Hospital Baptiste Biblique

     This past weekend was spent traveling to Hospital Baptiste Biblique with a couple of friends. I was excited to get to visit this mission hospital in Tsiko, Togo. I knew about it because it is the site where my church at home, College Park Church, sends teams of missionary doctors and medical teams to work. A couple of people from the ship were interested in going, so we met up and traveled together. Tsiko is about three and a half hours north of Lome, and the roads are mostly paved! Although there were many pot holes to be had, paved roads with pot holes are always better than dirt roads with pot holes. As always, our experience trying to get transportation was a challenge! One of the things I will not miss about West Africa is having to take taxis! Laura, one of the nurses who went on the trip, had already lined up a taxi driver to meet us and drive us to Tsiko. That would have been such a geat idea if he would have shown up to take us, but alas...he did not. After some time, we found another driver and after bartering over a fair price, we set off. Fortunately, Laura speaks a little bit of French after living in West Africa for four years. That comes in handy when you are bartering. I should note here that the agreement was that there would only be four passengers (us) in the small taxi the entire way, we would travel straight from Lome to the mission hospital in Tsiko, and we would pay 2,000 CFAs each (approximately $4.00-5.00 each). Laura knew this was the fair price that most other people have paid in the past. We reviewed this aggreement with the driver multiple times before stepping foot into the taxi; he smiled and shook our hands in agreement. We set off and about an hour and a half into our journey, the poor, battered, little taxi began to sputter along. We had several stops along the side of the road while the driver peered under the car hood. It was not looking good. We nicknamed the car the "little engine that could" hoping it would pull through for us. The driver made it to a roadside mechanic. By this time of the day, the sun was at its hottest. We found a bench under a tree and settled ourselves in for a long break. I did get to finally try water out of a plastic bag while waiting for our taxi to be fixed. Because water bottles are more expensive here, many Africans drink water that is in small 500 mL bags. I learned that its safe to drink the water bags that have blue print on them because they are sealed. After what seemed like a very long time, the taxi was fixed and we set off again. Because its West Africa our transportation adventures weren't over yet. As we pulled into Kpalime, the large city before Tsiko, our driver slowed the car down to pull over. We asked him what he was doing, and he stated this is your destination, I am dropping you off (in French of course). When held to account by Laura about our agreement, he stated he never made such an agreement and tried to charge us the full price. Laura told him if he wasn't taking us the rest of the way, we would not pay him the full price. During this entire exchange, hands were flying, voices were raised; to me it appeared that people were angry. Laura told me later that no one was angry, this is just the African way to barter. The driver tries to rip us off, we refuse; everybody smiles and shakes hands at the end. I still have so much to learn about the culture here. Anyways, we found another driver to take us the rest of the way. He tried to go back on our agreed price too, but we stuck to our guns. It was with a huge sigh of relief that we reached the mission hospital compound. The compound sits at the foot of a mountain with jungle surrounding it. Its beautiful and very peaceful, especially after leaving noisy, busy, dusty Lome. The area around the hospital compound is lush and green, with more wildlife then we see in Lome. There are also numerous, gigantic Termite mounds around the area. I learned later that the mission was built in this location because a missionary was told by God to build it in the area with large, brown mounds. When the mission was built in the early-mid 1980s, the missionaries needed to find a location where a well could be drilled. Apparently, termites need water, so if you see termite mounds, there will be a water source present. This is just one of many neat stories where God provided for this mission.

     The mission has very nice guest houses for visiting missionaries where we were able to stay. Saturday morning we woke up early and met a guide who took us hiking behind the mission into the jungle and up the mountain. We left for our hike at 7:30 in the morning and didn't get back to the mission until 11:30. The trail we hiked got narrower and narrower as we progressed. We passed remote huts in the jungle. Our guide pointed out different trees and plants to us. There were banana, plantain, coco, palms, cassava (like yams), and coffee bean plants. The people that live in these jungles live off the land. We saw lots of strange bugs and birds too. Our destination was a beautiful waterfall. Hiking early in the morning was a wise idea because by eleven am it was hot! The girls had to hike in skirts which I must say is not an easy task along steep, slippery trails. The mission requested that we wear skirts out of respect for the locals in the region. Although I wore bug spray, I still had bites on my legs because I didn't have pants to cover them. After our long hike, we came back and took a refreshing swim in the mission's pool. By this time, it was in the high 90s. The sun is so intense here. Some of our other friends from the Mercy Ship came up to meet us that afternoon which was fun. I also got to meet some of the other missionaries at the mission who have been there for more then twenty years. I'm just in Africa for three months; it absolutely amazes me how some of these people have had the perserverance to be here for twenty or more years. I finally got to meet Katie, a physician's assistant from Indianapolis who has been working at this hospital for seven weeks. Nate Irwin had told me about her before I left, so it was cool to meet her. She gave us a tour of the hospital. One of the girls in our group was able to assist in a c section birth later that night.

     Sunday morning we got up early to round with the physicians in the hospital. It was a really neat experience. They took the time to explain everything to us and I really got to see what it would be like to work in a rural African hospital. They use glass jars for IV solution bottles, and go without many times. Their family practice physicians perform many different surgeries because there is no one else specialized there to do them. They have a NICU/ nursery and pediatric ward. They have a large labor and delivery unit too. While we were there, several c sections were performed. Unfortunately, we were told that many times women come to the hospital after they have been in labor for many hours at home and things are not progressing well. By the time they come to the hospital, sometimes its too late. We saw this the last morning we were there, when we were told one of the women in labor was going to have a stillbirth. They already knew that the baby was dead. One thing I have observed here in Africa is how different death is viewed here than at home. I don't mean that there isn't sadness or grief. In fact, the people here wail and are very vocal with their grief. What is different, is that it is much more accepted as a part of life. People don't seem to fight against it like we do at home. The life expectancy here is much lower than at home, and many people die during childhood as well. We see this acceptance of death in the hospital on the Mercy Ship as well. People expect pain too. Because death and pain are issues confronted more frequently here, I wonder if people here have come to accept them as a natural part of life. Whereas in the Western world, we have tried to prevent death and pain as much as possible, so they seem so unnatural. Along with this idea of acceptance of death, comes I've noticed, an increased faith in God among believing Africans. Many of the West Africans here seem to have real, concrete faith that God will provide. Isn't it amazing that those with little have bigger faith.

James 1:9-11 says, "Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits."

I've been thinking about these themes lately quite a bit. God seems to grant unwavering faith to these people who have so little. They also have much less to compete with their faith in Jesus and they see what He does for them and don't attribute it to chance or good luck. How do I draw on this mentality? How do I become more like this when I go back home? Its not about laying a guilt trip on myself. Its about how much do I want Jesus? Am I uncompromising in my desire to put Him above all other distractions at home?

     This trip was a really valuable one. It made me think a lot. I met some really cool people too. The Dekrygers are American missionaries who are working at the mission hospital currently until ABWE finishes building a hospital in Northern Togo. Then the Dekrygers will be moving up north to head up that medical center. Todd Dekryger was a family practice physician from Michigan who left his practice in 2007 and moved his family to Tsiko, Togo to work at the mission hospital. I was able to meet him, his wife, Jennifer, and their four boys over the weekend. I went to church with them on Sunday morning. They truly love the Togalese people and were a great example to me of what long term missionaries should be. I am thankful that I got to meet them and visit this hospital. I hope I take home with me some of what I learned and saw here.