Sisters of Egypt

The Sisters of CharityCairo, Egypt, August 2006

Day 1

Perrine and I arrive at the House of the Sisters at 8am, as we had been instructed to do so by Sister Francina. She happens to be out today, so we are received by Sister Marie-Lucette. What a pleasure it is to be re-discovering the love-filled smiles of the Sisters of Charity. The rest is all a bit of a blur as we enter anew a place admittedly of great suffering, but transcended by the sisters love for the patients.

Sister Francina leads as to the office and informs us that two other volunteers have been there since a week ago, and will leave in a week’s time. They are Bernard and his friend Christina. They are Maltese. Bernard is a social worker in Malta and is involved in working with immigrants. Christine, for her part, is finishing her studies to become a teacher.

Bernard gives me a tour of the house. It is made up of two distinct buildings, built around a church and a small wooded court. The first building contains an office, the sister’s living quarters and also female patients. This is where Perrine will be spending most of her time.

I myself will be in the second building, which includes the medical cabinet, the food store, the visiting room and the men’s living quarters. The House of the Sisters is located right in the heart of Cairo, and the space is not all comparable to that which the brothers benefited from in Mysore, India.

The sisters are about 8 in number. There is a Romanian, an Egyptian, a Kenyan and 5 Indians. There is also a group of Egyptian assistants and also two Indians who are there for a year. They live on-site and help the sisters out with daily tasks.

There are 55 patients in all, of which just over half are men. They are all elderly and have various mentally and physical disabilities.

As is always the case in Mother Theresa Houses, the volunteers have to just jump straight in at the deep end, as everyone is too busy to give out instructions about what to do. Out on the terrace of the building I discover a group of assistants in the middle of doing the washing. I go into the group and offer to help. Thirty minutes after arriving, I find myself doing washing clothes by hand. Everything is washed daily, and the washing consists mainly of clothes, but also cloths, hand towels and so on.

First of all we soak the linen, after getting rid of the “the big stuff” (these are all elderly people and so it is easy to imagine what we find in here!) Next we place the linen in two big basins containing detergent and we boil it all. We then remove the linen to be washed by hand in another basin, a very large and deep one. To this we add a new round of detergent and some bleach-water, and we rub it all to get rid of the stains, after which the linen is rinsed in two bathtubs. The really dirty linen is put out to be boiled for a second time with bleach- water, and then scrubbed. Suffice to say that after two hours of this regime in a strong heat we are happy to go into the office for a cup of tea.

Laurent Vinay – Août 2006 1

After this first break, I am introduced to Sister Lucille who is Egyptian and speaks French because she worked at the House of Sisters in Paris. I hand over to here the bags of medicines and other urgent deliveries that I brought over from Paris. Sister Lucille then asks me to accompany her to the infirmary where she gives me the French medicines that she has in her cabinet and has me write the instructions and posology for each on the box.

This task takes me up to dinnertime, where I am required to serve the food onto the plates and to pass these around to the patients. Once I have done this, I give out glasses of water and help some of the patients who cannot drink by themselves.

I then join others in the washing-up area. There are three of us and we do the job rather quickly, as the crockery used is quite simple.

The clock tolls midday, meaning that it is the hour of prayer. Bernard, Christine and I join the sisters in their chapel.

After praying, the sisters return to their quarters to have their meal. In contrast to the brothers, the sisters are obliged to eat amongst themselves. Thus, we join up with those who live in the building and lay the table. There are 8 of us seated around the table.

Just as I am starting to serve myself, I don’t know who it is but somebody stops me in my tracks. It soon dawns on me, and I realize that we wait until everyone is seated before saying grace before beginning the meal! I had been blissfully unaware and was about to dive straight into the food.

During the siesta, Perrine and I take the chance to go for a walk around the area for an hour. We return, and take a nap for half an hour or so.

After the siesta Perrine and I prepare the tea and the light snack which replaces dinner on a Sunday. Perrine goes back to the women’s quarters and I to the men’s. What I stupidly assumed to be a ham sandwich was actually made with corned beef. It had slipped my mind that we are in an Arab country where pork is a scarce commodity, the same being true of non-Moslems.

During tea, Sister Lucille asks me go ahead with giving out medication. I am not familiar with the various conditions of each patient. Sister Lucille explains to me that most of them suffer from cardiac inadequacies. Others have mental problems, which require medical treatment. The doctor comes one afternoon a week to check up on the ill. The other patients are simply very elderly and have no other place to go except to the house of the Sisters, so that they can die in dignity, as was extolled by Mother Theresa. But remember! The sisters remain faith to the principle of Mother Theresa, only accepting “the poorest among the most poor”.

I have already made myself a buddy. His name is Saddik and he never moves from the balcony on the first floor, from where he beckons to me with a large smile to bring him his medication and that I refill his water bottle. Each patient possesses his or her own bottle that is re-filled from a fountain of clean water. When I arrive to where Saddik is, he gets all excited and hugs me. I re-fill his glass of water and I give him his medication, before going back to attend to some other patients who need assistance with drinking.


It is Sunday today, and at 1730 a priest comes to celebrate the parish mass in the church. He is a young Franciscan. The mass is held in Arabic. The men are on one side and the women on another. The catholic patients who wish to help out with the mass are dressed in the same sky-blue djellaba. As with the brothers in India, we take communion in two separate groups and after having finished with the audience, the priest goes to distribute communion to patients who are bed-ridden and wish to receive. The Sunday mass thus replaces this day the worship of the Blessed Sacrament which is normally required at the Missionaries of Charity.

And so this marks the end of the first day, rich in rediscovered emotions and particularly that of seeing a smile spread over the face of all the people, happy that someone is there to be with them and like them.

2nd Day

We arrive at 745, but the washing is already done. Over a cup of tea that we drink with the other volunteers and the assistants, I learn that one of them called Marie, who is Egyptian, has left Cairo today for Rome. She will rejoin the European training centre of the Sisters where she will spend the next 5 years. Her brother, who is the only member of her family, arrives at the house and gets in the sister’s minibus to take Marie to the airport.

On the same day one of the Indian Assistants also leaves Cairo for India after spending a year with the sisters. The other Indian helper who is called Sujata is inconsolable at losing two people close to her on the same day.

After the minibus has left for the airport, Sister Jaison comes to ask me to help with cutting the nails of patients. I get stuck into this task, armed with a nail-clipper. Having two left hands and having enough of a hard time cutting my own nails, it is easy to imagine what happens when I try to cut those of other people.

The first victim if a man who has on his finger a huge signet ring with am effigy of the Virgin Mary. I start out pretty well with his little finger. But perhaps distracted by this huge signet ring, I confuse for a moment the nail and the finger. The poor man shouts and by some miracle, I understand Arabic perfectly! I have to insist that he lets me continue. Bu a stroke of luck, all ends well. It is important to add that this is a two-part procedure. First of all I remove the dirt underneath the nail before being able to cut it.

I carry on with another patient and this and don’t miss a single finger! In fact I stop pressing on the nail-clipper as soon as I heard him moaning. My following two patients are physically handicapped and cutting their nails takes a lot more time. However, I now retain complete control over my subject.

At 11am, Sister Alyoces who is the head sister, suggests to us four volunteers that we join her and two other sisters (Sister Jason from India and Sister Martina from Kenya.) She has decided to take the assistants to see the Pyramids and to Cairo Zoo. We take our seats in the minibus which was donated, and leave the house.

At this stage it is important to point out the definition that the Petit Robert dictionary gives for the word “memorable”: “refers to something that one confines to the memory”

It is indeed thus: “Me-mo-rable” (in three syllables)


Hardly have we left the House when everybody starts to recite « Our Father », followed by « I greet you Maria » Then, everybody breaks into singing religious chants until we arrive at the Pyramids. I have remembered one of these chants because it was the only one in English

The journey lasts for one hour and until we get to Giza, the chants do not stop for one moment.

We are a group of 17 people and one patient (Asma) who is handicapped and has a limp, walking around the sight on foot with the sisters under a sweltering heat. We go as far as the Sphinx and then return to the entrance of the site, which we reach at 13:00. I must stress at this point that it is the 1st of August in Cairo!

We eat our picnic on leaving for the zoo. The long-awaited zoo visit can at last begin, and everyone loves it, checking out each of the cages. Sister Martina who comes from Kenya is surprised to discover that Asian Elephants are much smaller than those in Africa. As for Sister Jaison, she is excited to see hippopotamuses, the first time for her. The funniest thing is the way people look at us, this group sauntering around the zoo.

Next it is back to the House which means of course more singing. We arrive just before dinner is served and we help the patients with eating and drinking. Finally, we put the patients in wheelchairs to bed, as they need assistance with this.

Day 3

When I arrive, I go up onto the terrace. This time the washing has just started. I can't take the heat anymore, and I burnt my foot when I was reaching out to the soap because I wasn't paying attention that my foot was under the laundry that has just come out of the pot.

After the tea break to which Sister Lucille invited us, I grab my nail–clipper and offer my services. I do not unfortunately have time to do that many people, as the superior sister has requested Bernard, Christina, Perrine and I to prepare individual rations. We learn that the Sisters once a month distribute clothes and food to 75 poor people in the area. They note down the names of the people and the date that they were given something.

We then pause to help out with the hour of silent appreciation of the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel. This period of meditation is preceded by a rosary which we all recite together. Sister Alyoces gives me a plastic green rosary in order to allow me to follow the prayer as if I would use it every day. I play along with this but I am a bit annoyed that I am sat next to the Superior Sister who observes me, whether I am making good use of my chaplet. As it turns out, I am behind Sister Martina and can see her rosary and so I make good by moving the ball on at the same time she does.

It’s terrible, but during the meditation all I want to do is sleep. Finally the chanting and prayers begin and these wake me up.

After the service we return to prepare the rations.


The 75 paupers are already waiting in front of the gates, and are to be received at 4pm. They are led into the church where one supposes that they receive a quarter of an hour of Christian morals.

Each one of them has the possibility to choose from the clothes which the sisters have left outside. The sisters fill out the charts which we prepared this morning after which we give out the rations of food which contain the following products:

-2 packets of macaroni- 1 kilo of rice- 1 kilo of sugar- 1 litre of oil- 1 box of laughing cow cheese- I brick of feta- I box of tuna- I packet of concentrated tomato- I box of tea- I 500 g packet of peas and dried beans

Shortly after this distribution, my day takes a completely unexpected turn.

As I am going over to patients who have finished their dinner, I cross Sister Lucille who seems somewhat preoccupied. I offer to help her and she asks me to go with her to tend to an ill patient.

