“The Lannister’s always pay their debts. The Odhiambo’s keep their promises.”
In one of my previous posts I mentioned that I’d be going into the final phase of the year in style. I’ve come around to it here and now. I won’t lie to you that it’s not been a challenge by itself coz it has been. Before I get to the content, I’ll acknowledge my sister who decided to let you know that I’ve been a babysitter longer than I’ve been a pharmacist or even a blogger. I’d say lifetime but that’s yet to be decided. Thank you for the wishes. I hope you all know how sisters are though.
Today I’ve decided to take on my first passion. I have a natural tendency to be drawn to knowledge and all along I’d say that’s one thing that has worked out for me. I am a lifelong storyteller or rather noisemaker as some of my good friends say. I’m yet to confirm the latter. Growing up and probably even now I’m not that able bodied and growing in family that our main occupation was in the farms, I didn’t make the cut. My dad used to consider me lazy but I just wasn’t primed for it that early in life even though I later got to it and did my fair share. Books became my way out and having teachers for parents made it easier to take advantage of this and to take advantage I did. I remember at one point in high school when tuition was outlawed and we had to work a way with a couple of friends to convince the Principal to keep us around which he did. We made the best of it.
After clearing secondary education as usual it takes time before transitioning to the university. This gave me a couple of months to spare and with this, I had to find something to do. I started a library as my first business using a room my mom owned at the market center. I gave it my all taking advantage of the fact that I had collected books from my colleagues when we were done with school as they were releasing them at good rates. Unfortunately, my village mates didn’t love books as much as I did. For a period of three (3) months, I made Kshs. 100 from the library and decided to close shop. My advantage was that I didn’t have bills to pay otherwise I’d have been sent away at the end of the very first month. When our results were released, I thought through the prospects I had. Farming was given as always but to add to it I needed something to give me extra money so I got a job at a local secondary school as an untrained teacher. It was one amazing job for the period I was there. Four months of sharing knowledge, inspiring others, relearning and making friends within my community. I enjoyed the job.
Fast forward, I came to the university graduated with my degree in a field I love but the desire to amass more knowledge never stops. I’m hooked to learning, teaching and practicing so I think I’ll at one point go back to doing all this. This passion and love for education informed my undergraduate thesis which was to assess the training of pharmacy in Kenya with an aim of improving on the training for quality pharmaceutical service delivery. This is something I’m still pursuing and hopefully, it will come to fruition.
Having been in practice for one year, I’ve interacted with individuals from almost all walks of life in different fields both in person and virtually through different platforms. The common thread in the most accomplished, self aware and inspirational individuals has been access to the right knowledge, understanding how to put it to use and access to the right opportunities in an enabling environment for them to act on their ideas. I hope and wish we could all commit to advocate for and invest in quality education that is responsive to the needs of the society. This is a critical enabler in the realization of our developmental aspirations as individuals, communities, nations and the human race at large. Based on these premises, we are launching our YouTH Voices Training Programme in February 2021 to enlighten, empower and evoke the youth to take action for their wellbeing and that of their communities.
“Pursue knowledge and when you do, always factor the value that knowledge adds to your life, your community and the world. When you find this out, you’ll be the change you wish for in your life.”