By Sr. Christina Gill, MMM                                          Ireland                         17.10.2026

Many years ago, I worked in Fuka, Northern Nigeria. It was a small rural village surrounded by nomadic herdsmen. We had a busy clinic. Shola our chief nurse would open the gates wide on a Monday morning for the patients arriving, usually walking or by bicycle.

This Monday was an extra busy day. We had a new group of infant vaccinations to organise, another group to continue their vaccinations and at the same time we has a group of pregnant mothers to be screened and cared for. Often, we had the problem of men not allowing further treatment for their wives. But Shona, our nurse was used to handling these cases, so when Fatima, a small woman with a large baby, presented needing referral to a larger institution, Shona sat down with Bola, the future father, to get him to agree with a referral for treatment. At first, he had been resistant. “There is no hospital bigger than Fuka!”, he exclaimed, seeing the bustle all around him. But Shona insisted and he agreed.

The clinics lasted long past lunchtime, and I was tired and decided to take a nap. No sooner had I stretched out on the bed than there was a persistent knocking on the window. It was Zach, Father’s houseboy. The priest was in difficulty and sent a note looking for help. “Father fallen in river, come help!”   Zach insisted.  What could I do?  I was a new driver myself and knew nothing about cars or trucks.  But after being encouraged to get a rope, I went with Zach to the river side in the clinic station wagon.  There indeed was Father stranded in the middle of the shallow river, unable to drive forward or backward.  Zach didn’t know how to attach the rope, so a local man from the village came to help and tied the rope, axle to axle.  I was panicking, but Zach was insistent and confident.  “Sister can do it!”, he kept saying.

Slowly I edged the car forward until the rope became taut. I put my foot on the accelerator and slowly the priest’s car was pulled out of the river.  But where to get it fixed?  I ended up towing Father past two villages until we reached the town of Minna.  All the other cars were hooting and jeering – to see Sister towing Father, and not the Sister behind as is fitting for a woman!!