His name is Gamil and he is 81. I remember giving him his lunch but he had refused to eat and drink. When I go into the dormitory, he is there naked on his wheelchair, in the bathroom. He is out of the shower but is in the middle of urinating on himself. The assistants take him into the shower once more. During this time, Sister Lucille puts disinfectant on the floor and I go over it with water and the scraper.

We go through the dormitory where although we have already installed Megalhi in his bed, he has vomited. We have to change him into some clean clothes. Once changed, we put him back into his bed but a new wave of vomit appears. I try my best to stop the vomit from spreading everywhere, but Gamil vomits in jets. We change him again.

Sister Lucille, who was somewhere else, arrives with a syringe and gives him an injection to stop him vomiting. The poor man is gripped by a terrible fever and is trembling and moaning as we turn him over on his back to give him his injection.

Sisters Lucille and Sister Jaison decided to put him on a drip and ask me to help them. I must confess that having been with this man for the last 45 minutes and seeing his suffering right in front of me has brought tears to my eyes. But the last thing that the sisters need is a volunteer to come over all sentimental.

Sister Lucille is having a really tough time finding a vein. She asks me to hold Gamil tight and to comfort him. She tries to find a vein and pierces his right arm at one point, one time on the left, on the underside of his wrist and once on his fore-arm. She finally resolves to try at the base of his leg without success. I have just had about as much as I can take and am turning rather pale. The sisters, though, are worried because they must give him this drip at all costs.


They decide to try on the back of his hand, and miraculously, it works. Now all we need to do is install the drip. The sisters thank me warmly. It is difficult to leave Gamil because he won’t let go of my hand, holding it tight.

I am finally able to leave but I feel groggy on leaving the dormitory. Back in the court, the dinner, tea and washing up are all finished. Perrine is in the middle of playing dominos with two patients, who are totally enraptured. It is a wonderful image to see this people so happy to play with a volunteer. I am not unfortunately able to benefit from it yet, so much am I still reeling from the shock of what I have just been through with Gamil

I realize that because I have no medical training save the most elementary kind, I am not ready to really deal with these situations. I tried to do my best for Gamil and for the sisters but that really was testing. I would not have been able to write these lines without going back to see the man and trying to console him, caressing his hands and his face.

On leaving, Sister Lucille tells me that is God who will decide. Gamil stays on my mind for several more hours this evening.

Day 4

On arriving I am overjoyed to discover that Gamil is there in the common room with the other patients, finishing off breakfast. He has the air of an old man, and the fact that he has made it through the night reassures me a bit. I give a few of the patients a hand in eating their strawberry yoghurt and to drink their tea.

Next I help Sister Lucille to distribute the medication. Then, is time for washing. By chance this is curtailed as Sister Alyoces and Sister Francine suggest to Perrine that we accompany them to the other house in El Moukkattam. It is an orphanage and at the same time has a floor for physically and mentally handicapped people.

. On the way over we stop at the Franciscan Guards of the Holy Land where the sisters leave us to take a course. Perrine and I visit the church. When we see them again were are about to get back into the vehicle but Sister Alyoces asks us to wait just a little longer so that her and Sister Francina can go and “say a quick hello” to Jesus. They are so endearing, these two religious women, who hurry into the church to say a quick prayer.

Next we depart for Moukkattam. On the way over there we learn that is the area where the congregation of Our Lady of Sion (Notre Dame de Sion – the Chiffoniers Cairo) are working, founded by Sister Emmanuelle and whose work was undertaken by the orthodox coptics after her departure.

What greets us when we arrive is a shock.

El Moukkattam is a small town of about 50,000 inhabitants, where the only job is the sorting of refuse in order to re-sell anything that remains after recycling. There is the stench of pestilence in the air. It invades one’s throat. It consists of a 90% Christian community (Chaldeans, Coptics and Roman Catholics)


Without exception, all of the streets are literally strewn with open sacks of rubbish, and among them are women and children on the floor, assisting with the sorting. The refuse is carried and placed on trucks by the men. The families all live on the 1st floor because the work all takes place on the ground floor. One has the impression of walking in a large public refuse dump, around which houses have been built. It’s a living hell!

In addition to the Missionaries of Charity and the chiffoniers of Cairo there is a huge Coptic Orthodox monastery at which many of the residents of the area work. It is here that the relics of Saint-Simon the Tanner where discovered, and it was he who preferred to tear out an eye than to commit a sin. The stench of rubbish is ubiquitous. The monastery has been built on the side of the mountains on which are engraved huge biblical scenes. There are also three other churches, including one where the relics of Saint Simon are displayed.

We then encounter the sisters, whose house is like the others, in the middle of an area full of detritus.

This is a new shock altogether. There are not children here, but babies of which the majority can hardly walk. Seven sisters live there. It is lunchtime and hardly having just arrived in the room where the children are, an assistant brings me a baby and a plate. I have a hard time with my task though because the baby in question does not want to eat. I give him lots of tickles on the belly which makes him laugh no end.

There is no need to add that given the number of children and the nature of the work, there is no place for whims here.

After the dinner, all of the babies are places in a row on their pots, changed (a nappy and a piece of tissue) and put in their beds. There are some who cry, but very few because all of them know perfectly well that nobody will come.

Just one baby will not leave the arms of Perrine. While I am in the middle of a speaking about Tanzania with a sister who is from there originally, I notice Perrine coming back down in tears, after finally having torn herself away from the baby.

Sister Alyoces explains to me that the living conditions in the area are too insalubrious and dangerous for infants, so the sisters look after the babies until they are 5 or 6 years old.

Eventually we leave El Moukkatam. I am shocked because even though I have lived in Africa I do not remember having ever see such poverty, such misery. It is appalling! Yet what I think will stay with me the longest and what impressed me the most was that I didn’t see a single beggar. Everyone works.

Back at the main house, Sister Jaison calls me and explains that Gamil is not in a good way. She has had to put him on a drip again. She asks me to have dinner straight away and to then go to his side and to hold his hand, and that she will relieve me later on. As soon as I arrive at Gamil`s bed-side he is totally delirious. Noticing me, he pulls me over to him and caresses my cheek. Sister Jaison tells me that he said I was his friend. Gamil calls me « Doctor ». This is clearly because I am a Westerner. Before leaving, Sister Jaison explains to me how to use a rosary. I practice my « Our Fathers » and « I greet you Maria » and at the same time I hold the hand of Gamil, which from flinches from time to time.


The afternoon goes very quickly, between staying at the bedside of Gamil and then the meditation to which Sister Gamil kindly asked me to attend.

After dinner we are busy once more as I help Sister Lucille and an assistant called Fausi to change the cloth-nappies of patients who are bed-ridden. Only Gamil is lucky enough to get a proper cloth-nappy. For the others it consists of some tissues places in the middle of a cloth. We begin with Gamil, whose sullied sheets we also have to change. Fausi and I lift him up while Sister Jaison washes out the stains. We lay him down again and fix on an adhesive layer, to which we add a cloth-nappy.

The other patients are much easier to move because they are lighter. It goes without saying that the smell is harder to take than the sight. One of the patients takes me by the hand and murmurs something in Arabic. The sister explains to me that he will pray to God that I have a long life. No doubt I am a sinner for proudly accepting this compliment and hoping that what he says prevails as it makes me feel good, but it is the truth.

The next thing I do is to help a patient to eat. I learn that he is 99 years old and he was the first ever boarder when the sisters opened the House 25 years ago! He is blind and deaf, incontinent and of course handicapped but he continues to eat and drink normally.

That day, the patients are in luck because the ambassador of Switzerland has delivered a huge chocolate cake with the Swiss flag made out of almond paste. It is a remainder from a reception organized at the embassy. It is not a huge success with the patients as it is certainly too much of a departure from their normal eating habits. Whatever the case, it is not too far from my own and I tuck into a slice with pleasure.

It is then time for a game of dominos with the patients who were playing with Perrine yesterday. I play a game, then Perrine replaces me for another game before we head off back to the hotel.

Day 5

It is already 8:00 when we arrive at the House of the Sisters because our taxi got stuck on the motorway.

Thursday is a special day for the sisters, and there are less of them around today as it is a time of prayer for them. We start the day by serving up breakfast followed by medications. Many of the patients are on medication to combat diarrhoea or vomiting. It would seem that actually the ambassador’s cake was not as “neutral” for the stomachs and intestines of the recipients, as the ambassador might have expected.

Now being familiar with the places and knowing the patients better, I apprehensively go to see the damage caused by the famous cake, in the beds of the patients when we go to change the sheets. My arrival in the dormitory confirms my worst fears. It reeks of faeces!

Not wishing to waste any time, I grasp a heap of sheets which I decide to go and hang up in the laundry area on the terrace. Just at that moment, Fausi asks me to wait and I see her arrive with all the soiled nappies which she plonks on top of the heap that I am carrying, that is to say literally right beneath my nose! I tell myself that I am going to throw up before arriving upstairs, so unbearable is the sight and the smell of the dirty cloth-nappies. I arrive on the


terrace sweating and bursting for air because I was holding my breath so as not to take in the smell.

During the distribution of the medication, Sister Lucille who is going to pray for the rest of the day, asks me to look after Gamil. She prepares what I have to give him. Sister Jaison comes over to me and gives me a syringe filled with a solution prescribed by the doctor. She asks me to administer this first injection because she has to prepare a second injection of another product. I explain to her that I do not know how to administer injections. Sister Jaison comes over and shows me how to do it but if I can avoid it, it is something that I would prefer not to do.

Gamil is really not in a good way. I refuse always to eat but will accept a fruit juice every time.

We change him and I state that the poor man suffers from ulcers which the sisters do not have any effective treatment. All they can do is to give him analgesics to relieve him.

In between two visits to Gamil`s bedside, I continue to make progress in my manicure which I do for the patients. They are delighted and for me this activity is a little lighter and does me good psychologically. Finally I go out onto the terrace to help hang out the linen.

What is tough is that when I am sat by the bed of Gamil, in the same dormitory is another patient who has lost his mind and shouts “I don’t know why” in Arabic, his gaze permanently fixed on the ceiling above. There are also two other bed-ridden patients whom the sisters have asked me to keep an eye on.

We have a big scare a big before dinner. In the court there is a small wooded garden which surrounds altar of the Virgin Mary where the sisters recite their morning prayers. The largest tree is an enormous banana tree with multiple trunks. A burgeoning heavy bunch of bananas suddenly falls all the way down to the base of the trunk. Three sick patients were located below, one in a chair, the other in a wheelchair and one more in front of his walker. Luckily, nobody is hurt but it could have been very serious.

