We reach Lambaréné in our little bus by the end of the afternoon. Tonight we are visiting and staying in the most famous place in the region: the old Albert Schweitzer hospital, the first of its kind on the African continent.
Albert Schweitzer was a theologian, virtuoso pianist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and most famously a doctor who received the Nobel prize in 1952 for his work in Lambaréné. There, with money he had made through fundraising and piano concerts, he built a hospital in 1913, and ran it with the help of his wife, and later his daughter, until his death in 1965: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hôpital_Albert_Schweitzer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hôpital_Albert_Schweitzer
Visiting the old hospital is a deeply moving experience. In these wooden buildings settled on the banks of the mighty Ogooué river, we can feel the presence and the power of “Le grand Blanc”, “The tall White” as the Gabonese still call him affectionately today. Everything is in place as he would just have left the hospital yesterday, and it’s very easy to imagine the doctor’s daily life and work with the patients. Along the visit, we appreciate how much of an extraordinary man he was, saving or improving the lives of thousands of Gabonese, dealing with crazy tropical diseases in very rough conditions, and playing Bach every evening on the piano that still remains today in his room in the museum.
It is astonishing to think that through the willpower of a single man coming from Alsace, a hospital was born in the middle of a deep and unfriendly jungle, at a time when cannibalism was still common practice in certain local ethnic groups, and that its heritage still lives today in the newer hospital nearby. By the end of his life, Schweitzer had gained world fame and knew many of the world’s leading politicians and thinkers personally, from Albert Einstein to André Malraux and the Abbé Pierre. Admirably, until his last day, he remained faithful to the Gabonese and his life’s work in Lambaréné.
You can read more about the doctor’s fascinating life and work here in French: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer or there in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer
Tanad stories from Gabon 
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