Several years ago, the class of 2020(should be class of 2018) was admitted to MUSOM as freshly-out-of- high school, starry-eyed boys and girls. More than 7 years later, they have all grown up and successfully cleared Medical school. Hongera kwenu madaktari!
Albeit having different origins, we all dreamt of finally becoming doctors and helping alleviate human suffering. We knew the road would be rough and dreary but knowing is one thing and living it up is another. In the words of the late Chinua Achebe, “It costs water and firewood.” You have to pay the price to qualify and we paid it all including taxes.
Ours has been a steep learning curve, from being scared of cadavers, to being scared of ward rounds and currently, to being scared of hospital calls! The beauty of it is that each stage leaves you impregnated with invaluable experience.
Most memories of us in junior classes have started fading but I know we can still remember our first encounters with the basic sciences: the Biochemistry structures, the Physiology, Immunology and Microbiology essays, the acrid smell of formalin in the Anatomy lab which had become our daily bread in our 1st and 2nd years and the late Professor Rhytko’s Histology ‘cartoons’(Rest easy Prof)
Talking of Histology, which one of you while as a freshman asked his crush,"If I was an endoplasmic reticulum, would you like me smooth or rough?” I just want to know whether it ended in tears, information which is purely for research purposes.
3rd year came with the courses of Pathology and Pharmacology .The word Pain starts with the letter P and so do these two courses. Coincidence? I think not.
Despite school work rubbing our noses in the dirt, 3rd year had its fair share of fun. Our annual class trip this time involved some serious domestic tourism. If in late 2014 you saw a group of youngins wearing cheap plastic shades and carrying funeral mineral water bottles around Menengai crater in Nakuru and Thompson falls in Nyahururu, then you definitely saw us.
Scientists have unanimously agreed that medical school progressively gets harder from one class to the next. Our 4th year was no different. Everything seemed new and it took the joint effort of our 6th years, the residents and consultants to prevent us from practising broad daylight witchcraft in the wards.
As a class, we felt the full impact of the various industrial actions in the country. The doctors’ and lecturers’ strikes in both our 5th and final years automatically meant that we were staying in school longer than scheduled and subsequently made us one of the oldest undergraduates in the country. One of us used to jokingly say,"tumezeekea hii shule karibu tunapata retinopathy of maturity.”
We had really dark moments in our final year when we lost 2 of our collegues;the late Dr Ivy Wangechi and the late Dr John Thuku.Even though life must go on, we still mourn while wishing that these two brilliant and cheerful souls were still around.We shall forever miss you.
The class was also well represented in extracurricular activities from the local campus and national student leadership positions to entrepreneurship and in various sports and games. Fun fact: the class of 2020 used to be a football powerhouse until old age kicked in and turned our knees arthritic then our juniors started unleashing terror upon us in the pitch to a point that we almost cursed them.
It would be rude, boorish and uncourteous not to recognize our colleagues who were blessed to be parents while in school. Kudos! For the rest, we look forward to soon celebrate your F1 generations.
Tangazo: just ensure that there is enough pilau in your events coz we will eat till we get difficulty in breathing and develop hernias
Our class is the epitome of perseverance, hard work and friendship and it's always a great privilege being a member. You made school fun and I can confidently declare that truly indeed I didn't study medicine in the company of the wrong mammals.
Brethren, life will constantly serve you challenges, sometimes at meningitic doses. Don’t give up. Try to always keep pushing forward like peristalsis. VIVA!
DR MAIMA MUKUNZI.
FEBRUARY, 2020.
