Sacred Heart Hospital, Obudu - 8th April, 1954 - To Emily Timoney's youngest sister, Sr. Áine Timoney

8^th April, 1954

Sacred Heart Hospital,

Obudu,
Ogoja,
Nigeria,
B.W.A.

(Photograph: Leprosy Settlement)

My dear Áine,

I hope you are keeping well. What name did you take? I remembered you at mass for that day & I hope you had a happy day. Please write and tell me all about it. Well, I left Afikpo 2 weeks ago & spent a week at Ogoja Leprosy Settlement to learn a bit about leprosy. I stayed with Denis & Vera Freeman there. They were married in Feb. & arrived back in March. I came out here a few days ago. They left me out on Sat. & stayed til Sunday evening.

We all went for a picnic & a drive up into the mountains. Our compound here is just at the foot of the Obudu-Cameroon mountain range. When we came back the Freemans left & I felt as if they had dropped me in the middle of the mountains, however, I'm getting used to it now.

I'm living here with 3 sisters & so far I do not like the place as well as I liked Afikpo, however thats only a detail! The hospital is not quite ready yet – the building is finished but the equipment is not complete. I'm carrying on with Out-Patients. I had one bad emergency case – a boy of about 11 sliced down the back of his head & deep into the neck with a machette (a long hunting knife). We had a bit of a job rooting through American charity loads for the necessary odds & ends to operate & we have no nurse yet. One of the sisters is a nurse & that is all. We put some cloths in the kitchen oven to try & sterilize them & at this critical stage the cook came along & said he wanted to put bread in the oven! Later I got a boy to carry the cloth across to the hospital in the papers we had wrapped them in. Just as he reached the hospital the whole lot went up in flames & had to be dropped & stamped on – so much for sterilization! However although the kid nearly died under the anaesthetic he came round & is still with us T.G. & I expect he'll do alright now D.V.

(Photograph: Obudu Hospital, 1954)

Please pray for me as it is quite a headache starting off the hospital – they keep asking advice about buildings & printing cards etc. as well as the medical end & you can imagine I haven't much of a clue. There is a leper village here with about 30 inpatients & a few more hundred outpatients. They invited me down yesterday for an address of welcome. There was one amusing bit - something about “I would probably find the climate very hot & trying & different to Ireland but I would get used to it in a Decade! At that stage I really felt I was taking their good wishes & 'dash' (used here for a gift) of a duck, a cock & some yams, under false pretences! 

I met Fr. Kinnane. He lives at Abakaliki which is about 25 miles (& a pontoon) from Afikpo. He is in great form. I was quite sorry leaving Afikpo – the place & the people were all very nice. It's about 200 miles from here – I'm invited down for Christmas Day. I'd hardly be able to go before that. There are a lot of snakes & scorpions round this compound – someone sees a snake every day practically. Mass was very “Palm Sunday” to-day with huge palm branches decorating the walls & matted into an arch over the altar & we were sure we were getting the realy thing in the way of palm leaf! Please write soon. Your birthday is on Easter Sunday this year – many happy returns & if this is in time, a very happy Easter. I had a letter from Sr. Cecilia asking me to write for the magazine on my career and my experiences here.

Lots of love

Emily