Page 27 - History of Arabian Mission 1926-1957

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./ the Najdis who dislike any other tltlco for their royalty, had been luu ig
and was reoting for a few rainutcG before arising to say hio sunset prayers* new fi*icndu. Another tour was made by her to the peninsula of Qatar, when tiu/*^
He bade me sit beside him and chatted pleasantly, asking after the health of arrangements for transportation and entertainment were made by the oil company.
Dr. Dame and others of our Mission whom he had met in Riadh. After coffee we Accompanied by a man and a woman helper, she remained a matter of week3 at
I took our leave of him, hoping to reach Riadh before the gates closed." Doha, the residence of the paramount sheikh, and treated more than eight hun­
dred women - until, indeed, her medical supplies were exhausted. It is eloquent
Of his work Dr. Thoms wrote: "My work so far has been mostly with the of missionary effectiveness that a woman missionary can travel so far and so
royalty here, the endless number of relatives of the King, At home one occa- alone.
sionally hears of a family who have sons enough to make up a baseball town,
but here we find an anny in a single family. The first operation that I per­
formed was on a niece of the King, a little girl who had an unsightly and pain­ The Storms On Trek
ful eye. We removed this and gave her an artificial one that improved her
general appearance tremendously. Several of the King's daughters and younger In 194-1 Dr. and Mrs. Storm, in the course of a tour on the mainland,
sons get daily treatment for trachoma and in one week have shown marked im­ stopped at a desert encampment of which she gives the following description:
provement. Today I performed several operations for trichiasis. My daily "After a long weary drive through seemingly endless desert we saw with a sigh
rounds take me along the endless labyrinthine corridors of the palace, Each of satisfaction the great camp of over a hundred black tents stretched on the
wife, concubine, sister, and son has a separate establishment within the palace horizon. Our arrival was heralded by the barking of dogs and the delighted
or connected with It by overhead passages. One could easily get lost without cries of innumerable children who scampered before the car with breath-taking
a guide for the passages are as devious as the tunnels of the catacombs." miracles of escape from immediate Injury.
After the royal family and their servants had gone to Khufs, their "The men were led off to the Sheikh's majlis, a huge tent, unlike the
winter hunting encampment In the desert, Dr. Thoms had more time to devote to others in being square and white. We women vent off to xhe Sheikh's first
the needy populace. "Our clinics are crowded from early mom to noon," he re­ (not In number but in degree) wife's tent where we were received by a most
ports. "Today we performed thirty eye operations in the afternoon. The Lord gracious lady in flowing garments, heavy with gold embroidery. Her face wa3
) had blessed our work and our results are better than we had dared to hope for. covered with a black batoola out of which her beautiful eyes expressed cordial­
Two of the cases which got the best results are religious leaders here, "■ y ity and pleasure. We sat on a pile of rugs and leaned back on a gold-embroid­
were almost stone blind and now they can see well enough to read large prin„, ered cushion which in turn was supported by the central pole of the tent..... )
and'are overjoyed that they can see to read their Koran again. I came here Conversation became general now over cups of tea and they asked countless
hoping to preach the Gospel, and I help them to read the Korani" questions about Bahrain, friends there, our clothes, and Doha, the town from
which we had just come.
At the end of his month's tour he writes: "We have had a pleasant and
successful tour. We have made many friends and have treated thousands of "Nurse Singh then proceeded to vaccinate the whole tent full, beginning
Pandemonium
people. Our operations total more than three hundred. We have had the privi- with the Sheikhas, their screaming children, and on down the ranks,
. lege of being used by God to restore their sight to scores of blind people. reigned. The women crowded In to see, each wanted to laugh at the other. The
There are few experiences more thrilling than that of watching a patient's Sheikha talked herself hoarse but could hot control the pushing mob. Finally
a soldier appeared and beat them back with heavy blows of a cane, Angry as I
face light up with joy when the bandages are removed after a cataract opera­ had been at their stupidity, his open satisfaction with his Job angered mo more,
tion and he finds he can see once more. lie is sure to exclaim 'al hamdu
l'illah - Praise be to God!' - and some patients add to this 'rain barakat al and 60 I literally rose to the occasion, made him depart, and made the women
sit down. Work proceeded. After hours of wrestling with yelling children,
Messih' - from the blessings of Christ. I like to give patients the ninth persuading equally fearful women, pushing the crowd back, urging than not to
chapter of the Gospel of St. John for their first reading after their sight wipe off the vaccine, re-vaccinating those who did, and washing dirty arms with !
is restored. The pure light of Christ's religion must and will penetrate in­ alcohol, I suddenly became conscious of a hush among the throng. Impatiently
to this dark corner of the earth some day."
the Sheikha stooped down and said 'The Sheikh has come: get up.' I looked up
from my work to see the whole crowd on their feet and the SheiKh coming toward
us. I immediately arose and was greeted cordially by the Ruler. To our great
The First Woman Doctor In The Interior
relief he ordered the tent to be cleared and coffee to be served.
In 1938* the King requested Dr. Esther Baniy to come to Riadh - the "I lay a long time that night looking through a slit in the tent roof,
first woman doctor to visit Interior Arabia. She spent four months there as watching the glorious desert stars. Dogs barked, a camel grunted near by, and
the guest of the King, and besides the royal harem 3he treated hundreds of inquisitive calf stuck his head in the door. But my mind was busy
women in the city itself. Her presence there by herself marked a notable 6tage once an
with the little Miriam, lovely fair baby, who had not opened her eyes for a
. In our annals. month because of trachoma, and who is probably doomed to blindness because
cannot stay long enough; with innumerable little arms that I wiped, that day
In 1940 a request came from a well-known and Influential family 1 burning with fever; with a slave girl’s tears as she asked me to do something
Hofhuf, el Hasa, for a lady doctor or a nurse, and Miss Cornelia Dalenbd0 for her emaciated baby; with Fatima, beautiful, young, in the first stages or
answered the call, accompanied by a woman helper. She gave medical care to tuberculosis and probably condemned to an early death from lack of care; with
many women in her few days there, renewed friendships of foimer days and made
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