Baghy

I am a Hungarian ophthalmologist. I had a very happy childhood with my two brothers and a sister. My mother was a teacher and my father was an agronomist. I grew up and had my schooling in Budapest. I was exposed to city life and since my father worked on various farms in the countryside, my mother and the whole family enjoyed the school holidays in a rural setting. We children loved that and we longed to leave the noisy and polluted city and have a change at the farms.

I actually met my husband, Istvan, during one of these summer holidays. I was a finalist at the Budapest Medical School and he was a Lecturer at the same University in the Department of Neuro-Psychiatry. He volunteered to be a medical doctor for the fruit picking girls' summer camp which incidentally was in the same government farm where my father was stationed. As I was preparing for my exam in Neurology, he offered his help and I accepted it. As a result, we married soon and I started my residency programme in ophthalmology at Esztergom Municipal Hospital in Northern Hungary.

I never thought that Istvan's adventurous nature and obvious interest in helping suffering people would bring us to Africa. Three years after we were married with our 18 month old son, Andreas, we started our first adventure in Uganda. Istvan lectured at Makerere University in Kampala, and I was a fulltime housewife and mother. We spent 4 years there and while on an annual leave, our younger son, Michael, was born in 1976. It was good to learn about another culture and to learn the language. I really enjoyed those years in Uganda, despite the troubled Idi Amin era.

After returning home, I specialized in Ophthalmology and continued working at Esztergom. It was an advantage of the socialist regime that our jobs were kept while we were in Uganda. After a few years working in Hungary, a recruiting team came from Nigeria and they were looking for ophthalmologists and psychiatrists. Once again we were off to Africa and I joined the Maiduguri Eye Hospital and Istvan was attached to the Psychiatric Hospital and Unversity of Maiduguri.

The 2nd adventure, from 1982--1987 brought a lot of professional experience for both of us and we met many new friends and with God's grace nutured our Christian commitment. By that time, Andreas was 10 and Michael was 7 and we decided to send them to Kent Academy, an SIM boarding school in Miango, more than 600km from Maiduguri. Almost every fortnight we visited our sons and had lovely long family weekends but it was often heartbreaking to part with them. In Miangowe we me Dr. Stanley Myers, an optomotrist who founded the Optical Workshop at Kano Eye Hospital and had worked there more than 40 years. Through him I came to know Kano Eye Hospital and later, CBM too.

In January 1993 I received a letter from Dr. Myers asking me to come and help out Kano Eye Hospital for a short term. I was happy as well as frightened and challenged at the same time. I knew that a hospital with 170 beds meant a lot of work, and would I be able to cope with it? I put it aside for a few weeks and then with the support of my husband and our sons, I made the decision and contacted CBM. In January 1994, I was back in Nigeria for three months, leaving my family in Hugary. This is how my Kano career began. The Lord used Dr. Myers to call me there and CBM to send me.

In the short-term at Kano, I worked with Nigerian, German, Swiss and Polish colleagues. It was here that I met Dr. Joe Taylor for the first time though we had had several telephone conversations about operating loupes and other professional issues, including the troubled history of Europe. I will never forget that we always mentioned the "blue Danube" where he wanted a boat trip. I t was a privilege to work with him, to experience his presence and enjoy his loving frienship. During my short term work in Kano Eye Hospital, I was encouraged by the African hospitality, and by Dr. Joe Taylor's high competence and shining Christian commitment. I got the necessary confidence to apply for a long term contract and in September 1994 we came back to Kano. Istvan joined Kano Medical School and though his work in Psychiatry and Neurology is a bit far from Eye surgery, we often talk about work too and even do outreach programmes together. Our commitment to work for people with various disabilities has brought us closer to each other and opened up exciting areas of family and social life too.

I am happy to work at Kano with a Christian team and a dear colleague like Dr. S. Kirupananthan. I also feel privileged to have worked with Dr. Housman and recently with Dr. Eddyshaw. The variety of clinical pathology in tropical and general ophthalmogy, the personal interactions with patients, the teaching of Diploma of Ophthalmology students, are every day challenges for me. I enjoy this active life and find opportunities to witness for Christ by showing His love and often without words, just talking in the language of the needs of suffering people.

Finally I wish to add also that I am a Grandmother of two wonderful little boys, Benjamin and Roni, who are special blessings from God.

Gizella Baghy