12th FEBRUARY 2010

ever stopped to wonder what it would be like if things were not what they were? as i walked into the graduation grounds flanked by my parents on either side i wondered what life would have been like if for example i had gone to the urban Kampala parents school and not the rural Namilyango Juniors boys school. i would probably be more comfortable around girls, know most of them more personally and appear to be more confident about things but less prayerful and lacking in survival skills which are a requirement in this country we call pearl of africa.

anyway as i joined my coursements catching up on the past days and life out of campus , i wondered what life would have been like for me if i had gone to St. Mary's College Kisubi or Kings College Buddo and not the great Namilyango College the fear that came over me alone at that thought reminded me that we were supposed to be taking our seats. but then again if things had been different i would probably be an Engineer and not an accountant but sadly not as hard and good a rugby player and if one probably playing for the national team not because am good but because i would be plying my trade with G4S pirates a club i hate for influencing and meddlig in rugby affairs in the country mostly denying chance to those that deserve. despite me being off rugby at the moment, the fear of not knowing my peers because of having gone on the other end of the lake for High school is heightened as the chancellors entourage enters the graduation grounds and speeches, anthems and endless remarks take center stage of grad.

as the deans award various degrees which are met with screams , ululations and joyous celebrations from the graduands and parents a like, i ask my self the same question what life would have been like if i had insisted on going to MUK or UCU mukono for that
Law degree. its then that i start to remniscence the good old days in the guild cabinet my short stint as a member of the democratic party's UYD. the allowances that came with being the Guild finance minister, the politicking the never successful censures and the government allowances for non resident government aided students and the priviledges of not queing up during registration time and attending all university functions courtesy of knowing the guild president and most of all being among the few stars that shone in the rather not so bright Kyambogo's skies, reader i hope u get wat i mean.

as the dean faculty of Arts and social sciences read out my name for the award of Bachelor of Arts in Economics, i wondered if life would be the same if i had different parents and i was not Muguluma, thinking of all the good things they have done for me; it was than i said glory to God and was so grateful for his kindness and giving me thae most loving and giving parents, i even feared to dare think of another father what if he was a drunkard abusive father who cared less for our welfare, what if i had the kind of mother who couldnt even tell the father of her children. as i thought about what my parents had gne through to get me this far, the sacrifices they had made a great feeling of debt and love was too much to bear and as i left the tents to go i realised how good life has been for me thus far and like my old man said on the 20th of Feb exactly a year after that fatal accident that almost took my life i pledged to my self to work so hard and give back to my parents cause without them i would have turned out as a boda boda rider, taxi conductor , or even as a porter at some construction site looking forward to go drink waragi which would probably have killed me or i would have gotten involved in some kind of trouble and would be serving some sentence just nearby in Luzira prison.

I LOVE YOU MUMMY AND DADDY

next time u catch me staring this is why

Why i liked the Lost symboll

Of late i hear people speaking all sorts of thing of whether there is God or not and how religion is not logical they argue that science is a more reasonable approach to life and generally to them being atheistic is cool actually modern and free thinking is the way to go. i know several people who have been raised from pious families rich in Christianity but the way they shun it despite those many evening we spent attending catechism classes is rather sad.

now recent troubles in my life have brought me closer to God and made me read the holy book this time not for academic purposes but for spiritual nourishment.i have survived in Four freaky car accidents once when i was really drunk and seriously the only reason i could have survived can only be divine intervention, a superior being, or the existence a supernatural power. i believe i am alive because the powers that be want it that way or am not yet good enough to join them in the spiritual world.

these proponents of atheism make very logical arguments but while reading the Bible recently the way Dan Brown says in his book lost symbol. i have come to appreciate that the bible is not actually for the normal brain and that you have to be enlightened to get the points. take fore instance the wide road and narrow road in Matthew 7:13 whereas Sunday school taught that the narrow road actually led to heaven despite it being thorny and bad and that the wide road led to hell despite its comfort, the moral of this story is that about every day experiences like group influence, peer pressure, group think at work and its evils, and it teaches us that it actually pays to think through things despite the discomfort we may experience like being alienated, segregated as long as the sense of one self is not lost all is well and the fruits are heaven. personal decision especially those that will have effect on our lives due to collective decisions, group think , peer pressure, and the band wagon effect ; generally any thing that you don't believe in but partake in because of what the crowd will say or think of you is the wide road that will lead to hell. As such am off alcohol because i do not want to drink it any more and i don't care if bees sting due to the cola i will be taking its my narrow path.

to those that read the bible most atheists actually own and read the bible religiously or any other book deemed to be holy and translate (read) understand them for their written word, you get it wrong and miss out the point in the stories, parables and psalms in these books. you are actually no better than the preachers on the streets and therefore need to be enlightened lest you die in your ignorance like Dan brown puts it in his book.