During lunch, Sister Lucille has come back to see if all is going well and gives me a hand in feeding Gamil a fresh yoghurt. He doesn’t want anything of it, nor even a bit of water. It pains me. I would so like to do something to help him. He is content to just hold my hand and smile. At one point, he looks at me and speaks to me. Sister Lucille translates for me that he says I need to go and rest.

I have real trouble in managing this kind of emotion. Each time I am on the verge of tears and I know that if there is one person who shouldn’t be crying here, it’s definitely me. Yet, being conscious of that does not actually make things any easier for me.

After lunch, on returning to Gamil`s side I am asked by Sister Lucille to make Megalhi drink a fruit juice, he is a bed-ridden patient at the back of the dormitory. I do this and contrary to Gamil, not only does he accept to drink it but he also finishes the juice.

This satisfaction is short-lived as a moment later when I move away from him I can hear vomiting. I go back over and lift him up lightly in bed so that he can vomit more easily. The vomit goes everywhere and he himself is covered in it.


I call Perrine who was in the middle of taking her siesta in the court, to come and give me a hand. The floor needs washing, Megalhi needs changing as do his bed sheets. I start by lifting off the sheets which I give to Perrine, who leaves to place them in the dirty washing basin. During that time I get on with washing his night-shirt and his t-shirt. The poor man doesn’t say a word. I then go and get a bucket of water into which I add disinfectant. Sister Lucille takes charge of washing the floor. I run to look in the cupboard to look for some clothes, a nappy and a bit tissue to put inside it. Next, once the bed is ready, I take Megalhi in my hands and I hold him while Sister Lucille is getting the cloth-nappy ready on his bed. Megalihi is so emaciated that it is not difficult to carry him. I put him back on his bed and we lie him down.

I notice that his testicle sack is completely hypertrophied. It is the size of a large aubergine. This is why we cannot make his cloth-nappy too tight because it would make him suffer and bleed. Sister Jaison tells me that he is fact in the process of dying from this problem.

It is already time for worship which I have decided to attend. This alleviates me and lets me leave for a while the dormitory where these two patients are.

After praying we take a cup of tea with Bernard and Christine and cut out little drawings of the effigy of Mother Theresa and others representing lambs. These will be presents that the sisters give to each patient next Easter. A religious quotation will be written on the back of the sheep and a more personal message from the sisters on the back of the drawings representing Mother Theresa.

A priest was supposed to come at 4 to hear the sisters in confession, but he has telephoned to cancel. Perrine and I pose the question to each other about what sins the sisters could possibly have to confess. Except the fact of not being well or having prayed, it is difficult to imagine anything else.

Finally it is time for dinner and the distribution of medicines. Ilhab, a former doctor who has gone slightly potty, refuses to take his tablets. The sister comes to take over from me and to insist to Ihab that he takes them but Ihab throws his tablets in the garden and throws his glass of water over the sister and flees, laughing. Whatever the situation, the sisters always remain calm and composed.

Sister Jaison has asked me to come and help to feed Gamil. I take him by the hands during which she makes him swallow a think soup. He is clearly not happy about it but swallows all without spitting out any onto himself.

After a game of dominos with my accomplices, which I lose, we leave the House for the day.

Day 6

It would appear that things are behind schedule today because the patients have barely begun their breakfast when we arrive. I am given two plates for the two patients whom I was with yesterday but neither of them have any desire to eat anything. We have once again to force Gamil to ingest his soup. He resists less, and even seems happy!

As for the other patient, Megalhi, there is nothing to be done. Sister Jaison goes to find some milk in a small bottle with a removable top which will allow him to drink more easily. He


drinks a few mouthfuls but five minutes later when I come back into the communal living room, I notice that a vomiting has taken place. Only this time blood has come up.

Megalhi signals for me to come over to him to take off his night-shirt which is covered in vomit. Sister Jaison comes and gives me a hand. We take him up to the dormitory where we wash him, put him in a bed and give him some clean clothes. I take the dirty clothes to the laundry because the stench is unbearable and it will not dissipate if left in the laundry basin all day, what with the heat in Cairo at the moment.

I disinfect the mattress and also the pillow, and put it back on the patient’s bed. Megalhi beckons me to come over to him. I sit myself down next to him and he takes my hand and closes his eyes. Several minutes later I have to leave him as it is bath day and Sister Lucille has asked for my assistance to do some pedicure. Actually, she would like all of the assistants to always remember to cut the nails of the patients. As for the sisters, they cannot do it themselves as much as they would like be able to.

It begins with a foot-bath in which I mix a disinfectant product. Aside from the nail-clipper, Sister Lucille also brings me some pieces of tissue for cleaning in-between the toes. I make use of the 15 minutes foot-bath time to cut their finger nails. The first man whom I do is called Anwar. He explains to Sister Lucille that he doesn’t want me to deal with him. He doesn’t know me and thinks that I don’t know how to cut nails. Can one blame him? Whatever the case, I don’t know what Sister Lucille says to him but he finally consents to letting me do it.

All the patients have very thick nails and I realize why the foot bath is necessary. I start by cleaning beneath the nails before cutting them otherwise it would be impossible. Then, I clean in-between the toes which are full of surprises. The first few feet are the most difficult, after that you get used to it. I have time to pedicure and manicure 5 patients. They are all overjoyed by time I have finished and admire their nice clean feet. At the same time, an Egyptian volunteer has arrived to shave the patients. This man has been coming here every Friday (the equivalent to our Saturday) for the last 25 years and it would seem that he has completely mastered his job.

At the end of the morning, the sisters decide to put Megalhi on a drip because he will neither eat nor drink. Contrary to Gamil they quickly find a vein but Megalhi moves and makes it difficult to start the drip. Hardly have we finished this than it is time for dinner. As today is a visiting day, there are many people here today to help the patients to eat.

The barber proposes to the sisters that we (the four foreign volunteers) are taken after dinner to what he calls a « holy shop ». We hurry through dinner and then we are off. Me-mo-rable!

We arrive in a large shop which sells statues of all sizes of the Virgin Mary next to lamps in the form of coke glasses, or DVDs of “Tweety & Sylvester”. All of which can be described as pseudo-religious gadgets. Perrine and Christine are taken with a crazy laugh. It must be said that it is pretty funny. We finally decide to buy some tacky souvenirs for Bertrand and Sylvie to whom we always offer a gift when we travel, as an old-fashioned gesture. There I must say that we have succeeded in placing the bar very high for the next trip, especially seeing as this only cost 0,80 Euros. The man who brought us here is delighted to see that we have brought something. He asks whether we would like to go to another shop, but we all reply in unison


that while it is very kind of him to offer, we unfortunately have to return to the House of the Sisters.

On returning I go over to Megalhi and discover that he has torn off his drip. The glucose pouch is completely open on his bed and the sheets are festooned with blood. Sister Jaison teams up with me and we have to change the sheets anew and then the clothes of the patient, for the second time.

I turn towards Gamil who is thirsty but as usual refuses to ingest anything that we bring him. I bring him a carton of fruit juice and slip the straw into his mouth. He drinks it little by little but reluctantly.

The sister of Megalhi, along with the families of many other patients, arrives. Sister Lucille asks her to reason with her Dad so that he will be a bit more cooperative so that they can put him on a drip. They will try again after dinner. During this time his daughter as decided to make her Dad drink a fruit juice and to feed him a yoghurt. I am surprised that he accepts but all the better for him that he has got some of his appetite back.

With the help of Sister Lucille which makes me happy, I try again to have Gamil take down his whole plate of food, without spitting out any on his face. I am totally proud and Gamil smiles and taps me on the cheek. He does want to eat and to drink but to swallow for him is very painful as every time he swallows he makes these grimaces as though it is not going down well.

A patient who is physically handicapped asks me to accompany him to the toilets. I push his arm chair to the interior of the toilets and what is great is that he explains to me with his hands what it is I should do.

I place myself in front of him, take him in my arms and put him on the toilet seat which is raised. There he is visibly unhappy about something and I realize that although I sat him down well, I forgot one important detail, which was to take up his djellaba! I lift him up again and lift up the djellaba enough to let him sit on the seat. Then, I leave him alone to do what he needs to. I return afterwards to look for him and notice that he has reached and taken the water pipe by himself to wash. All I have to do is to lift him up, pull his djellaba back down and to sit him back in his armchair, and to take him back to the court.

Back in the dormitory, I notice that Megalhi has vomited everything that his daughter had succeeded in getting him to swallow. For the third time that day we change his sheets and his clothes. His daughter sits on the neighbouring bed and looks deflated but does not cry. Megalhi, on the other hand, has great big round eyes. I don’t know if he is afraid or disorientated.

I rejoin Sister Lucille to give out the medications and overall to make sure that the patients actually take them. When I take the medication to Saddik and Ihad who are on the first floor I take the opportunity to refill their water bottles with fresh water.


Day 7

Today we were supposed to be spending the day at the house at Moukkattam with Bernard Christine and Sister Lucille. Yet on arriving, the latter asks me to stay to help Sister Jaison to tend to Megalhi who is worse still. Sister Lucille for her part has to go to Moukkattam.

Megalhi has vomited again and the doctor has requested that he be placed on a drip again. We start off with sodium chloride and then follow that up with a drip of glucose. Sister Jaison asks me to stay at his beside to make sure that he doesn’t remove the drip. The sisters are also concerned that he has not urinated any more since yesterday evening they had given him an injection of a diuretic which has not had any result. The patient’s family as well as the doctor once again have to drop in during the afternoon.

Megalhi has only ever done odd-jobs so he doesn’t have retirement or insurance. Access even to public hospitals is forbidden for him and that is the reason why his family, who are Orthodox Christian, decided to put him in the hands of the sisters. Only his sisters visit him, as his wife is cleaning lady far away from Cairo. The grand pride of this family is that after a whole lifetime of deprivation, their last daughter has been able to go to University with the help of a scholarship.

Megalhi is always thirsty and the head sister has authorized me to give me little gulps of water from time to time. This, however, does not amount to anything as he is prone to vomiting (half blood and half black liquid), 45 minutes after we have put him on a drip.

We change him, taking care no to take off his drip. Once lain down again, Sister Jaison comes over to disinfect his sores and ulcers. He does not want to keep the drip in, and I have to hold his hands to stop him from ripping it out.

