For 51 years, Auguste lived a healthy, active life. He trained in the Senegalese military, moved north to the capital city of Dakar, raised a family, and found his passion as a schoolteacher. 

Then, one day, Auguste noticed a spot on his face. Three years later, this spot started to grow. Over the next five years, it ballooned into a massive tumor protruding from his cheek and mouth. 

By the time he was 64 years old, Auguste had been a recluse for years, going outside only before dawn, for fear of neighbors throwing things at him. His community was afraid that that getting close to Auguste would result in becoming “contaminated.” 

“All of my activities have stopped. I don’t really do anything,” said Auguste. Chief among his losses was his profession. Saying his students feared him, Auguste found that his tumor was distracting from his lessons, and it was decided that it would be best for him to leave the classroom, as well as his office as headmaster. 

Past retirement age anyway, it was obvious to everyone who met him that Auguste was not teaching for the money. He had sought for decades to instill “the intellectual capacity to be able to rule the country” in his students, viewing each one as “a person who will be someone tomorrow.” 

Auguste searched unsuccessfully far and wide for years to receive surgical care – until the day he heard that Mercy Ships had come to the port of Dakar, only 10 miles from his home. 

A Preventable Condition 

American otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat) surgeon Dr. Josh Wiedermann met and operated on Auguste during his first week volunteering for Mercy Ships. He explained, “This type of condition is seen in high-income countries like the United States but in very early stages. With routine dental examination X-rays, these types of lesions are picked up before they really can be seen from the outside.” 

Dr. Wiedermann explained that although Auguste only noticed the tumor at age 51, “Auguste would have developed it somewhere in the second or third decade of his life, and it comes from the enamel of the tooth within the mandible, and it will slowly grow over time, but you can think of it like blowing up a balloon.” He continued, “There’s a lot of resistance early on, and then at a certain point, that resistance is overcome, and it starts to expand quickly with little force.” 

By the time he boarded the ship, Auguste was experiencing many physical repercussions from his tumor. Eating textured foods had become difficult, and he could only speak out of the corner of his mouth. The sheer mass of the tumor also made it difficult for him to rest his head comfortably, so he was sleep-deprived. Although the condition seemed to have plateaued, Dr. Wiedermann did not take this stability for granted. 

“This is a really unfortunate tumor that really must be treated. It will always grow. It really doesn’t burn out, so it will continue to consume more and more of the mandible bone,” he said. “Eventually, that can cause difficulty eating or breathing, and become a life-threatening issue.” 

Although the international volunteer nurses on board the Global Mercy™ noted how agreeable Auguste was, he admitted afterward that it was not easy: “You have to open up yourself, then someone can help you—and you have helped me.” 

When he finally went into the operating room for surgery, Auguste was giddy. He was ready to get his life back. 

Return to His Calling 

It was on the Global Mercy that Auguste saw his face in the mirror tumor-free for the first time in 13 years. 

Six weeks later, Auguste was discharged from the floating hospital, and he went home to his wife Claire, as well as their adult children and young grandchildren. Walking freely around the neighborhood, he was greeted with happiness and disbelief. “I can’t explain their reactions when they saw me after the surgery,” he said. “I was well welcomed—very well received.” 

Starting his next chapter as an educator suddenly seemed feasible, and Auguste saw a world of possibilities. He was now dreaming of opening new schools “in order to reduce unemployment” where needed across Senegal. “As soon as I am healed,” he said. 

But when Auguste returned to his elementary school for the first time in six years, he found that he was exactly where he needed to be. 

“We’re very happy to have him back at school because we didn’t know what to do; we’ve waited for so long,” admitted Mamadou Bamba Ndiaye, who had succeeded Auguste as headmaster. “The most vulnerable kids—he used to go to their homes to help them. He was giving home classes for free.” 

Auguste found that nobody had taken up his mantle of going above and beyond to be “in constant contact with the parents,” so the kids who needed more motivation were dropping out of school. “When I went back, I noticed that the school was very quiet,” Auguste said. “The number of students has decreased. There’s no longer any atmosphere.” 

Although it will take time to get his own school back on track, Auguste still has his sights set on opening others in the future, starting with one in Senegal’s second-biggest city of Touba. For Auguste, his calling is clear: “I’m only here to help underprivileged and orphaned children—to teach them if I have the means.” 

 

Want to be a part of making lifesaving transformations possible for many more like Auguste? Visit mercyships.org to learn more about how to get involved in Mercy Ships’ mission: bringing hope and healing, in the 2,000-year-old model of Jesus.