Malawi, “The warm heart of
Africa,” has been home to our family for the past nine years. Our kids, Benson,
Hudson, and Jett, have grown up here. They’ve learned their ABCs, transitioned
from balance bikes to pedal bicycles, and planted fruit trees that have grown
taller than anyone in our family.
Not
everyone thought it was a good idea for us to plant an orchard in Malawi. “You’ll
only be there five years,” one friend said. “You’ll do all that work and never get
to taste the fruit.” “Yeah, maybe,” we replied, “but someone else will enjoy it
someday even if we can’t!”
When
my husband, Ryan, started working at the 275-bed Malamulo Mission
Hospital,
he was the only surgeon on staff. The hours were long and the work was endless.
Trained as a general surgeon, he didn’t have the skills to conduct the host of
specialized surgeries needed by many of our patients. So he devoted himself to
learning these new procedures as well. The increased responsibility took its toll.
Ryan’s health began to suffer, and at the end of our first year in Malawi, he
embarked on annual leave with pneumonia and severe exhaustion. I barely
recognized the man I had married.
During
our time away, we asked ourselves some hard questions. How long could he provide
this level of care to the people? Five years? And then what? Who would come to
take his place? The harsh reality hit us: we could toil for years and sweat and
bleed (literally and figuratively) for Malawi, but in the end, there may not be
another surgeon to carry the torch.
The
grind continued for another year, and then we heard about a program that brought
us hope. Dr. Richard Hart, president of Loma Linda University (LLU) in
California, United States, approached Ryan about starting a Pan African Academy
of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) residency program at Malamulo. PAACS
is a non-profit organization created to address the urgent need for surgeons in
Africa. LLU partners with PAACS, providing it with academic oversight and
accreditation. “It’s a great idea,” Ryan told Dr. Hart, “but I can’t do it
alone.”
He
didn’t have to. Dr. Mark Reeves, director of LLU’s Cancer Center and a PAACS commission
representative, provided logistical support, and Dr. Bruce
Steffes, PAACS’s chief medical officer, certified Malamulo as a suitable PAACS
site. Malamulo recruited Dr. Argea Fekadu, an Adventist PAACS graduate from
Ethiopia to help Ryan implement the program. Later we would also recruit PAACS
graduate Dr. Moses Kasumba, our assistant program director. The residency
program was opened in 2014, and we currently have four physicians from various African
countries training to become surgeons.
Recently,
Ryan walked up the long hill from the hospital to our home. It was obvious he
was excited about something, and the kids and I had to know what it was. “I’ve
just watched Dr. Lijalem Taye-Garba teaching a second-year resident how to
perform a mastectomy!”
“Ah, OK,”
we said, “and….?”
“Well,
it’s the first time I’ve realized that soon, Dr. Taye-Garba will graduate and
be ready to perform surgeries back in Ethiopia. He’ll be confident to teach
others under him!”
I had
heard Ryan and other surgeons throughout the years talk about, “See one, do
one, teach one.” This referred to a physician seeing a surgery being performed
then having the knowledge needed to do one. Doing one then provided the
knowledge to teach others the same procedure. PAACS was providing exactly this
experience for our physicians.
In
December 2020, we anticipate that Dr. Taye-Garba will be the first Malamulo
PAACS graduate. An exceptionally humble physician, he has achieved academic
excellence throughout his entire education. As a boy, he crossed three rivers
to get to school and outscored his classmates on tests time and time again. One
of his primary school teachers wrote on his report card, “It is impossible to
say Lijalem started to learn after he was born, it is as though he was learning
while growing inside his mother’s womb.”
Dr.
Taye-Garba and all the residents in the PAACS programs across Africa, infuse
hope into the hearts of missionaries like us. Someday, our family will return
to our homeland. At that point, our boys will likely pine for their rustic
treehouse, weekend safaris, and the trees they have been cultivating in our
garden. And when that day arrives, not only will we be happy to know that there
is abundant fruit in our garden for others to enjoy, but we’ll be comforted to
know that there are surgeons who can carry on the ministry of healing in
Malawi. For even today, down in the theaters of Malamulo there are young physicians
who are learning to “see one, do one, teach one.”
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