“Welcome!” Dick Dennis called out to her, and hurried toward her. He was wearing a short white doctor’s coat over a Hawaiian shirt, with jeans and hiking boots, and he hugged Véronique as soon as he reached her. She had traveled in jeans and hiking boots too. The nuns came back down the steps of the building that looked like a school and were smiling as they came toward her. One was tall, heavyset, and older. Another looked barely older than Véronique and had an angelic face, and the other two were somewhere in their thirties, as closely as one could tell with the short white coifs of their habits. Their habits just reached their ankles, and they were wearing hiking boots too.
“Sister Anne,” Dick Dennis said, introducing the older one, who beamed at Véronique. Sister Claire was the younger one, and the two in the middle were Sister Rita and Sister Charity. He had decided not to explain the circumstances of Véronique’s stay before she came, and to let her do it, if she chose to. He didn’t want to precede her with a tragic story if she didn’t want to share it. All four nuns looked delighted to see her.
“There are twelve of us here,” Sister Anne explained, referring to the nuns, “you can figure out the names later. We have a room all ready for you.” She pointed to the building they had just come from. “That’s our monastery, our dormitory, as we call it. The nurses live with us too, and we have some guest rooms for visitors. We’re so happy you’ve come to visit.” Véronique could hear that Sister Rita was French when she spoke to her. They were the happiest looking women she’d ever met.
“I’ll give you a tour of the hospital after you settle in,” Dick Dennis promised. “You must be exhausted.” But she didn’t look it. She looked fresh and excited to be there.
“I slept on the plane,” she explained. Sister Claire took her bag from her, and they led her to the convent. There were people milling around in the common area between all the buildings. There were trees for shade and flowers everywhere. It looked like paradise to Véronique, and she was thrilled to be there. She felt like she was walking into a girls’ school. There were more nuns in the halls, and a few nurses in white uniforms.
“We’re one big happy family,” Sister Claire explained. “There are ten nurses as well as the twelve nuns. Most of the nurses are British. Sister Rita is French, like you. And there are two Australians, and an American. We do a lot of surgeries when the visiting doctors are here. They rotate in and out for a month or two at a time. Dr. Dennis is here three months of the year. It all rolls pretty smoothly. Are you a nurse?” the young nun asked Véronique.
“No, I’m just interested in what you do here. Dr. Dennis told me about it, and invited me to come and see, so here I am,” she said, feeling like the new girl at school.
“We gave you a single room,” Sister Charity volunteered. “Most of the nurses share but they’re on different shifts so it works pretty well. We just finished our shift, so we come back to the monastery for our evening prayers before dinner.”
“How many children do you have in the hospital?” Véronique asked, as they walked to her room.
“Usually around eighty. We can handle close to a hundred in an emergency. They bring us children from the surrounding areas and villages. Some of the minefields haven’t been fully explored and cleaned up yet. And sometimes we get children who have lived with their injuries for a long time and were never properly treated.”
“That’s a lot of children.” Véronique looked impressed.
“A lot of children need us here,” Sister Anne said. “A lot of injuries, and serious accidents, severed limbs, infections that go untreated, and then require amputations. We keep our doctors busy.” They had reached her room by then. Sister Anne opened the door, and Véronique was surprised to see a big airy room with a fan turning overhead on the ceiling. There was mosquito netting over the bed, which they called “bed nets,” and all the furniture was painted white. There were screens on the windows, and gauzy curtains. She had expected a small dark cell, and instead everything was clean and bright, including the bed, which was freshly made for her and looked very inviting after her long trip, but she was determined to stay awake until bedtime, to get on their regular time.
“There’s a shower down the hall,” Sister Charity explained. “Just put your name down on the schedule. You have priority since you’re a guest.” Sister Claire giggled. “The dining room and the kitchen are at the far end of the building. Breakfast is from six to seven, when the shift changes, lunch is from twelve to one, and dinner is at six. We have local women who do the cooking, and the food is delicious, mostly local dishes. There’s a cottage where the resident doctor lives, behind the hospital. Do you need anything?” she asked with wide eyes and a warm smile.