by Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer, MMM                               USA                                 25.07.2026

To mark the celebration of our 50^th Jubilee in 1987, I tried with the help of a local teacher to write a play about Mother Mary. It was a mime with the presenting scenes spoken in Kiswahili. The pre-nurses and midwifery students acted it out very well. Some of the scenes I recall were one of the male ward orderlies carried a nurse down the stairs, representing Bishop Moynagh and Mother Mary when she was transferred to Port Harcourt Hospital. All the white veils and suitcases available were loaned to the nurses and students to portray Mother Mary waving off the newly trained Sisters to Africa.

On May 1^{st, the} feast of St Joseph the Worker. the Pallotine Fathers celebrated a beautiful Mass in the open courtyard of the new OPD. A delicious meal was served to all the Staff and invited guests. The play was part of the festive celebrations. We thanked God that Bishop Winters had invited the MMM Sisters to work in Makiungu. In 1954, Sister Eileen Carmel Keogh and Sister Kieran Saunders started an OPD, and the hospital grew steadily since. The Wanyaturu dancing is very skilled and beautiful. The elders danced at the close of the celebrations and brought us to oneness in our praise and thanks to God.

Life continued in a hectic manner. We sometimes had three hundred patients for 120 beds. I asked the Staff Nurse in the male ward how she managed, and she told me she doubled the men in a bed. One at the head, the other at the foot. Thank God it did not happen often; just when the floor space was all used.

Another serious disease we treated was tuberculosis. In the early eighties, a new form of treatment was discovered which was much easier to take and was provided free of charge by the government. Because the local people had some of their lively hood involved with cattle, the children drank infected milk. Many had enlarged glands, and some had tuberculosis of the spine. One young girl was admitted with huge bed sores. She had been playing leapfrog in school. Another girl sat on her back and broke her spine. Her father said he was terribly upset that the principal allowed such a rough game to be played. I told him I had played it myself at school. It was not so rough, but I thought that his daughter’s back had been infected with tuberculosis, and this was the cause of the break.

Unfortunately, the delay in coming for treatment interfered with the healing process. I asked the child if she had made her First Holy Communion. She said she had been going for lessons but stopped when she was unable to walk. Our parish priest brought her Holy Communion. We had prepared a little altar with candles and flowers. I will never forget the ecstatic joy on her face as she received Jesus in Communion. It was as if Jesus Himself appeared to her. Her course after that went downhill despite all our efforts to save her.

Tuberculosis appeared in many bodily areas I had never even thought of. One woman appeared to have a fungating cancerous growth on her breast. The histology report came back Tuberculosis of the breast. One man developed tuberculosis in the metatarsal bone of his foot. We thanked God for the availability of this free treatment for tuberculosis and tried our best to eradicate it.