In northern Kenya, there’s a unique place called Loiyangalani, where it would seem humanly impossible to live: isolated, with extreme heat (49°C in the evenings), and arid, volcanic soil where nothing grows. To reach this place, you travel by Land Rover, on rocky and sandy “roads.” But even in this environment, people manage to survive because it’s their “Home.”
In this area, we Consolata Missionaries ran a dispensary, without electricity or medical equipment that would have helped with diagnosis or prevention. The nearest hospital and doctor were a six-hour Land Rover ride away.
In this situation, we Missionary nurses and midwives have experienced countless times how: LIFE ALWAYS WINS.
Like that time, a woman pregnant with twins was brought in to give birth, who had been paralyzed from the pelvis down during the pregnancy. The birth promised to be difficult, yet we managed to do for the mother what she could not have done alone.
As we helped the woman, we invoked the Consolata’s help, repeating: “Maria, help us,” and… she truly helped us. The two babies were born healthy and without any problems.
As we gazed at the mother’s heartfelt smile, we once again experienced this: LIFE ALWAYS WINS. The mother’s joy for her two new children was immense; to express her gratitude, even though she was Muslim, she named the baby girl Mariamu (Mary).
In this case, as in all our experiences of accompanying women (more than 2,000), throughout the pregnancy and up until the birth of their children, we witnessed, with great emotion and admiration, the love and respect they all had for the new life that was forming and growing within them, which they considered “a gift from God.”
For this reason, since every creature born was a “gift,” they didn’t prepare anything before birth, nor did they wonder whether they would give birth to a boy or a girl, but were open and ready to welcome the new “life”: LIFE. WHICH ALWAYS WINS!
Sr. Linda Hill and Sr. Agnese De Peron, mc
