From 1984-1987 I lived in Eket, Nigeria. Mary Ellen Edmunds and I were sent to direct a child health project for the Thrasher Research Fund in Salt Lake City. I recently found this report we sent to headquarters not long after we first arrived there.
We lived in The Palace, mostly without electricity or running water. We helped build our furniture and we killed lots of cockroaches. It was a grand adventure! This letter gives a fun taste of establishing ourselves in an African village.
The Palace:
The generator house:
The local markets:
Collected rain water::
Furnishing The Palace
Film canisters filled with spices, and a few things we brought from home:
We had to filter, boil and chlorinate our water and soak all of our local fruit and produce in a chlorine solution.
Dedication of the chapel in Aba. This was the first building built to be an LDS Church in the whole Cross River State area. Now there is a temple there.
Killing bugs:
Eket Branch meeting in Samuel and Cecilia’s home:
Baptisms:
On this day, more than 60 people were baptized. You can see the 3 baptismal sites below:
Some of the men were confirmed, and received the Priesthood so they could baptize their family members.
Dinner with the Tretheways and Madsens:
Cecilia working in the garden planting waterleaf:
Our front yard with my pineapple crop:
Grass grew non-stop in my pineapple garden:
Chief’s wife, Ama Imeh helping in our garden:
Wandering Bob “mowing the lawn”
Our garden, before and after–ground nuts, waterleaf, potatoes, beans:
What our rice looks like before cleaning it. Yes, those are bugs. Yes we ate it all.
This sweet child is Doraty. She was 9 years old and weighed 23 lbs. We called her “broomstick” because her arms and legs were no larger. Her little belly was filled with roundworms living on whatever little food she received. 
Here is Doraty’s family, the Bassey Udoeyos. They were our dear friends and neighbors. Sister Helen, the mom had 9 children. They lived on what they could produce.
We gave the children worm medicine to kill the worms in their bellies. Here is Esther, Doraty’s sister with the worms she passed the next morning:
Helen named her 9th child after me: Ann Bassey Davies Udoeyo:
Samuel and Cecilia and their family, our neighbors, mentors and dear friends:
Eket Branch members at our new meeting place:
I served as the Relief Society President in this dear Branch.
Fetching water–the children bathe, wash laundry and gather drinking water all in the same place. No wonder the children are so often weak and sick.
We taught and trained 100s of men and women to be Village Health Workers during the next 3 years, working in more than 25 villages. Here are a few of these good friends. I hope their lives were better because we were there.
Branch members participated too:
A big part of my heart will always be here, in Eket with these dear friends and with Mary Ellen, who taught me to love more than I’d ever loved before.
Well done.
What a good report!! Brings good memories of those days and also tears. How I love you two. I wish we could have a little reunion.
NR
I just finished going down “Memory Lane” (aka “Eket tar road) . . . . I can’t even believe the feelings this has brought into my heart and soul. Such GRATITUDE for YOU, and so many unforgettable memories . . . . Oh how I love you, and how THANKFUL I am for you. Without you, I’d never have left Nigeria alive. And I’d have left a lot sooner. But you carried much more than your share of the load. Oh Ann — in some ways I shudder to think of having asked you to go with me . . . but the stronger feeling is how GRATEFUL I am that you were willing . . . . Thanks for gathering these pictures and all this material. I really mean it when I say that I don’t know how to thank you adequately. (Maybe one day I’ll figure out how) I have a question: Will you be at the mission home in Yakima on Friday afternoon, 23 June? I’m going to Seattle with a friend to have a brain aneurysm checked (well, not the aneurysm, but the surgery which was done to correct it several years ago). We’ll be heading through Yakima on our way back to Utah, and I thought if you’d be there we could drop in (unfortunately, only for a few minutes). When I think about the face that you are close to 2/3 through your call, I can hardly believe it … I’m saying that because someday you’ll be back in Orem, and I’ll “get in line” for a chance to talk to you (mostly to LISTEN). I love you SO much. Always. Forever. Melon
*MEE*
*“I always prefer to believe the best of everybody – it saves so much trouble!” * (Rudyard Kipling)
*MEE’s BLOG: MEEThinks.net*
Ann I LOVE all these sweet pictures. What
A life altering period in your life. I
Can almost feel your love through those
Pictures. Thanks for being such a great
Humanitarian. Hope all is well in WA.
Love Andrea Beard
Humbled to the core….again…….by them, their lives, the hardships, by YOU, by Mary Ellen and all who are willing to do such as you have done, do do ( 😃 ), and continue to do.
I love, love, love seeing you as a younger missionary. Some of these hoots made me want to paint them they are so beautiful. What beautiful reports and profess since. Bless you dear friend.
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We just discovered this post in August 2019. It was so wonderful to see pictures and read about these experiences that we have heard in many talks and CD’s we’ve heard Mary Ellen give for over 30 years, And to see pictures of you Ann, who she always spoke of with such warmth and affection.Thank you so much for this post..