This article examines the lived experiences of teachers who were either lay volunteers or Sister missionaries, working in education and health care. The research draws on oral histories, examining the responses of participants under a series of thematic headings that unpack the influence of family life, schooling and faith, while also exploring experience 'in the field'. The article attempts to compare the responses of lay women with Sisters (also sometimes known as nuns, or women religious), and finds that there were some factors that distinguished between the experiences of these two cohorts involved in voluntary work in education and health care in African countries, in the period under review.