This was Hallow E’en.

Amidst the ghoulish and ghostly decorations along our main corridor in the Motherhouse MMM Beechgrove Ireland we had another activity – the booster vaccinations for Covid and  Influenza. These were provided by a 10-person team from the HSE (Health Service Executive) with about fifty people being vaccinated – mainly sisters but a few staff members also. The organisation was detailed and left nothing to chance with a large, printed list reminding us of who belonged to what community and telling of the time of arrival of the team.

We sat indoors waiting our turn on comfortable soft seats and chatted away to each other with some of us struggling to get up from the rather low seating! There were three vaccination tables, two members of staff sat at computers checking data and one nurse merely called out our names, checking her list as she got us in line. It was interesting to hear the official names of some of our Sisters, so we heard Mary called for someone we knew by another name and then we saw someone respond to being called Maureen and another Elizabeth – news to us! Parents often baptised their children one name and promptly knew them for life by another. So it was!

After our vaccinations we got a little label reminding us of how long we had to remain in the vicinity in case we got a negative reaction. As we (nearly) all lived in the building this was treated lightly with us reminding each other to go to the chapel for some extra prayer! MMM is never short of fun!

My mind went back to vaccination clinics we ran in many parts of Africa and which our sisters and their colleagues still run every day in various different countries; these large outdoor clinics were held far away from the base dispensary or hospital, involved a long journey usually in a land rover with a driver & skeleton staff all carefully minding the  caskets holding the vaccines as we tried hard not to break the cold chain. On arrival the land rover was our base, we looked for a tree or a building that could provide shade and shelter and with the wonderful help of the elders, village midwives, and some local teachers we became an enlarged and great medical team.

The scene was different to that in Beechgrove today: indeed, it was so often what  could be called ‘biblical.’ The multitudes and the gift of healing were visible there. The people travelled from far away and the queues were truly the longest one could imagine frequently with as many as four hundred children or more and their mothers or guardians. These were clinics for childhood vaccinations – the greatest of great lifesavers. Managing the unending queue was a task and it was miraculous to see how someone always appeared who knew exactly how to do this; the people were patient, took their turn, and while they didn’t like being vaccinated, the great smile wasn’t far away and it was always easy to cajole and humour these beautiful children. Managing statistics and the little MCH cards was indeed an honours course task!

Without computers, solid tables nor data collection experts we still did well, as we helped and encouraged the mothers to know when to return and to where for the next set of vaccines.

We always brought a picnic with us and there is no cafe that I have ever visited that serves any fare as good as the chai (tea) and chapatis we enjoyed before we packed up for home! I consider being part of such a vaccination team many times in these special places to be among my really worthy life achievements.