He has vomited again, blood and the same black liquid about an hour after the last time, even though I did not give him anything to drink in-between. I go through the same motions again with the sisters and Perrine.

Around midday, his two daughters arrive, one of which as student. The other is the mother of a small girl who I learn suffers from a serious cardiac malformation from birth.

They take over and I can for now occupy myself with Gamil, who as usual does not want to drink (he claims) or eat. I try to make him swallow some thick soup which a sister brought me but he isn’t into it. He has also sent flying the glass of water that I bring him. The sisters have no choice but to put him on a drip again.

I stay at his side because he is very agitated and constantly tries to rip out the perfusion. His bed being next to that of Megalhi, I notice that his daughter has managed to make him drink a pineapple juice. I don’t say anything because at all costs I don’t want to seem like the type who just because he has been a volunteer for a week can tell others what to do. Besides, at the stage he is at, I tell myself that he is happy to drink a pineapple juice and all the better for him, that’s all that matters. Evidently, he throws up again sometime after.

As for Gamil, he is completely delirious and tells me (thanks to translation by Megalhi daughter) that he wants me to take him to the airport as he has to go on a journey.


To top it all off, there is a man who every afternoon recites passages of the bible, shouting out loud with his gaze fixed on the ceiling, making the sign of the cross on himself..

At 3pm, Sister Jaison comes looking for me, suggesting that I go and attend the mediation, and I accept because I need to take my mind off things.

The doctor arrives at the end of the afternoon. It was the sisters who called him and who paid for him. The family could obviously not bear this expense. He explains that the end is near and that Megalhi will die in the next couple of days. He decides anyway to give him a urinary probe.

Poor Megalhi can be no more. However, he finds the force to resist when the doctor starts to insert the probe. He throws up again. Although I am by the bed next to him, I cannot help out because I have to hold Gamil who wants to take out his drip so that he can « go to the airport ».

Then, Sister Lucille directly injects a diuretic into the probe. A little bit later, the probe starts to fill up. Megalhi is exhausted. He is nothing but skin and bones. Gamil being asleep, I go over to Megalhi who makes a signal to me with his hand and mumbles something. Someone translates it and he wants me to sit down. I do this and hold his hand for a long time before leaving the dormitory and the House.

The sisters thank us unceasingly for the help that we bring to them, but I have the impression of doing just a tiny bit in view of what they have accomplished. I recall a prayer that one of the sisters uttered a few days ago in which they prayed to the Virgin Mary that they would not never be distinguished or quoted as an example!

Day 8

On arriving, I see Sister Lucille walking briskly towards the men’s dormitory and fear the worst. Perrine and I put our bags down and make our way over to the dormitory, where we bump into Sister Jaison who tells us with a large smile that Megalhi “has passed on”.

On entering the dormitory, I learn from Sister Lucille that he died at 5 in the morning. She had come to see him before saying his prayers and he was dying. She remained by his side and took his hand until he breathed his last sigh.

Everything after this is really painful because I have never seen a dead body close up and for such a long time. The first time that I saw a dead body was in India a year ago when the brothers had invited me to accompany them to the burial of the Bishop of Mysore. Furthermore, I had only seen his face, and from afar.

The family had been held back and now it is time to prepare for their arrival. Perrine and Sister Jaison are busy changing the sheets of all the beds, as they do everyday, sweeping and cleaning the floor.

Meanwhile, Sister Lucille and I start to busy ourselves with the corpse. I have never touched a dead body before today. It is really difficult. Sister Lucille notices my discomfort and tells me with a smile that I do not have to help her and I can leave if I prefer. I decide to stay. The


thing is, I have been looking after him for several days now and I want to be there until the end.

We remove his clothes and also the sheets which will not be washed, but thrown away. Next, Sister Lucille shows me how to wash him .We start by disinfecting him with Dettol and then rubbing with Eau de Cologne. It is on turning him over that we notice he is emptying out from his move. I remain fixed, holding the body of Megalhi half turned over. He is still a little warm but already rigor mortis is setting in. It is horrific. Sister Lucille asks me to turn him over again and to push his stomach to get all fluids out. All of a sudden I hear a squawk and I think for a second that he is still alive, but Sister Lucille explains to me that is simply the sound of air.

I again turn over to the body and Sister Lucille holds him so that I can sponge the plastic mattress. Then we do the same thing over again the other way round. I turn Megalhi’s corpse towards me and once again liquid spills out from his mouth. We have to repeat this operation several times. Once we are sure that everything has come out from his stomach we wash his body one final time before perfuming it.

Sister Lucille comes back with new white clothes which need putting on his body. We lift up his body and put on an under layer over which I put on pants and a cotton jersey. We raise him on each side to slide on a cotton jersey. Finally we put a djellaba on and do up all of the buttons. Sister Lucille brings a pair of socks which I have trouble putting on him. Meanwhile, she puts talc on his body.

We must now move Megalhi and install him in the neighbouring bed. This is the bed which is closest to the entrance to the dormitory. I carry him by the shoulders and Sister Lucille grabs his legs. Once in the bed, Sister Jaison gives me a rosary that I place in his hands. As I didn’t place it in exactly the right way, Sister Lucille shows me how it should be. A small table is put next to the bed on which Sister Lucille places a crucifix and two candles. It is now time to cover the dead man with a cloth until he family arrive.

At this juncture, the other sisters appear and encircle the bed to recite prayers to the dead, which consist of three « Our Fathers », three “Hail Mary” and three « Glory to God » and three prayers which are for the last rites.

This difficult experience last for two hours. Sister Lucille thanks me for having helped and tells Perrine and I to go and have a cup of tea. While I am drinking my tea on the patio and typing my journal, the doctor arrives to establish the death certificate. His name is Magdy. He is the doctor who comes to see the patients every week. After he has been to see the dead body with Sister Lucille, he comes over to me. He is Catholic and speaks French. He says to me that I must not be sad for Megalhi and he tells me that the name means “transfigure” and that he died on the day of the festival of the Transfiguration. Magdy tells me that on the contrary I must be happy to know that he is now before Jesus.

I cannot say that I am really sad because having seen Megalhi for three days, I knew that he was suffering a lot. His death is a deliverance for him and his family. On the other hand I have trouble to remove from my mind the image of his body emptying out from the mouth.

After having established the certificate of death, Sister Lucille asks the doctor to have a look at Gamil who continues to refuse food and drink. The doctor insists that we make him eat


something because unless we put him on a drip, it is the beginning of the end. He can no longer easily return to eating normal food. Sister Jaison prepares a thick soup of milk, sugar and bread. The first few spoonfuls he spits out as I hold his hands. Sister Jaison has to hold his face and close his mouth after each spoonful to make sure that he swallows. I then make him drink, which he accepts. He touches my neck and kisses my cheek a few times.

After leaving the room for a few moments, I go back into the communal lounge to find Gamil sprawled on the floor. He wanted to get down from his arm-chair and fell. Sister Lucille asks me to put him to bed but at have to first of all put him in another bed temporarily, as his bed is too close to the lifeless body of Megalhi. I put him in a bed at the other end of the dormitory and put a nappy with a piece of tissue in the middle of the bed. He is not happy, but eventually acquiesces and lets me do it.

On my way out, the paralyzed patient who I helped go to the toilets the other day, must have been satisfied with my services because he beckons to me to go and accompany him again. Once he has finished and is clean I pull his djellaba down again and put him back in his armchair and I lead him out to the court. He asks me one last thing which is to re-fill his water bottle.

It’s at this moment that I see the family members of Megalhi arrive. I will warn Perrine who has gone over to gather around the body. Unlike Muslims who cry noisily around a body, there is nothing there but the grandest dignity. Sister Lucille hands the certificate of death over to the wife of the deceased, who then leaves straight away to obtain permission from the authorities to bury the body as quickly as possible.

Sister Lucille explains to me that the body must be buried the same day because the family simply cannot afford to pay for the body to be conserved in a cold room for several days. The sisters give the family a bit of money. After the mother has left, only the sister remains with her mother’s deceased husband. After composing herself at the beside of her father, she leaves the room in tears,

All of a sudden I notice a patient crying in his wheelchair. He wants to be taken to see the body. Sister Lucille explains to me that Megalhi was his cousin but she does not want to allow him to see the corpse because he is seriously ill with a heart condition and paralyzed down one side of his body. I take him by the shoulders and hold his hand but he is really torn up.

The family come back, this time many of they and are carrying the coffin. The youngest of the daughters refuses to go and see the corpse of her father. She eventually does but when she sees the coffin she bursts into tears. I take her shoulders and hold her hand to console her. Then another family member arrives and tells her to leave. Sister Lucille accompanies the body until the entrance of the House, reciting prayers as she goes. She comes towards Perrine and I who is crying and says with a smile that this is the way it is, that’s life.

But it is already time for dinner and we need to help feed the patients. Perrine and I brought fruits this morning to make a fruit salad. Cutting the fruits helps us calm down a bit and several times we are have fits of nervous laughter. The patients seem delighted to eat what we have prepared for them. Nothing is left over.

After dinner, I check in with Gamil, who I find sat on the edge of his bed. I notice that he does not have a nappy and that unfortunately he has urinated. I ask Perrine to come and give me a


hand as Fausi is having a siesta along with the sisters. I disinfect his bed , change the sheets and then his clothes. Next, I offer him a nappy but he does not want one. We put him back in his bed.

It can’t be more than 5 minute later that once me he is on the edge of his bed. This temporary bed is high and he could fall and do himself a serious injury because he can no longer stand on his own two feet. I put him back in his bed and although I don’t understand Arabic, I can tell that he is not happy. Perrine takes his hand and the two of them begin a conversation, him in Arabic and her in French!

I pass by again some time later and I find he is still sitting there. I decide to hang around so I go and get my computer and sit myself down by his side.

As soon as I start to type, there is another patient called Shaker who wants some water. He is adorable. He is very small, ageless and always wears a hat. I go and look for his glass of water. Because he speaks Italian, we can communicate a little.

Gamil sits up several times and at the same time the other patient shouts out passages from the Bible!

Day 9

The two Maltese volunteers have left. Only Perrine and I remain until the arrival of an Italian volunteer in 3 days.

We arrive a little earlier than usual at 7:40. We have to finish the patient’s showers and then take them into the communal lounge for their breakfast which consists of a milky soup with sugar in which we add bread. The patients also drink some tea and fruit juice.