invictus

when i first heard about this movie i couldn't wait to get my hands on it so when my movie guy ( i have all sorts of guys) called me announcing that he had it i dashed to his shop threw him his ka 1500 and headed home to watch this must watch at least those that have for those who put on those micro mini shorts, thick cotton shirts and ridiculously heavy boots and lost some sweat tackling and being tackled on the field it doesn't matter where. so when i read on one friend's blog about this movie and how da preview was done so badly and he was baying for the reviewers blood. i thought i should do a piece about this INVICTUS. i will not go into da genesis of the word, the poem i wanted to share some of the scenes that i really liked.

while every one else will shower Morgan Freeman with praise for doing a great job as Madiba and Matt Damon for his role as Francios Pieenar, as a Ugandan and a follower of Ugandan, i was awed by the role Chester William played or had in this whole rugby thing in South Africa. seeing all those kids calling out his name as was watched in the movie and Francios pieenar asking Him to say that prayer after that famous win over Jonah Lomu's Newzealand's All Blacks in 95 was amazing. i mean he was here in Uganda in 2007 as coach and successfully led us to the African cup some will say it was dat other guy i forget his name but oh yeah its Dobela but don't we always say Moses led the Israelite to the promised land even when he actually died on their way there and didn't actually make it? we hard Chester here in Uganda but i think we didn't appreciate him enough i mean this guy was much more than being the only black on the Spring Boks team he was and is still a HERO who deserved more than he got here( speaks a lot about the nature of Ugandans ignoring the important things and settle for the nonsense)its no wonder he left abruptly and there's nothing good to write about his return recently as we fell miserably to Tunisia. i have heard from those who were lucky to be trained by Him that he was more than just a Man but trust Ugandans we could water down Jesus' miracle. The union failed to grant him the simplest of requests and as such he couldn't take us to the world cup despite him being a winner of the web Ellis.

Aside from that as an All blacks fan those bloody Boks really tackled Lomu and put him out of the game. at the end despite having watched da real game many times i couldn't help but be happy for the new rainbow nation's win.
Chester Uganda owes u

and da "holidays" came

as i sit in the taxi looking out in window wondering why on all days 24/12 there was this heavy traffic jam, i couldn't help but look back and the days gone by reminiscing on the good old past and how things had changed in the last one year.
here i was heading home for the Christmas holidays empty handed now am told back in the day sons came home for Christmas and the parents were on the receiving end but in the writers case he was going home so as to have a decent meal to mark the day the lord was born i don't even want to imagine what the old ones thought on seeing me with a bag containing a few of my belongings.

i wondered whether our generation is just selfish or we just don't have the capabilities of our fathers. did they get a better education than we did, were they more responsible?

the marathon

running has been part of my life so much that i think if i had lived in the ancient times i would have made a good messenger delivering messages from Europe to Asia on foot and horses would have nothing on me. so my participation in the marathon this year came as no surprise to me this year i mean am the best there is where i work being the reigning 100m champion in our little world called Quality Chemical Industries some where in Luzira.

a month ago together with other officers from our little world we started preparations for this years MTN marathon, i started to prepare for what was going to be one of the most draining thing i was going to do this year. i have attempted to do this before back in my university days on the athletics team but i failed to finish the challenge of running 21km call it biting more than you can chew. i ran daily after 5 to be able to do 1o km on the day when most socialites were going to stay away from church on a Sunday morning not because of hang overs from well spent Saturday nites but b'se they had to run da marathon. i ran the hill s in luzira and mutungo to be ready together with other wannabe runners we visited corners i n Luzira i personally never dreamed of reaching at least not in this life time out own Maximum prison.

i was ready for the task ahead or at least that s wat my muscles and lungs told me, the mood in office was that you find in sports bars on those days when two English clubs are going to be playing one managed by a Scot and the other by a French what an irony, any way every one promised to out run the other some even claiming that they in it for ambition[ how wrong they were]


d day and every thing seemed fine save for the gray skies until when i arrived at Kololo Air strip the venue for the marathon , the egoistic rabble was still going on on trust me dressed in my Masaai garment i made way to the company tent, every one seemed happy to be about to tire their bodies out. i had arrived trust me am one optimistic being especially in sports activities but i got the pre game jitters, mentally i was ready but my body was in doubt, the longest i have competitively run was 800m way back and the best i got was 2 runner up not bad for a sprinter but here i was going to take on 10km, this was not my thing its a thing reserved for fellows like Anguyo and Kayongo former head prefects in my high school fellows who ran and made it seem like they got two pairs of lungs. this was not helped by the arrival of a friend of mine Collins Assimwe who laughed his lungs out as though telling me that i was on a suicide mission but his taunts would not deter me, i had prepared for this hence my hard work would see me through although i must admit that seeing Collins a guy who i know for doing things because they are done by the elite stay away from running in the marathon kind of gave me second thoughts ultimately worsening my pre game jitters though stil it motivated me to run and have the last laugh.

