while he was away from Vanga attempting to get additional training in France (which didn't happen). After explaining to me the circumstances of her death, he quietly said, "This is what God gave me, so I accept." When we were having our VERY sugary tea, bread, and peanuts, which is our only sustainence during a long OR day, he admitted to me that he is constantly pulled in many directions. He said, "To get rest, I need to find a place where they do not know I am a physician. If I go somewhere, people will come find me and ask me to take care of them. I have been asked several times to leave Vanga to go work somewhere else. But how can I leave? I am here because of the people. If I did not work, what would they do? Who would treat them? I am here because of the people." To that end, I have sought to be an encouragement to him, staying until the end of the surgical day so that he is not working by himself late in the day when the other residents or doctors in training have left. I suggested to him that his orthopedic cases make him exhausted, and he agreed. He speaks fair in English, so it is wonderful to operate with him. During one of the fracture cases, which are always done at the end of the day, I tried to cheer him by suggesting that he looks  like he is dancing when he is manually cranking a drill to make a hole in the bone for the screws. I started mimicking his movements and soon he was going "a he-he-he, a he-he-he" while we were sweating to get this femur put back together at 6pm. He then commented, "I think this is a man's dance." Definitely not graceful, that is for sure. 
Then there is Dr. Fina. He is young, looks about in his 30s, and he could pass for an American any day. He is an exceptional teacher. We performed a hysterectomy together today and his most common phrases were, "Please, can you.." and "Perhaps we could..." He is utterly polite, knowledgeable, and someone who could easily work in the big city but chooses to work out in the Bush overseeing the residency program.
Lastly is Dr. Freidhelm. Oh, he would be a character played by Robin Williams on a movie. He has the kindest heart (they all do, really). He is a Friar from Germany. Together with his Brothers from Switzerland and Germany, they have chosen to live in celibacy and wholehearted service to the people of Afghanistan and Congo. He walks with a very determined gait, almost a limp, on his toes, swinging his shoulders and arms at the same time. He is usually wearing scrubs (sometimes you can see his belly peaking from below the scrubs when he sits down). He has thick coke bottle glasses with black rims. When he speaks, it is emphatically. He counts by using 1 with his thumb, 2 with his thumb and forefinger. He will say things like, "First, we HAVE to get this.... Second, we NEED xyz." I have been interacting with him primarily in ultrasound. He is a trained pediatrician, but here has has been forced to be the sonographer. He has had very very little training in obstetrical and gynecological ultrasound, yet here he is, just like the rest of them, reading from a book to learn how to do things. It was such an honor to teach him even the most basic obstetrical ultrasound skills. He was sooo very grateful. He looks at me with the extra big eyes behind the glasses, one hand on top of his head with fingers coming over like bangs, the other hand counting, and says, nearly running out of breath to do so, "See Shannon, I have NO training in this. It is so HELPFUL to get these ideas." What an honor to work among such noble good-hearted people such as I have described above!

We were privileged to share a meal with the doctors. It was a rich conversation. They asked the question,  "What does Evangelistic Hospital of Vanga mean?" They continued to answer it themselves. "It means that we love our patients. That was God’s first commandment, that we love one another. People who come to visit are surprised that we are surrounded by patients wherever we go. When we walk in the hospital, when we go on the road, when we are at home. In other places, those people would not be near to such an important person. But here we love them. That is what it means to be evangelistic."

We said that in St. Louis, even though we are a catholic university and hospital, we would never sing a gospel song prior to clinic as they do in Vanga. “Why?” they asked. It was such a genuine question. Perhaps it is because we have become too specialized and leave all of the God stuff to the chaplain and pastor, as if the physical and spiritual are completely separate. We don’t acutely perceive the need for a savior, but many do turn to God in a crisis. But it seems that in Congo, they have many problems and rely on God to help them solve their problems. Although we don’t have a lot of outward problems such as the need for electricity or water or food (not speaking of the poorest in our country), many do have more inward problems of things like depression, loneliness. Dr. Mpoo suggested that we were made “not to be living alone in the forest, but we should be living in community with one another.” Ryan would say Amen to that one.