I have to assist two patients, Shaker and Gamil. Knowing that with Gamil nothing will be very easy, I decide to begin with Shaker. This man is a pleasure. He is completely emaciated but he is always smiling. He eats well but reproaches me in Italian for going a bit too fast. Once we have finished, he taps me on the chin and says to me in Italian « you are good, this is thanks to God ». This makes me feel warm inside. I always feel like I want to take these little elderly people in my arms. As is always the case with the Missionaries of Charity, the boarders are so poor that anything they receive is an immense pleasure. They very rarely complain.

Feeding Gamil proves once again to be a bit of an ordeal. He tells me that he wants his shoes as he has to go out. I have to call Sister Jaison to help me because I don’t know the technique for making him eat when he is being uncooperative. When I do feed him, it’s the djellaba my shorts and my t-shirt that « eat » the most because he spits everything out. The sister holds his mouth shut until he swallows, as I just am not able to do that. It pains me to do so, but the doctor says that is either that or an intravenous drip.

A real novelty today because I didn’t have to clean up any vomit! But as usual I had my dirty nappies (really, not actually mine though!)

As personnel are somewhat thin on the ground today, Sister Lucille asks me to join her and the head sister in cleaning the whole of the men’s building. We do some 27 beds! Then we


have to sweep and disinfect the floor. As we are on the first floor, I see Saddik who signals me over and kisses me on the cheek He always has this impish grin. One imagines that he is always about to do something naughty.

Sweeping the floor, I come across the spittle of a patient. It is huge and looks like a jelly fish! I tell his to Perrine who is disgusted.

After the housework, I get going again with manicure and pedicures. I am really well-organized right now. I have my little table on which I put the nail-cutter for fingers, the big one for the feet also a pair of scissors. I have my cotton, my disinfectant because many of them have damaged feet. A sure sign that today I will not get to do more than two patients in an hour and a half. I also half some cloth to wipe their feet and a little cloth to clean (the word doesn’t do justice) between the toes and a cloth to go on my knees on which I rest their foot. I fill the basin with hot water mixed with Dettol and begin with my first client.

He is blind, and the one who has been shouting out passages from the bible all afternoon. During his footbath, I cut his finger nails. These are so filthy that I have to remove everything underneath the nail because without doing this I won’t be able to cut with the nail-clipper. Meanwhile, the worst awaits me in the basin below. His toe-nails are so thick that I have a really hard time cutting them. Worst of all, the interior conceals layer upon layer of filth. I reassure myself dimly by saying that it could have been worse, he could have been my first ever client the first time I started cutting nails. I thus begin to penetrate between the successive layers, being careful as I don’t know when the filth ends and the skin begins. As long as he doesn’t say anything, I continue. At the end, I will not win the prize for best pedicurist ever but he does have a nice clean foot.

The other foot is filthy. Before cutting the nail of the big toe I have to remove all this dried blood and clean the whole toe. It is when I begin to cut it that I notice that the whole nail is detached at the base! It’s absolutely disgusting! The man doesn’t react, so I assume that he doesn’t feel anything. I call Sister Lucille to see if I can continue to pull the nail till it comes off. It’s exactly like that scene in the film « The Fly » where Jeff Goldblum takes off his nails one by one when he begins to turn into the fly! Sister Lucille tells me to dig under the nail and to remove it completely. I prefer to let her do it and just watch her. I think that I prefer doing the dirty nappies. The man doesn’t say a word. Only at the end when the sister cuts the little bit of mail that is still attached to the toe that the patient says « Ouch! » but it is all done with. I disinfect everything.

The other patients look at me in silence while I finish this first patient. After this I change the water before doing the second and final patient, who is not much better but all of his nails are worth holding onto unlike the last man.

They are all so kind. During the distribution of the fruit juice at 10, many people in the lounge say something to me in Arabic that I do not understand. I have someone translate for me, and learn that the patients are telling me to go and have a rest and to have a drink before coming back again.

Perrine, who is tired, decides to return to the hotel before dinner and to not come back in the afternoon. There is the aftermath of everything that happened yesterday. It should also be added that she was alone on the terrace in the morning for and hour and a half under the hot sun, hanging out the laundry.


Today a group of volunteers from the area are here to help with distribution. Sister Lucille calls me to help feed Gamil. I hold his hands but he spits out everything that the sister puts into his mouth. A moment later, Sister Lucille gets angry and explains to him that if he behaves like a child and that is why he is treated as a child. This visibly works because for the first time since my arrival Gamil picks up the spoon and eats his soup by himself. He does not finish it but this is considerable progress. He now calls me Mohammed and in no uncertain terms wants me to get his shoes so that he can leave. I stick my head against his head and he puts his arms around my neck. We stay like that for a while and then I leave to get on with my work.

One of the patients wants me to push his wheelchair out onto the patio in front of the garden. When we get there, I notice that he is bleeding profusely from one of his toes. I call Sister Jaison who brings me everything I need to clean him up. I then have to move him again to disinfect the floor where there is lots of blood.

Next it is time to attend to the four patients who spend the afternoon in the dormitory. Shaker is adorable, the patient who is 99 years old says nothing and the “mystic” continues to shout out passages from the Bible. It is not the same with Gamil though, who moans. Once again he spends the afternoon sitting up on his bed. But that doesn’t worry me because he has got back his low bed. That means that even when he is sitting on the edge his feet are touching no ground and because he cannot lift himself up, he does not run any risk of falling over or going too far.

Just as I have sat down to write my journal, Anwar who is fully verbally delirious turns up on his walker and sits himself down next to me. He stays there for some time and then gets up and on his way he gets up and leaves as he has just urinated. After all that I have seen during the week, a little bit of urine is nothing! After 5 minutes it is gone as I have mopped, swept and cleaned it up with Dettol.

The sisters call me to silent meditation during which I can barley keep my eyes open.

After the meditation I come back to see Gamil who is still in the middle of his bed, sheets all over the place. Sister Jaison gives me a carton of vanilla milk. I put the straw in his mouth and he begins to drink it. But when I withdraw the straw, he spits everything out. I then give him the carton and make him understand that if he wants any he can do it himself. As with dinner, he only drinks a few mouthfuls and then passes it back to me. I insist that he drinks a little bit more. He takes the carton and squeezes it with all his might. There is sweet milk everywhere, on me, on him, on the bed and on the floor. The sister and I laugh and make one last one attempt to make him drink from the carton and Sister Jaison tells him that he has to eat and drink. He takes the carton and throws it across the room. I approach him to remove the cloth that I had tied around his neck and he begins shouting “Police! Police!” in Arabic. When I start to move away, he grasps my hand and beckons me to sit down. Someone translates that he wants me to get his shoes, glasses, his stick and ….his false teeth! He needs to leave for a meeting, so he claims.

While waiting for dinner, I chat a bit with Sister Elise who is Romanian. She was previously in Poland, and she explains to me that she did part of her training in Rome while waiting for her visa for India. One she had got it, she left for Calcutta. There, she recalls with a smile, she was ill for a year. She had typhoid and then malaria. Of course, the sisters treated her like


other patients and looked after her. Sister Elise that she felt frustrated to be so useless to her community.

There is a drama during dinner. The thing is, the Coptics begin today a 15 day fast in honour of the Virgin Mary. The cousin of Megalhi who is always crying about the death of his relative, claims that food during the fast must not include meat, eggs, milk or fish. Sister Lucille explains to him that the sick are exempted during this period of penitence. Moreover, this patient suffers from serious heart troubles and is paralyzed down one side following an attack. The doctor has indicated that given the seriousness of his condition and the amount of medication he has to take, he must eat well and regularly, at all costs. How sad it is to see this man cry because he cannot fast.

Following this it is the usual ritual of tea, medication, and the changing of nappies for the night. Sister Jaison asks me to look after Gamil and Shaker (the ageless man who speaks Italian).

I have to admit that that I have become most efficient in accomplishing this task, knowing how to transfer the patient from the armchair to the bed, taking off the djellaba and a t-shirt, taking off the dirty cloth-nappy and replacing it with a clean one. The only slight difference between them and the babies is that with my little old friends I cannot tickle them on the stomach.

Several times a week someone comes to pay a visit to Shaker towards the end of the afternoon to chat and feed him at dinner time. This lady is not related to Shaker but simply dotes on him.

I am surprised to see that among the number of Egyptians who pay a visit to the patients, the majority are youths. They are all Christians. I learn that in Egypt, all Christians, whatever their denomination, have a little cross tattooed on the inside of their wrists or on their hand, near the thumb.

I leave the house and say goodbye to Sister Lucille who will not come back for four days. She and Sister Martina are going to a village in Northern Egypt where the sisters have a house for children.

10th Day

When we arrive, breakfast is already finished, and I go up onto the terrace to help out with the washing. Perrine joins us after finishing the washing-up, of which she is now the master. Her expertise is known by everyone and they are happy to leave the washing up in the sink waiting for her if she is not there. It is understood that it is her responsibility and it does not seem to cause any conflict.

There are not many of us there to do the washing and I have to get stuck into two phases of rinsing and then drying. I come out of there soaked. Worse luck, I arrive at the moment when we have to take the dirty nappies out of the basin in which they have been waiting before being boiled. The smell of warm piss, what a pleasure!


After the washing, I go back down and discover Saddik in the court, and he gives me a kiss. He lets me know that the sisters made him come down here. It turns out that they had decided to disinfect the entire first floor.

The head sister notices me and comes over to speak with me. She thought that I hadn’t arrived yet. I explain to her that I was doing the washing. She tells me that Fausi had to leave for several days because his wife is ill. I don’t know exactly what is up with her but given the fact of this sudden departure, it is definitely not just a cold. We learn several hours later and actually before Fausi himself who is in the train that his mother died in the morning. We will not see Fausi again before we depart.

Another assistant (Atef) has already left a week earlier to go back to his family. He will not return until Saturday. Sister Lucille left the same morning. I find myself alone with just Sister Jaison to look after 27 patients. I tell this to Perrine who says to me that she can come and help us because she doesn’t have so much to do with the female patients right now.

Any road up, I have to take the patients to the toilets, and to wash and dress them before breakfast but also team up with Sister Jaison to empty and wash the chamber pots which are left below the wheel chairs.

The head sister asks me to sweep the court accompanied by Sister Marie-Lucette. One of the patients with whom I played dominos the other day comes to find me. It seems that he wants me to cut his finger and toenails. My reputation as an experienced pedicure / manicurist seems to be spreading well. I finish up the sweeping and prepare my tools.

I begin with the footbath which gives me some time to make a cup of tea. Then I get going, washing, scouring, scouring and more scouring, drying and cutting. When all is done, he is delighted!

