Living with the background of having been part of the first family for eight straight years is not an easy feat. Of course we grew up in quite a comfortable home environment. But though some would imagine that we lived a life of luxury and plenty, we were quite humble compared to what we know of many first families on our African continent. We kept in touch with our African lifestyle and actually lived and played like other kids especially at boarding school. Our education was mainly in local schools, where we learned to make toys with boxes and participated in school competitions with schoolmates. While at Lake Victoria primary school in Entebbe, I remember hiding from the driver sent to pick us from school so that I could walk home with friends. After separating with my friends near the Entebbe golf course, I would branch off alone towards home and enter state house through a secret entrance that only I knew about. Only to find pandemonium as staff thought one of "Mzee's" children was lost. Once when at a different school Kabale Preparatory School, "Mzee" mentioned during a live radio broadcast that even his children should be punished with “kiboko” (caning) if they do wrong at school, just like other children were punished.then. Hearing him say that live on a transistor radio that we had been allowed to bring to school was a hair-raising stunner that my primary teacher Miss Kigorogoro heeded with delight. From then on I became suspicious of her but just had to live with the situation while at school. It was only when it was time to share the goodies brought from home and kept by the school management that one could notice that we had abit more biscuits, cornflakes, soft drinks and other cookies. A few other families also brought some great stuff from Nairobi where they would have spent their holidays. As for us, supplies were purchased by one Mugarura, a huge man with thick strong arms who was responsible for all the foods and beverages supplies in the state lodges. We loved his office because right behind it was the ever full-to- capacity store with all sorts of eats and drinks. The problem was that he sat in his office with the keys to the store constantly in sight on his desk. Though once in a while he would give in to our pleas and offer us some nice goodies when it wasn't time for tea or breakfast, we sometimes felt we had to attempt secret incursions while he went to follow-up on other chores and forgot the stores door open. On those days, we would first wait quietly in one of the corners until he would return to his desk, finish whatever he was doing and unknowingly lock us inside before going off to other duties. Then all of a sudden it would feel like heaven! We would start walking around the lanes like one does in a supermarket, picking, tasting and exploring whatever we liked and spitting out whatever was bitter or disgusting to our taste. That would continue for hours, only to be woken up by an unsuspecting staff who would first get the shock of his life on finding one or two kids laying still on the floor inside the "supermarket." We would be sleeping with full stomachs. Departure for holidays was also one of those times when we were obviously catered for differently from other kids. Children would be eagerly waiting next to their luggage for their parents to arrive and take them home. Suddenly a guarded convoy of five or six vehicles would appear around the corner and drive straight to the waiting area where everyone stood looking out for their parents. It is then that we would suddenly switch from ordinary Ugandan kid. The security guards would carry our luggage to the vehicles while we hurried to get a good place in whatever vehicle we thought was capable of "winning the race home”. There was usually choice between Mercedes Benz, Peugeot and Range Rover’s. The last vehicle in the convoy was always a military Land Rover with telecommunications antennas swagging in the air at every corner. Sometimes we got the surprise of a helicopter sent to take us back home from boarding school. To-date, I suspect this was when they forgot about our holidays and would hurriedly scramble the fastest form of transport that could get there in time. However, we viewed the helicopter as the ultimate experience as we would enjoy “overtaking” from the air. We could see the vehicles moving the way ants follow each other as we flew overhead in the vibration of the helicopter. What a delight! Even when we went by road, the convoy sped past all our good friends one after the other until we reached at another state lodge half way down the road where we would stop for lunch. William, a short man hailing from Fort Portal and who to-date has remained a family friend, was the care taker and he would cook one of the huge chicken that roamed freely in the back of the compound. So enormous they were that there was a thud at every step they would take when we chased them around. After filling our stomachs with the chicken, pilawo, beef, matooke, greens, chapati...etc. we would set off for the last stretch to Kampala. Again we would overtake our friends who had passed ahead while we were eating the gigantic chicken. I would then be frantically expressing elation at overtaking school buddies. Like many of my age, today I have outgrown the thrill of inflicting "overtaking" on other road users. But once in a while I enjoy it silently while it is happening.
-- Hussein Juruga Lumumba Amin Kampala, Uganda _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list WestNileNet@kym.net http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
