Ask at the main gate on Fifth Street for permission to visit the Mortuary, a National Monument; one of the attendants may accompany you. No women were included amongst the Pioneers, but it soon became clear they would be needed for nursing and education. Rhodes agreed. In February , they set out on the long and dangerous journey to Mashonaland. They travelled to Grahamstown by post-cart and then by train and Cape cart to Mafeking.
They then travelled from the 13 th April to 10 th May from Mafeking to Macloutsie, some miles, as several of the men there were ill. Mother Patrick records in her diary: An enormous ox-wagon was hired, which was to be our abode for the next five weeks. We viewed this kind of conveyance with mixed feelings and our apprehension grew when we were told it was to be pulled by a span of sixteen oxen. She records the lighter side of their community life: our evenings were enlivened beyond measure by Sister Frances who possessed a talent for mimicking anyone she could think of.
We concluded the entertainment with an Irish jig. Sister Frances jigging away with an amusing variety of facial contortions, while I danced to the melodious strains of music. Then; we scrambled into the huge wagon with high spirits for at long last we would commence the tumble and jolt journey of about miles.
The five of us slept in the ox-wagon, the tall ones along the side, while Sister Constantia…being of short statue herself, fitted in cross-wise in the middle. On May 10 th with Macloutsie in sight she wrote; As the wagons drew near to the camp, the men formed two lines for us to pass through and burst into loud and prolonged cheers…the men outspanned unyoked and made ready to pull the wagons into the camp themselves; we got off and walked through the guard of honour into the hospital amidst loud and continued cheers, no uncertain sign that they were pleased we had come to take care of them.
Mother Patrick and her companions waited here and worked in the local hospital for ten months until the rains were over in March The five volunteers were teachers by profession and here they received nursing training from the doctors in charge. Describing the conditions there, she says, the hospital at Macloutsie consisted of two marques and two bell tents and held twenty-seven patients who were lying on the ground with nothing but their blankets and waterproof sheets to cover them.
