What brought you to Nursing - part 2

Upon finishing high school, I continued to work at my aunt's chemist mainly at the front desk and helping around with the odd jobs around the chemist. I soon picked up a lot of knowledge about various drugs and how they worked and also how they were dispensed. The chemist also offered a nurse-led minor injuries and illnesses clinic which further broadened my knowledge and in a way laid the foundation for my career in nursing. It was decided( a conversation between my mum and the nurse who worked at the chemist) that I should apply for a college place at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) which was the umbrella college in Kenya where training in all things medical occured and had colleges spread across the country. On application you were given the opportunity to make three choices of courses you wanted to be considered for in order of preference.

One of my former primary school friends dad was a public health officer, so I thought I would try that as it sounded interesting. So on my application I put down public health as option one and two and Nursing as option three. You see,I was banking on the fact that they would see that I had listed public health twice and that would show my enthusiasm for wanting to study public health. My application went through and I got offered an interview slot where I was to hand in my papers like birth certificate and exam results slip amongst other things. I was happy to sail through the interview but unfortunately my application was going to be turned down because I was classified as a foreigner due to my British nationality😱😱, oh the irony! Apparently this had not been a problem during my primary and secondary school years because we lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone and rules and regulations were not so rigidly followed 😲, which meant things like my birth certificate and other documents were not taken into account. My parents word of mouth was enough. Thanks to my mother’s fast thinking with a little help from her friends at the local government office, a kenyan identity card application was made and I was able to hand in all my paperwork using the identity card waiting slip with just hours to spare on the last day of interviewing. Months later my acceptance letter came through and I had been allocated an Enrolled Community Nursing(ECN) place at Homabay medical training college(MTC) which was a three year course.

I had two issues when I got my acceptance letter, one was that I didn't understand why I had not been allocated public health and second was that I had no idea where Homabay was and had assumed that I would be admitted to the local Kisumu college🤨. So the next day I went to the head of admissions to request that my course be changed to public health at least. I was met with hefty laughter from the head of public health and his assistant who went on to explain to me in no uncertain terms that public health was a man's domain and it was in my best interest to stick to the nursing that I had been allocated as it would suit me far better.

My disappointment and anger at his misogynistic views was not because, i felt they were not warranted and out of place as indeed they were, but more to do with the fact that he was a father to three beautiful daughters who had attended the same primary school i had , indeed his eldest daughter had been a classmate and friend. What did it mean for them and their futures having a father who held such views? Defeated but determined to make the best of my allocated course, I went back home and waited for my reporting day to come.

Unfortunately eleven days to my reporting day, my mother who was the only parent I was staying with at that time, fell seriously ill and went into a coma and had to remain in hospital and so I had no one to accompany me to this strange and new town I had never heard of let alone been to. I was on my own. On the eve of my departure, I went to bid my mother farewell in hospital. She was fortunately out of her diabetic coma and the intensive care unit but still had to remain as an inpatient on the ward. She was sorry she would not be accompanying me to college and wished me Godspeed and blessings on my journey. Having spent my high school years in boarding school I was kind of semi prepared for my next adventure. So on the 2nd of september 1996, a year after finishing secondary/high school, I carried my worldly goods and boarded the bus to Homabay MTC.

To be continued……