Allan Wasonga: I studied in the toilet, missed online classes

Allan Wasonga of Agoro Sare High School, who came in second nationally, overcame all odds, including studying in the toilet at one point.

He told Citizen TV’s Trevor Ombija on Monday that he was constantly under pressure to perform from his teachers and classmates.

Wasonga said he hardly studied during the seven months that schools were closed due to the pandemic.

The videos he would watch either wouldn’t buffer, had scratches, or the audio was broken.

“The videos wouldn’t work for me, and I couldn’t log in to anything,” he said. “When schools reopened, I felt like I was on the first lap while everyone else was on their third.”

Wasonga, who shares a bedsitter with four other family members, found it difficult to study at night while everyone else was sleeping.

His father is a businessman, and his mother is a seamstress.

While Wasonga studied late into the night, his mother noticed that the lights were making it impossible for others to sleep.

With the odds stacked against him, he resorted to studying in the toilet at night while his family slept in order to continue his studies.

“I was trying to cover the topic during the night, but my mum was complaining that she was unable to sleep because the light was on, so I went to study in the toilet, when she found me, she did not say anything, she went back to bed and I closed the book since I had finished,” Wasonga explained.

When schools were finally reopened, Wasonga said he went all out, sleeping only 30 minutes a day.

“On most days, I would study until around 1 a.m., then go to my bed and study while standing until around 3.30 a.m., sleep for thirty minutes before waking up for the morning preps,” he added.

Wasonga, who plans to study medicine and change the course of his family’s life, says his teachers encouraged him to work hard and that they expected his name to be on a list of the top students in the country.

“I want to pursue medicine and surgery and then after that I can specialize in neurosurgery. Wherever I do it (medicine and surgery), even if it is abroad, my services will be offered here….” he said.

And, while his hard work paid off, he says that his faith in God was at the heart of it all.