Panzi Hospital

What an amazing visit we had at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, DRC!! Mark's friend Leonard's son, Dr James, is a surgeon at Panzi hospital so we'd been in communication with him for some time and had expressed our hope to visit when we were in DRC. In addition, the much-loved and two time Nobel peace prize nominee Dr. Mukwege ((known for his work advocating for and repairing injuries to victims of rape) is the very famous surgeon at Panzi so we were of course hoping to meet him too! We arrived at the hospital several hours later than planned after church, visiting the Pygmy village and handicapped women's center, lunch at Lwabimba's, and a long, slow ride through a gridlocked super-dicey part of town. But finally we arrived at the hospital. As luck would have it, Lindsay desperately needed a bathroom so Dr James brought me and Lindsay on a mini tour while searching for a suitable bathroom. Little does he know that we pack our own tissue and are ok with whatever is available! We've even mastered the seatless hole in the ground! We sure did enjoy the tour though. On our way back to meet the others we walked to dr Mukwege's house to see if he was ready to meet us. Because of a previous assassination attempt (which his bodyguard did not survive) his home is surrounded by a tall fence with razor wire coiled around the top and armed guards. Yikes. All that protection because he speaks out against rape and those who commit rape!!! We ended up gathering in a conference room and wow - what a lovely man! Besides being a world famous surgeon he is also a pastor and has the kindest gentlest spirit. I think we all felt a bit dumbstruck just to be in his presence! After visiting for several minutes we retrieved all our donations for Panzi from the vehicles and it was the doctors' turns to be dumbstruck! They could not believe how much we were able to bring to them, including several thousand dollars worth of sutures!! Both doctors said how infrequently they get visitors and how very much it meant to them to have us come see them offering encouragement and support. All of us were so amazed and impressed by both Dr Mukwege and Dr James and would like to do more to support their work.