I continue with the relative of Megalhi who seems satisfied with everything. It’s certainly more difficult as he is paralyzed down on one side. His right leg is swollen up and as good as dead. I have to hold it tight between my legs. The Egyptian volunteers who pass through watch me and say something to each other. They are astonished to see a European cleaning and cutting the nails of an Egyptian!

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to do a third patient because it will soon be time for dinner. Sister Jaison asks me to come and help feed Gamil, who explains that he wants to die. This makes my heart sink because it means we are obliged to force him to eat.

I next accompany the patients into the dormitory for a siesta. In placing Gamil in his bed, I notice that we have run out of nappies. We’ll have to wait until evening to get back the dry linen. That said, I already know that I’ll have to change him as there will certainly be something there.

At midday the clock indicates the hour of prayer, and both Perrine and I attend. Then it is time for dinner. What is good is that we always eat the same as the patients so there are no surprises. Today it is roast chicken and rice on which is put some sort of Egyptian spinach soup, with mangos for desert.


The spontaneous side of the sisters never ceases to surprise and amuse me. At 1430 the head sister calls me and says; « Laurent! Laurent! Prayer Now!! » It’s almost as though I am being summoned because dinner is ready. It is important to note that for the first time: - I did not sleep during the period of silent mediation - I did not make any mistakes with the counting of the balls on the rosary that the head sister gave to me at the beginning of my stay - I did not sing the psalms in the wrong order

During the meditation, I observed the sisters. They looked radiant in their saris, and Perrine and I wonder how they manage to keep them white all day. They breathe happiness “to be married to Christ” as they put it. They pray and work all day, starting at 4h30 in the morning and ending at 10:30 pm, 365 days a year.

The sisters possess three saris which Sister Elise explains to me are all woven at a leper house in India. There is one sari which they never way but they always keep close by. That is one they would wear if the Pope pays a visit.

It is said that the order of the Missionaries of Charity is the hardest, and it’s no joke. The training takes 5 years in one of 6 training centres spread around the world, The sisters do not give their perpetual vows until 10 years have passed, which allows them time to get used to this life based on faith, love and charity (the three blue bands on their sari). They can only visit their family once every ten years and can only write to them once a month.

After worship, the sisters muster up the confidence to invite us into their visiting room. They are all happy to invite Perrine and I and to eat a bit of ice-cream that was given to them to commemorate a birth. They also bring us some orange juice. The sisters are not allowed to eat or drink with other people so they return to their quarters, without doubt to engage in prayer again.

After tasting the ice-cream, Perrine and I go back down to the court. I go to the men’s dormitory where I find Gamil is sitting on the edge of the bed and worries me because he seems completely spaced out and literally exhausted.

Just as I had predicted, he has urinated in his bed. I call Perrine to come and give me a hand. She grimaces because of the smell. It has to be said that with the heat there, the smell quickly becomes nauseating.

We take off his clothes and sit him on an armchair close to his bed. I lift up all of the sheets, and disinfect the plastic mattress and under sheet with Dettol. Next we put him back in bed, lie him down and dress him. He is clean once again and in a dry bed.

Over dinner, Sister Elise succeeds in making Gamil eat by singing « Kyrie Elesion » to him! She places her hands around a big crucifix that she carries everywhere on her person, like the other sisters. The technique might be a bit surprising but the main thing is that he eats.

After the beds have been re-made for those who need doing, the nappies have been changed, the medications have been administered, the day is over. I can finally sit down for a couple of games of dominos, and win the first.


Day 11

We arrive at 730 am, because there are less assistants and thus more work to do. I first of all team up with Atef who is back, to finish bathing the ill patients who wheelchair-bound, before taking them into the communal lounge. Atef told me that he travelled 6 and a half hours by train to go back to where his wife and children lives, and that who he pays a visit to for a week, every two months.

Next I take up all of the damp sheets and disinfect the mattresses before making the beds. With the beds made, I go over the dormitory with the floor cloth and after the head sister has swept up, all that is left to do is to sweep and wash the court.

A minute later, Sister Jaison summons to go and hold Gamil and the 99-year old patient while she gives each of them an injection of complex multi-vitamins. The 99-year old is terrified and treats us like “dogs”. Gamil, for his part, remains strangely passive and calm, and doesn’t say a word.

There is still some time left to go and finish helping with hanging out the laundry on the terrace. Sister Allyoces comes to see me and brings me two boxes containing what looks like Marseille soap. She explains that they should be grated into a powder, which in turn is used to rub on the most stubborn stains on the cloth-nappies! After two cakes of soap are done, it is time to break for a cup of tea.

I start off my « pedicure salon » with a guy whom I play dominos with in the evening. His toe-nails are long, thick and strong and I have to stop after a half-hour session and re-commence after dinner. Like a few days ago, one of the nails comes off on its own but the difference this time is that the new nail has already re-grown. All I had to do was detach the old one.

I return to the dormitory to help Atef to get the patients into bed and off to sleep. Several ask me to change the water in their plastic bottle because it soon heats up.

During the siesta I go into the kitchen to prepare a tea and I see the assistants from the women’s floor in the middle of preparing a dish for the patients. They ask me to give them a hand.

They have prepared a stuffing with a herbal base, rice and meat, which they put inside of a small vegetable which looks like a courgette, but is completely hollow. There are three big basins full of these vegetables and four of us. I am soon sat down on the ground, stuffing these vegetables and it is most appetizing.

At 14:30, Sister Jaison comes down to call as to attend meditation. I now succeed in using my rosary in the way it should be. The meditation begins with a chant, followed by the reciting of the rosary, which lasts for about thirty minutes. Next it is time for silent meditation for half an hour. We finish with the days prayers and a final chant. The whole thing takes an hour and ten minutes.

I cannot pretend to put as much faith as the sisters into the reciting of the rosary, but the meditation remains none the less a moment of relaxation and rest which allows one to take stock, proving one does not fall asleep!


After the meditation I go and check up on Gamil who is being visited by his sister-in-law whose husband has died from an injury. I leave them be. Then I go back up to the terrace to grate soap. The head sister asks us to grate a little bit every time we have a spare moment. I grate five soaps and then go down to have a cup of tea.

When I go back to Gamil, I am joined by Sister Jaison. I discover Gamil to be feverish and he does not seem to be completely conscious. He was obstinate before but since yesterday he would seem to have lost his force.

As usual he refuses to eat and when I insist, he shakes his fist at me and rants. I take hold of the hand which he was threatening to hit me with. He calms down a bit.

I sit myself down next to him and I can tell he has urinated in his bed. I decide to change him before giving him his food. I look for a wheelchair to put him in while I disinfect the mattress and change the sheets. I remove also his djellaba and his t-shirt and his cloth-nappy. He is naked his chair. He seems to be impatient, but I have got the technique now and have everything done in 10 minutes.

Once it is ready I put him back in his bed, and he still doesn’t want to eat. It is then that I have an idea, inspired by what Sister Elise did the other day. In his hands I place the rosary that the head sister gave me. He is happy with this and calms down a bit. I then succeed in having him eat an entire plate of food. I feel mega-proud and share my success story with Sister Jaison who laughs on hearing that evoked this useful technique.

Atef and I change the patients and then put them to bed. As always the man of 99 treats us like dogs and is so defensive that when we are lifting him onto his bed he curls up in a ball and my arm stays wedged in between his legs and thighs, Unfortunately for me it is this arm which then acts as a cloth-nappy.

The paralysed patient who I usually accompany to the toilets signals to me that he wants his bucket. I go and have a look for the three that are located in the toilets and place them next to beds of the people in question.

Anwar arrives with his walker. When I see him I have the feeling that is spite of him denying it, he has urinated inside his djellaba, at the very least. He refuses to be changed though. Atef comes along and speaks to him and reluctantly lets us change him, finally. We then discover that he has in fact only urinated! The fact that the djellaba is removed over the head slightly complicates the task! Finally with Atef and I manage to remove his clothing. While Atef passes him a clean dejallaba, I go to the toilets and brush salts on the dirty djellaba as this will make the job in the laundry a lot easier tomorrow.

There are more bottles of water to refill and then we are finished the day. I can begin a game of dominos. I win my game and then get up so that Perrine can take over.

Day 12

Thursday being the day of prayer for the sisters, we don’t see them at all save for the distribution of medications. We encounter them for prayer at midday. They stay quietly in their quarters but are always on standby in case of any problem arising.


That means there is only Atef and I to attend to the men. While he finishes bathing those who are wheel-chair bound. I stay in the communal lounge to feed the patients.

It’s hell with Gamil, and it takes me half an hour to get him to swallow his pulped food, but I get there in the end.

I return to the dormitory. Atef has gone to have his breakfast, of hard-boiled eggs, bread and tea. He has been working since 6:30 and it’s now 8:30. He rejoins me a bit later in the dormitory, and while I disinfect the mattresses and pillows he remakes the beds with clean sheets.

I start sweeping and don’t finish until about 10:00 as after the dormitory, the whole court needs sweeping.

I go up onto the terrace to help with the laundry but it is already finished. Instead I grate several Marseille soaps. With Perrine we hope to have finished at least a box between us that the sister brought in. We are already getting through it.

We go downstairs for our tea break that we drink quickly as we have once again to peel and cut all of the fruits that we brought in to prepare a fruit salad. It was big hit with the patients last time so we decided to do it again.

For dinner, I am not able to make Gamil take down even one spoonful of soup. He spits everything out. Sister Jaison walks by and says to me that I needn’t go to great pains to insist he eats as he did actually eat quite well in the morning. She also says that we’ll have to put him on a drip later on because he is starting to weaken. It must be said, with the best intention possible, that he will not last a long time on one thick soup per day. I can’t stop thinking about what the doctor said, that it is not good to put him on a drip too frequently, because he will not be able to return to a normal diet after that. I am not a doctor and am happy just to repeat what I heard.

The only thing I notice and that interests me is that he is not in good form. When I put him in his bed after changing him, he takes my hand, smiles at me and asks me to come closer so that he can embrace me.

After prayer, Sister Francina asks me to print something out for the sisters in colour, A4 size. It is a prayer exhorting the bishop who comes every day for the mass at 630 to “celebrate mass as if it was his first, last and only mass”. I have to add the drawing of a chalice and a photo of Mother Theresa and then to frame it. Sister Francina seems to think that because I have a computer, I can print things out on the spot. I explain to her that her assumption is correct, but nevertheless I will actually need a printer! She smiles but I am not sure if she has understood what I said to her. I promise to do it as soon as I get back to France and that I will send it out as soon as I can.

