Where we Work
What we Do
An African Miracle
An African Miracle
An African Miracle
by Daniel Ohmann
originally printed in Maryknoll Magazine (June
04, 2007)
Maryknoll missioners in Tanzania help Watatulu man and his mother face life
with a new-found freedom
His name is Gwalenyig. It means "old man." That tells you a lot about him. He is of the Watatulu tribe, a Nilotic group of about 80,000 cattle people living in the Rift Valley, probably the most remote part of Tanzania. The area is so isolated that I have not come across a single case of AIDS among them.
The Watatulu, who are fiercely proud and independent, have steadfastly resisted evangelization, even as their own beliefs are based on fear: particularly of death, witchcraft and evil spirits. From the Watatulu point of view, evil spirits are what made Gwalenyig an "old man." He was born with severe "cleft palate" so that from his birth he already looked old.
I had met Gwalenyig only once, eight years ago when he was 13 or 14 years old and I was beginning mission work among the Watatulu. I had only a glimpse of his deformed face, which he always covered with a blanket so you saw only his eyes. He didn't talk. The upper palate in his mouth was missing and all you heard was a grunt. The middle of his upper lip was attached to his nose. You couldn't help but feel such sorrow for him and his dignified-looking mother, dignified through her patient suffering. Her husband had died and she was now the second wife of his older brother, according to Watatulu custom. I wondered what she felt when she saw the misshapen face of her newborn, because it is she who called him Gwalenyig—old man.
About a year ago, I picked up an old edition of a newspaper. There was a short article saying some doctors from Australia, specialists in cleft lip and palate surgery, were coming to Tanzania. Maybe the doctors could still help this boy, who by now would be a young man.
I contacted Liz Mach, a Maryknoll lay missioner and nurse from Minnesota who worked at the Bugando Hospital, which Maryknoll was helping to develop. She checked and confirmed the doctors were coming to Mwanza.
I hadn't seen Gwalenyig since that glimpse eight years ago, but went looking for him. I found him herding someone else's cows. The village elders agreed he and his mother could go with me to Mwanza, the big city. It was like going from Lake Wobegon to Minneapolis for the first time in one's life.
Liz took over! The mother would return with me, and Liz would watch over the young man, who would probably have to stay in Mwanza for six weeks.
Gwalenyig was the hospital's first Watatulu patient. He was dressed only in a worn pair of shorts, sandals made from old tire tread and his faded blanket, with which he covered his face and body. He became known and loved as just "Liz's Lad."
Talk about miracles! After surgery, the first thing Gwalenyig did when he saw himself in a mirror was throw away his blanket. He is now waiting for later this year, when the doctors return to close the hole where his palate is supposed to be. "He'll be married within a year!" another young man told me when I brought Gwalenyig home.
The greatest miracle for me, though, was seeing Gwalenyig and his mother freed from the "evil spirit" that caused his problem. "What must we do to join you?" she asked me.
She now knew there was a way out of a life of fear of evil spirits. She's heard the Good News and wants to know more.
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Father Daniel Ohmann, from Freeport, Minnesota, has worked in Tanzania for more than 40 years and with the Watatulu since 1998.
© 2010 Maryknoll Fathers
& Brothers Africa Region