by Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer MMM                               USA                                               29.03.2025

The Marie Reparatrix Sisters were there to meet me on my arrival in Entebbe, and I stayed with them. They themselves did not appear to be too upset with the news of the coup and one of them took me to the market to buy some meat. I can still hear her crying “Ssebo”, sir, in a loud voice to a man selling meat. He was a distance away and she did want to get his attention to get a good buy for the convent. I was glad for a little rest for a few days until Pentecost Sunday. Sr. Roberta Smith, who had been on retreat in Kisubi, came to collect me with a Missionary of Africa, Fr. Robert Gay. He said I brought them good luck as they had no roadblocks after I entered the car. Father Gay drove us safely to Masaka about 100 miles away.
When we reached there the Sisters were delighted to see us. The Community at that time was Srs. Ita Moore, Ita Barry, Augustus Doyle, Marie Slevin, Roberta Smith, and Aquinas Conlon.

Most of the people had fled the hospital and one woman cried and cried in the children’s ward and it took a few days before she could tell the sisters that she had been on the bus with her father, husband and sick child when Obote’s men came and got all the Baganda men off the bus and shot them dead in front of her
My heart went out to her and all she intensely suffered.

Milton Obote was the king’s Prime Minister and successfully overthrew the king.
Anyone who was educated abroad seemed to be a target to be killed. A Doctor who was practicing at his home in Nyendo was killed and his patients who were waiting on the veranda were killed. This news was terribly upsetting to me and for all the Sisters and people in the area.

It took three weeks for things to return to normal. We heard that the Kabaka had dressed as a woman and had walked to Rwanda, sleeping in ditches by the roadside, and from there got passage to England. He died there about five years later and was brought back to Uganda for his burial.

I soon settled into hospital life. Sister Doctor Augustus Doyle divided the work in that she would look after the children’s’ ward and the outpatients and I would look after the Maternity and Male and Female Wards. There was a Government Hospital four miles away that had an experienced surgeon. Specialists were eighty specialists.
miles away in New Mulago Hospital, Kampala. I also referred patients to Ensambya Hospital which was run by the Dundalk Franciscans. Sr. Sheila Cotter’s Sister, Doctor Veronica Cotter, became a great friend of mine. She later left and became a Poor Clare. I missed her very much.

A lay Doctor, Peter Gaffney and his wife came in 1967 for two years. Peter was incredibly good at surgery. We had a lovely theater block which was built with lottery money raised by the Blessed Sacrament Fathers. They were so successful that the Government took over the lottery. Dr Gaffney wanted to give the two years of his life to the Missions, before settling down in Ireland. He and his wife were blessed with a baby boy during their time of service. Sr. Augustus Doyle went to work in the Medical Bureau of the Catholic Secretariat. She did great work there. Because of her being there, I was chosen to join a group of doctors who traveled to Tanzania
for a medical meeting. It was a wonderful experience, and I am grateful to her for picking my name out of a hat.