When we go up to the sister’s area for worship, I notice that they are looking at us in a somewhat amused fashion. The head sister comes out of the chapel and tells us that they are not doing worship but their Thursday prayers. She explains to me that actually this afternoon a priest will be stopping by for a little religious gathering and also to hear their confessions. He seems to be some kind of spiritual adviser. It will not, apparently, take very much time.


What worries me slightly is that the head sister adds that she will call us when it is time, so we can join them. There have been many years now that I haven’t been to confession at all. If I choose to do it today, I’ll definitely end up messing up dinner for the patients! I realize as well that I don’t even remember how to do the act of contrition…I reckon that the new Italian volunteer knows it off by heart. She is a lady in her fifties called Maria, who lives in Rome. She arrived two days ago but has not really done anything. Sometimes, she will stay a few meters away from a patient and circle around him as if he were an animal in a zoo.

It would seem that she has not quite understood that phrase of Mother Theresa which says « it is very fashionable to talk about the poor but less so to actually speak to the poor »

On her first day I suggest to her that she comes and helps me to feed a patient. The patient in question is Shaker, who speaks Italian. For dinner he had a special kind of soup made from milk, with spaghetti. Most of the time, Shaker requests that we add sugar to his food. Maria, however, being Italian, simply cannot get her head around the idea of putting sugar in a sauce because that is not the way it should be! I bring her sugar and a spoon and ask her to mix it with the sauce. The main thing is that Shaker eats.

The American priest arrives and we join the sisters in their chapel. In interpreting the texts for the day, he draws upon an example of something that he witnessed that very morning. A donkey escaped onto the road and his owner ran after it. He then goes on to make a whole speech about the freedom of men, and how men must return completely back to God to get it, whereas an animal will never find freedom at the end of its life! I was kind of expecting something a little more intellectual or theological but finally Perrine and I understand his message.

Gamil, who has not eaten, also won’t touch his dinner. He tries to strike me when I insist that he eats. We make do with just changing his sheets, and he goes to sleep a bit after that.

Shaker is funny because he can tell that I want to check his cloth-nappy. He stands straight and lifts up his buttocks so that I can take out the dirty cloth-nappy and replace it with a clean one.

The paralysed man whom I usually take to the toilet calls me. I go over to him straight away. Once there, he shows me his member and explains to me that he cannot urinate, for some reason. I don’t really know what to do except call an assistant. While waiting though and after many efforts, his succeeds in urinating and even does a number two as well. I pass him the water-hose so he can wash himself. Once finished, I take him up in my arms and make sure he is standing up straight OK so I can put his djellaba back on him properly. After having slept, I bring him his bucket for the night.

I win my game of dominos.

Day 13

On arriving I have to make Gamil take down his breakfast. But no, he refuses to eat it. I decide to give it to his neighbour who is none other but the man of 99 years old. He never gets tired of eating. He devours the soup in 5 minutes.


It is then time to give out clothes; Sister Jaison asks me to go and prepare Gamil`s bed. We are going to put him in bed and put him on a drip (salt and glucose).

I go back into the dormitory where I manage to also disinfect the other beds. Sister Jaison joins me and between us we put on clean sheets and make the beds.

We chat away while we work. I learn that during her training in Calcutta, one of her teachers was a French sister. I enquire as to what it was that led he to choose the Missionaries of Charity after she had decided to pursue a life of religion.

She explains to me that her uncle was a priest and he used to give mass for the sisters near to where they lived. She would often go along with him and several years later as a matter or course she chose the congregation of Mother Theresa.

Once everything is ready, I go and look for Gamil and change his cloth-nappy before he goes to sleep, All the while, Sister Jaison prepares the (intravenous) drip. I have to go back to the infirmary because she has brought two glucose drips instead of one of glucose and one of sodium chloride.

She has a real hard time finding a vein. She explains to me that this is because he is weak and has not eaten, and this causes veins to disappear. I am not so sure about this explanation though, because he never seems to have any veins in the first place. Sister Nancy comes along and tries without success (wrist, forearms, on both sides!) and Sister Jaison then takes over but doesn’t have any luck. She tries in his leg. She affects a somewhat contrite air after these many attempts. Gamil remains oblivious to all of this. Sister Jaison asks me to have ago, and I refuse. Finally she manages to get it in on the 10th attempt!

It is my job to stay by Gamil`s bed to make sure that he doesn’t tear out his drip. Perrine relieves me at midday so that I can go and attend prayer. After this, I return the prayer book that the sisters had lent me to Sister Marie-Lucette and get up to leave. The sisters look at me and laugh amongst themselves and Sister Marie-Lucette signals for me to stay. They all have their back to the altar and are facing the wall. I then realize what is going on. We are facing the 14 stations of the cross. As it is Friday today, is the day of the way of the cross.

After prayer I go and look for dinner and take it into the dormitory where with Perrine I check up on Gamil. Once our dinner is over I relieve Perrine and replace the intravenous drip of sodium chloride with one of glucose, as instructed by Sister Jaison.

From 3pm it is the weekly visiting time for families and I see Gamil`s sister-in-law and daughter arriving into the room. Sister Jaison comes along and explains to them that they must reason with him to make him eat. I tell the sister how obstinate he has been. She replies to me, laughing, that it is because he is still unmarried and I must get married quickly or I can expect to end up like him. We both have a good laugh about this.

The patient who speaks French and Italian is called Jean. He is Lebanese. He was abandoned by his parents. The sisters tell me that he was born without testicles, and add with a smile that funnily enough he doesn’t have any issue about taking a shower in front of other patients.

Jean gives me 1 pound and 50 piastres and asks me to go out and buy him a big carton of orange juice and some little chocolate pancakes, but not to mention it to anyone. I of course


mention it to Sister Lucille, who is back from Upper Egypt. She takes the money to buy bread for the next day. She then returns to the store and gives me what Jean had ordered and tells me to take it to him. He is happy except that the drink that the sister has given me is a small one of chocolate milk rather than a big carton of orange juice.

The family of Megalhi`s cousin have come back to pick up their relative who does not want to stay with the sisters any more. He is just too sad since the death of his cousin. He beckons me over to him when he is about to leave with his son and daughter and he holds my hand.

In the meantime I notice that the family of Gamil have left. Worried about having left him alone with his drip in, I go over to his bed where I see that the Italian volunteer is by his side. There is no need for me to stay there.

I take the time to have a bit of a chat with Sister Lucille who tells us that she decided to become a sister at the age of 18, and that her choice took her straight away towards the Missionaries of Charity.

Going back towards Gamil`s bed, I discover that Maria has left him on his own. He has moved and the drip has come out of the vein but not from his arm. The result is that the drip keeps flowing steadily but inside his arm, causing large bubble to develop under the skin. This angers me and I immediately go and look for Sisters Lucille and Jaison. We try to get the drip in again but they cannot locate a vein. They decide to give up as Gamil is very agitated. He wants to be left in peace.

What I can do now is to change him for the night and to re-make his bed with some clean sheets. I do the same thing for Shaker.

Just when I finish up Sister Lucille comes along with the medication. Today is a day “without” for Ihab (the former doctor) who refuses to take them. I go back a second time and adopt a slightly firmer tone of voice and finally he accepts to take his tablets.

I check up on Gamil one last time and notice that Anwar has just gone to sleep. If he has decided to take his djellaba off himself to put on the end of the bed, then it means that it definitely will not be very nice. And yes indeed, this will make the washing tomorrow all the more of a big job!

Perrine not having finished washing up, I go and join my gaming partners. I win the first match and lose the second.

Day 14

Jean comes down on me and claims that I have to give him his orange juice as we agreed. I tell him that I will go and buy it when I have the time. Today actually is the big day of cleaning.

Meanwhile, I have to help out serving breakfast. Shaker swallows all of his soup but the same cannot be said of Gamil who is completely out of it.

I make my way into the dormitory to get started on the housework, and am joined by Wasfi. He is a young seminarist in his twenties who comes every Saturday to give the sisters a hand.


As usual, we disinfect the beds before re-making them with clean sheets. Next, after sweeping up we use a floor-cloth to scour the ground. We disinfect it and finish the cleaning with water, and a big rinse-out, We repeat this process in the corridor, and every chair is brushed and rinsed. While we work, I chat with Sister Lucille for a while and we end up talking about fasting.

She explains to me that once a month the sisters hold a big fasting day. In fact, what they do on this day is to prepare a meal for nine (as there are nine sisters) and then they take this and give it to a poor family. On learning this, my heart melts. They already do everything for the poor but still they manage to find the means to do even more and always with this smile of joy on their faces.

We finish at about 1030 and dinner is served at 11. We have to get busy to finish preparing the fruit salad with what we brought in this morning. Perrine and the assistants have already got stuck in, so all there is left for me to do is to cut the pineapple and break it into pieces. What is good here is that the patients do not risk getting pieces of bananas in between their teeth for the very simple reason that a large number of them do not have any teeth.

Just before lunch I go and find Sister Lucille to see if I can get a little carton of orange juice because Jean is going on about it and wants it. She gives me a litre carton and tells me to go and give it to him. Jean had asked me not to tell anyone else about it in the mission, and sister Lucille laughs about this and says she will watch his reaction from a distance.

When I approach Jean, holding the juice in a way that no-one else can see it, he looks ecstatic. He tells me to make sure no-one else notices when I pass it over to him. Once I am in front of him, he seizes the orange juice and hides it within his djellaba. It is at this moment that sister Lucille comes over and makes her unhappiness known about what she has just witnessed. Jean pretends not to understand but in the end confesses that he had given me food to do a little bit of shopping on his behalf. How does that adage go…”fault acknowledged, half-pardoned”! Sister Lucille goes back to what she was doing, laughing.

Dinner begins and an assistant brings me a plate for Gamil but it is in vain. We are going to put him to bed. It is impossible to put him on a drip, as even Sister Lucille cannot find a vein.

On leaving the dormitory I go up a floor to get back the plates and empty glasses of the patients who never come down. It’s then that I discover Nabil masturbating in his bed. I tell him that the sisters would be none too pleased to catch him in the act. Although it concerns me I turn on my heels and go back downstairs. Nabil is without doubt the most mentally handicapped patient here. He spends his time shouting out insults and running around the corridor. At the beginning that freaked me out a bit but now I realize it is perfectly harmless.

