The site for such a resort required to be near the Creek, and she
discovered one on high land at Use between Ikotobong and Itu, and two
miles from the landing-beach. The road here winds round hills from
which beautiful views are obtained. On this side one sees far into Ibo
beyond Arochuku, on that the vision is of Itu and the country behind
it, while on the west the palm-covered plain rises into the highlands
of Ikot Ekpene. It is one of the fairest of landscapes, but is the
haunt of leopards and other wild beasts, and after rain the roadway is
often covered with the marks of their feet.
The ground was cleared, and building operations begun, the plan worked
out being a small semi-European cottage and native yard. Other cottages
would follow. Before long, however, the feeling grew that Ikotobong
should be taken over by the Women's Foreign Mission Committee, and she
foresaw that Use would require to be her own headquarters.
Towards the end of the year Miss E, M'Kinney, one of the lady agents,
called at Use, and found her living in a single room, and sleeping on a
mattress placed upon a sheet of corrugated iron. As the visitor had to
leave early in the morning, and there were no clocks in the hut, "Ma"
adopted the novel device of tying a rooster to her bed. The plan
succeeded; at first cock-crow the sleepers were aroused from their
slumbers.
It was not so much a rest-house for others that was needed, as a rest
for herself. She was gradually coming to the end of her strength.
Throughout the year 1906 she suffered from diarrhoea, boils, and other
weakening complaints, and the Government doctor at last frankly told
her that if she wished to live and work another day, she must go home
at once. Her answer to his fiat was to rally in a wonderful way. "It
looks," she said, "as if God has forbidden my going. Does this appear
as if He could not do without me? Oh, dear me, poor old lady, how
little you can do! But I can at least keep a door open." It was,
however, only a respite. By the beginning of 1907 she could not walk
half-a-dozen steps, her limbs refused to move, and she needed to be
carried about. It was obvious, even to herself, that she must go home.
Home! the very word brought tears to her eyes. The passion for the old
land and "kent" faces, and the graves of her beloved, grew with her
failing power. A home picture made her heart leap and long. "Oh, the
dear homeland," she cried, "shall I really be there and worship in its
churches again! How I long for a wee look at a winter landscape, to
feel the cold wind, and see the frost in the cart-ruts, to hear the
ring of shoes on the hard frozen ground, to see the glare of the shops,
and the hurrying scurrying crowd, to take a back seat in a church, and
hear without a care of my own the congregation singing, and hear how
they preach and pray and rest their souls in the hush and solemnity."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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