in the call area one got the feeling they get when down town in Owino market where no one trust no one and u think every one is out there to pick pocket u yes i had money in pockets to jump on a boda boda home in case i failed to make it,we were so many running in my category although the sight of people i clearly knew not as sportsmen kind of eased the tension and i gladly hugged them women and men convincing my self that they would be some one trailing behind me. the drama was yet to start cause when the starting gun was fired some bro of mine dashed for neatly maintained garden to take a leak{ i call them bros c'se of the bond and equality the marathon developed in the participants and along the way we encouraged each other like we knew each other}

i managed to run the entire marathon in one hour 19 minutes and overall arrive 4688 out of the very many wannabe runner clearly when u arrive after 5000 u register as a wannabe. it was a great experience especially the home run to the finish line as the joy of stopping this torture is beyond definition. i beat many and next year it wont be for fun i think i will go for ambition for they say experience is the best teacher. to you dia reader the marathon will leave all your body aching and hating you for putting it through a lot but your heart will silently be glad u did it.

my matatu

we all have something to share about taxis in Uganda unless your dad resides at the state house and you happened to be conceived after 86. well i have used matatus all my life and it was only until recently that i had graduated from matatus and used to cruise to my destinations behind the wheels in the comfort of my own given car. while at the university i was privileged to be among the not very many campusers who drove to class then hostel, it was goo, fast forward work or call it employment all the benefits of being a child disappeared, now i have to pay my bills, work for my food you can think god was doing it all over again to Adam and eve, trust me now i know how they felt upon leaving Eden. any way with this new adult life the car being owned by the big guy had to go as i exited his gates. i was back to zero and definitely had to go back to my old buddies those guys you all love to call conductors, i had to use once again the taxi park and endure the jam because now i moved with other fourteen passengers. the adjustment to my new life has been hard can you imagine sitting in a car for thirty minutes waiting for it to get filled, the pain of having the car stop every after 4 minutes to ask pedestrians clearly not looking like they are going some anywhere.then having the guy drive like crazy as though he has finally realized that he has not only helped you waste an hour but he has gotten you late for work. these matatus are really inconveniencing and uncomfortable but what is worse are those stage guides who call out for pedestrians and ask for 200 hundred shs and wont budge until they are paid even if when u stopped the conductor did the job by himself (forgive the masculinity personally i have not encountered any females in this business), these suckers like i always inaudibly call them can even stop you from using a give taxi just because it has defaulted on paying for using that stage, the goon even slammed the door in my face as i tried to board one forcefully you could think he was going to pay for or that he actually owned me. my lamenting could go on and on... now as for my matatu, its a special one OK they are many but all the same, they are so unique you can only access them from the nakawa taxi park. they are so old that their registration plate s range between UPK and the newest i think is the new formatted UAG. they are so unique that their coat of paint is peeling, they have no stereos, and their speed doesn't go beyond 50km/hr and as you go to Luzira this speed tremendously goes down to i think 10km/hr as you go up the slope around Akamwesi hostel you even fear that it could fail to go further and instead stop and start declining. they are so professional where by every passenger is asked not to board if their payment will involve exchanging notes of more than 5k, such passengers are asked to first get change or cash in with the conductor immediately to enable him break it down. the passengers are another interesting lot as this group of sapiens includes old women who give/ create demand for makers of bleaching substance, i guess you can now picture how they look like if you know what i mean, these be travelling to kintitale market so the stop over for them to disembark will cost u another 15 mins and by now those of us going to offices are dying with fury. these ladies are not only annoying they are bold too with one seated next to you she will ask you to help carry some of her merchadise not respecting your lous vitton neck tie and well polished clarks as she will spill some of the nakati on you and trample all ofver you feet as she gets her hugely exaggerated behind out of the matatu. the other lot is usually travelling to port bell and these will eat anything they can buy (one wonders if they actually save!) they will eat boiled eggs, bananas, roasted and boiled maize so if one actually farted you the corporate passanger will think that actually this earth has fury worse than hell. allow me to tell you about their conversation which is usually loud and interjected with loud clamours call it laughing, obscenities and definately men oh they also discuss these popular telenovelas so when i hear the chics at work discussing these soaps which even these mothers of mine can comprehend then i think the plot is way below me. so 3 mins to 8am i disembark off the matatu and rush to work to beat arrival time and wait for yet another painful ride on my matatu the following morning. where the stage guide will be calling out to those going to kitintale,bell, luzira, miami beach yes you read right MIAMI beach in Luzira if you ever dared to go it the repercussion of your visit please dont blame the writer.