The old man in the wheelchair that I help go to the toilet signals to me that he wants to go to sleep. This is odd because this he is usually someone who spends that whole afternoon in the garden. Nevertheless I accompany him towards his bed and then I realize why he wanted to go to bed. He has had a violent bout of diarrhoea. Once is his bed I see it all!

I go back and look for his wheelchair. I undress him and his clothes are absolutely covered in diarrhoea! It is absolutely repulsive to see what he has done! I put his clothes next to the


washing basin because it will be necessary to wash them a little before sending them to the laundry.

I return to his bed and take the patient by his shoulders to turn him around to put him in his chair. The problem is that all the while, the diarrhoea continues (!) Once in the armchair I take him to the bathroom where I wash him. I decide to leave him there for a while so that I can clean him up. He says something in Arabic which I imagine to be that he wants to go back to his bed.

I return towards the bed and the stench is absolutely abominable. I gather up the sheets from the lower part and put them on the ground because they are dripping. I go and look for the Dettol again and disinfect the bed and the floor. Finally, I re-do the bed and add on an under-sheet.

Now I am ready to go back to the sick patient and to lead him to his bed where I give him his clean clothes. Once changed into his nice clean clothes he takes my hand and holds it.

I stop by Gamil`s bed to see how he is getting on. I sit down to take his hand but feel some kind of dampness. I check it out and it is just a bit of urine. So I take off his cloth-nappy and his under sheet which will make him more comfortable, but I don’t change him. Frankly speaking, I am running out of courage. I tell myself that I will change him completely this evening.

After a post-lunch walk with Perrine to the Nile, it is already time for prayer. What makes me laugh every time is the manner in which Sister Jaison invites me to join them. She comes over with this energetic « Laurent, come on! let’s go and pray! » as if she was inviting me to come and have a coffee together!

After worship, Sister Lucille informs me that she is going to try and put Gamil on a drip again. She adds to this that the sisters will lament Perrine leaving. Surprisingly she doesn’t stop saying that they will miss us. It’s of course the same for us. We have done all that we can to help and bring love and warmth to the patients. But this is a drop in the ocean compared to what the sisters have accomplished. For me, all of them are saints, holy women. I cannot say this to them because it would not make them happy to know since they request that God grants the grace to them not to be recognized, congratulated or liked. They wish on the contrary to face with joy all the obstacles that God sends to them.

We just cannot get Gamil to be on a drip, and he never stops saying that he wants to go and meet his maker. Despite this, I did succeed in getting him to drink some apple juice but that is not exactly going to help him recover his strength. He seems to be getting a little weaker each day. He goes through different stages of delirium. Sister Lucille translates for me that he said that Jesus is not happy about me trying to make him eat. A little while after though, he beckons for me to come close to his face, and puts his arms around my neck and kisses me on the cheek. He holds me for a few moments and then slackens off.

The patient who had diarrhoea has not eaten but that does not stop him from doing a repeat of last time. Luckily this time Atef is there, and it is so much quicker to get it done with two of us rather than just one.


I handle the bed and the clothes while Atef washes his buttocks with a piece of cloth soaked in water and Dettol. We add for safety another cloth-nappy for the night.

There are no games of dominos this evening as our partners don’t want to play, seeing that their medications have not yet been given out. They are creatures of habit! However, the sisters are praying today, meaning that the medications will not be given out till after we leave for the day.

Final Day

I begin this day with apprehension. I remember well my last day in India and I know that it will be a day charged with emotions.

First of all it will be tough to leave the patients to whom I am attached. I have spent many hours with Gamil and Megalhi. Megalhi has unfortunately left us but Gamil is always amongst us and it is with much sadness that I prepare to leave him.

Then there are the assistants with whom we spent a lot of time. Most of them come from Assiout (between Cairo and Luxor) where there is a strong Coptic Catholic community. Without the assistants the sisters would not be able to look after 55 patients by themselves. They are always kind and they are all workers. Atef and Fausi have left their wife and children in Assitout to come and work with the sisters. They share the dormitory with the patients and get up at 5 every morning to start tending to the needs of the patients. I have immense respect for them because they are genuinely a good sort.

Finally, there are the sisters. Their lives are a lesson in optimism, devotion, joy of life and sacrifices upon which they base their faith. One can only feel respect and admiration for these women and more generally for what a great little lady like Mother Theresa has accomplished. There are presently some 2,500 sisters distributed in 710 houses throughout the world. They are must numerous in India but they are being caught up by those in Africa.

I begin the day with breakfast. Gamil is on good form as he takes the spoonful that I give him and spits it out everywhere. Luckily my shorts bear the brunt of it but I also get a little bit on my glasses too. Insisting that he eats is futile so I go on to Shaker who is much easier and eats slowly. He needs to be fed with small spoonfuls, with a little pause in-between each one.

Next I head into the dormitory and go up to the 1st floor to help Issam to make the beds. Only the bed of Ihab needs to be changed and disinfected. I tell Ilhab to go and have a bath because he stinks of hot urine. In one word: happiness!

Seeing that the sweeping of the dormitory and the court is already well under way, I decide to go and help with the laundry. It’s been a few days now since I was there. When I get there I station myself by the basin for the second rinsing and during the next 45 minutes I rinse and listen to Sister Lucille and the assistants reciting a rosary. I think and laugh to myself that I will have to try and do this the next time I do my own laundry! With the washing finished, I go up on the next-door terrace to help with hanging out the laundry. Sister Lucille repeats that the sisters are really going to miss us and regret losing the sincerity that we have shown throughout everything we have done, and our being there for the patients.


It is 10 am and Perrine and I hurriedly get on with preparing the fruit salad which has to be ready for 11am. 20 minutes later, Perrine is called to the women’s floor where the assistants have prepared a dance for her departure. When she comes back down, she tells me that I have missed out on something big ; the head sister and sister Nancy doing a belly dance!

During which, Sister Jaison helped me out finishing the fruit salad. We chat to one another and she tells me about the first time that she went back to her family in India (three weeks every 10 years) and she could hardly speak the language, what with English being the lingua franca of the congregation. She explains to me nonchalantly how it was a bit strange not to go back to India for the death of her father. To which she adds “it was good eight years later on when I went back as I could see where he had been buried, as I wanted to know where he was “!

I ask her when she thinks she will be able to go next time to see her family. She tells me that she will go and visit her sister who is with the sisters in India. I wonder whether her sister is also a sister with the Missionaries of Charity. And then she points with her chin (her hands are busy cutting apples) in the direction of a handicapped patient and says “ha no, no ! My sister is like him there”!

While dinner is being served, Perrine takes her place behind the sink to wash up for the last time. Sister Lucille asks me to take Gamil to his bed as he needs to put on a drip.

It’s then the call for prayer and the sisters ask us to wait in the hall as the head sister wants to speak to us. We know what is coming and Perrine can hardly contain her emotion. Sister Alyoces comes and gives each of us a small bag containing some small gifts to thank us for our work and efforts. The bag contains a key-ring with a photo of Mother Theresa on it, a small crucifix, a rosary, a pen, two small pharaoh heads and some bracelets. The sisters ask me to be sure to distribute the gifts among my family members. I also receive a larger photo of Mother Theresa in which she has a look of piety on her face, and the back is a prayer of the Virgin Marie of Our Lady of Fatima. Finally, Sister Jaison has added a small plastic bag containing some sunflower seeds. They had actually remembered that I had eaten a lot of them on our trip to the pyramids. The sisters ask that we pray for them as they will pray for us.

They are all smiling, while tears run down the faces of Perrine and I. The most moving thing is to hear that they are happy with our work, which is nothing compared to what they accomplish everyday since they joined the congregation.

They insist that we come and spend a month next year and that we live in the house. That there, is the limit of what I can do. I need to disconnect in the evening and to go to a more familiar environment, a bit closer to what I am used to. In this respect I would be better off than Perrine. I would be able to use the guest room which is right at the end of the terrace of the men’s building, with a small bathroom, toilet and a sink. Perrine, on the other hand, would have no option but to share a room with the assistants.

We will finish by leaving the sisters with some apprehension, saying our goodbyes at the end of the afternoon.


Shortly before dinner, Sister Lucille calls me to the bedside of Gamil so that we can put him on a drip. This time, she brings a garrotte which will greatly help us to find a vein. The needle is very long and the biggest out of all those we have used so far.

Once the drip is in, I have to stay next to Gamil as he always tries to tear it out. He shouts out “Police, Police”! After twenty minutes, he finishes by going to sleep and urinating. Of course, I don’t wake him up. I will change him come the end of the afternoon. I have to give him one drip of sodium chloride and one of glucose.

Around 3pm, Perrine comes and takes over for a while. Leaving the dormitory, the patient who had diarrhoea beckons me over to his bed but Atef tells me not to. I do go over and notice that the basin by his bed is already full of diarrhoea. Atef is looking after him.

I go back into the dormitory and discover Perrine engaged in discussion with Gamil, who is completely delirious. I take up my post again and try to make him drink a mango juice which has been given out to all the patients. He takes down two mouthfuls but spits out the waste. Linguistically, “Gamil” means “leave me in peace”! I don’t insist he drinks, but I also don’t let go of his arm.

When all of the drips have been done, I decide to wait for Sister Lucille as given the difficulty of finding a vein, I don’t want to take out the needle if she decides to put in another drip after that. For the time being, we leave the needle in case Gamil continues to refuse to eat and drink. An assistant brings me a plate of thick soup. At the first mouthful, Gamil vents, and spits out everything as hard as he can. I try a second time then give up completely. I can now change the bed and put some clean sheets on it.

The time has come for us to leave and I decide to begin my tour around saying goodbye to the patients who are being prepared to go into the church to attend the weekly mass. At the same time the sisters gather at the entrance of the hose to say goodbye to Sister Marie-Lucette who is leaving this evening for Tunisia where she will spend 10 days with the sisters there.

And finally the moment has come where we part company with the sisters, I control my emotions fairly well which is not the case several minutes later when I have to say goodbye to Sisters Jaison and Lucille. They are moved but contrary to me they don’t cry.

Perrine also is in tears in saying goodbye one last time to the assistants who have come out of the church especially.

I sob as Sister Lucille takes me by the hand and tells me how impressed she has been by how naturally I have given to the patients. I respond that I never asked myself any questions and that I simply tried to do what needed doing, what the situation demanded. I believe that the sisters, through their strength and self-sacrifice give strength to people around them, which allows them in turn to find the wherewithal to act.

I do not cry out of sadness (this is not for Gamil) but overall out of emotion for what the sisters have given to me.

End


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Sisters of Egypt