Birthday Celebrations by Medics

I remember some years back as a child we all waited with bated breaths for the day our birthdays would come so as to invite all our friends and of course eat cake. It was a pleasurable moment and most cherished and our parents did their best to keep that day special and memorable.

Nowadays as adults we do our own birthdays and it’s no longer referred to as  “birthday” anymore but more interesting terms like “bash” and  some go to the extent of  having the “bash” in some of the popular Kenyan clubs, and the birthday ceases to be a birthday  as the party would extend to the next day. The main aim for all birthdays is have fun, enjoy and live knowing you are not going to see that age again.

For some guys in Medical School this is not the same as I witnessed today morning, Tuesday 6^th August while I was having my breakfast. I was sited in the famous café for the Medical Students of Nairobi University, “Com care” In Kenyatta. On the table next to where I was sited there was this group of about 6 medics who were clearly having a serious medical discussion, as I was enjoyably eating my mandazi escorting it down my throat with some hot tea. I couldn’t help but notice to see a “Valentine Cake house” box on their table a midst several books and papers. I wondered and pondered over that as I had actually not seeing people celebrate a birthday at 8 am in the morning, but I assumed it’s probably left over cake someone decided to carry and share with their study group. Normal birthdays are set to start at around 2 pm with the normal Kenyans African-timing streaming into the party 2 hours late.

Law and behold I start hearing people singing “happy birthday…” The group put their discussion on hold and were celebrating the birthday. The cake was looking delicious, and It made my Tea and Mandazi look like peanuts. Unfortunately I wasn’t part of their study group and the group seemed like post graduate students and I was just an undergraduate. The birthday girl was all smiles and cheerful.

I did not stay to longer to see through to the end of the birthday but I assume a birthday done at  8am by medical students would have been filled with interesting terms such as “dissect the cake”, are there enough “carbonated beverages”?, release all your “vital capacity” and blow out the candle… and then only to end a few minutes later as they all resumed their books. Birthday Celebrations by Medics are quite interesting.

They say medical students read hard, they don’t have time for play and fun. This might be true but at the same time they still are able to have fun even it means celebrating a birthday at 8 am.