By: Sr. Francesca San Diego

St. Paul Sisters Rediscover the Vision of their Founder.

Sr. Francesca San Diego is a Filipino- a Sister of St. Paul- working with nomadic people in Cameroon. There she and her companions continue the original plan of their founder working with the poorest of the poor...

Skinned or Scalded
When I decided to be a religious, I also wanted to be a missionary nun. I was filled with the desire to offer my life to serve our sisters and brothers in far-off lands who had not heard our good news and I was ready to be skinned or scalded” in the process. Twenty-six years after-and eight years of mission life in Cameroon, Africa brought the reality and deeper meaning of sacrifice; of death and of resurrection.

Deflated Ego
I had to learn two languages simultaneously: French and Ewondo. The French, to be able to communicate with the Sisters and with the educated adult and school children; the Ewondo to be able to communicate with the elderly and the non-schooled natives who comprised the bulk of our patients coming for consultation and treatment. This called for superhuman effort to study these languages in-between work and to dare speak amidst the amusement of my hearers. After sometime and a whole gamut of feelings of helplessness, frustration and a deflated ego, I did learn to communicate in these foreign tongues...and to laugh with them. In the process, too, I discovered the truth that “love knows no language barrier.” They could see I was there for them- and they trusted.

They Call us Doctor
In Cameroon, we sisters-nurses are addressed as “Doctor” for indeed, when the sick come to the mission clinic, we diagnose, treat and care for them. Licensed physicians prefer to work in the city or in government hospitals in big towns. Every morning, we treat from eighty to one hundred patients- most women and children. Our lay staff work eight hours a day. The sister-nurses work six days a week and are on call every night including Sundays, because the patients or their families insist that only the “soeur-docteur” can help them. Very often, we get patients who are dying, and children who very dehydrated, because it is only when the witch doctors or traditional healers have given up that families rush to the clinic to try the “white man’s medicine.” Most of the time, we work in collaboration with the village healers for the peace of mind of the patients and their families. When we have done all that we can, and only the agony of waiting is left, then we invite the relatives- Moslem, Animist and Christian, to call on God to help their sick love one. There, I saw a miracles happen. There, I felt His presence as He went about instructing the ignorant, healing the sick, comforting the afflicted- through us. There, I experienced the Apostles’ awe and wonder- when they placed in Jesus’ hands the little they had- five loaves of bread and three fish.

Tribal People
For three years, I worked in a remote, underdeveloped region of the Cameroon. There was no electricity or running water. We were only four sisters in the community faced with the numerous demands of the Apostolate. Two of us concentrated on working for the total human development of the Pygmies –the most unprivileged group in that region. We had so much to give- and we had so much to learn from these people. What mattered was not how well we could treat their sick...but how much we knew and understood their customs and practices, to be able to use effectively our knowledge of health care. They had their own intricacies of relationships, individual roles and functions that we had to acquaint ourselves with and respect, if we wanted to walk with them according to their own rhythm. We searched out and tapped agencies that could help them out with technical aspects of development. This meant acting as “drivers” for the staff of said agencies to bring them to the Pygmy camps... feeding them, and more often than not, granting them free medical services.

All Things to All People
When a Pygmy camp asked to be helped in digging their own well, we had to be with them everyday to encourage the men to go on, especially when the water would burst out and their fear of being engulfed was so strong. When another camp asked to be helped in preparing their community’s cacao plantation, we took turns in being with them as they tilled the soil, transported the seedling and supervised the planting and upkeep of their field. When four camps asked to put up their own pre-school, we trained and guided four generous young men to be the teachers as well as community leaders.

The Call of the Forest
In this kind of work, there is no way of measuring results of the days and months of work with them, for the pygmies are nomads at heart and the call of the forest is strong. With out any notice, the whole camp can leave their present dwellings and stay deep in the forest for months. There they commune with God, their hold their traditional celebrations, and enjoy the rich produce of the forest. When they come out, we usually know because they come to us to sell the dried meat and wild animals they have hunted. When joked why they don’t give us ‘for free” as they do the village chief, they say because we Sister are not strangers to them. Pygmy logic? A compliment? A day or two after they have settled down, they ask us to visit their camp...and we begin again.
Yes, love is patient- and when there is love, one is welling to do all and be “all to all.”

Licensed physicians prefer to work in the city or in the government hospitals in big towns.

Without any noticed, the whole camp can leave their present dwellings and stay in deep in the forest for months.