Birthday Month!

Another year older. Alhamdulilah. I have the propensity to get afflicted with poor health right around birthday week. Could it be out of fear of getting old? I do not know.
I am usually excited when May rolls around but this time round I have been lackluster for lack of a better word. Not as excited, not as energized and most of all fatigued which I guess were symptoms to pending poor health.
AS the years go by; they leave us with something new. And this is no different. The last year was my most definitive year. Everything came together and dreams I had long forgot to dream finally came true. I learnt so much in the previous year than I probably will in another life but then again life in itself is a learning experience.
I once told my brother that my entire life is a study on patience and it couldn’t be an truer. Everything I want out of life happens through patience. Patience with myself, the people I am surrounded by and life. There is no better teacher on patience than God.
We all have that mental picture on how our lives should be wherein we are not willing to adapt ourselves to reality. Oftentimes, the picture in our minds never comes to pass because of our failure to change mindsets. I have learned that for one to have the life they picture themselves in, they have to be willing to change. Try to fit that mental image to reality and it will get you where you want to be.
That little thing called family/sibling loyalty no longer exists in this millennial generation of ours. Nope. Today’s siblings are as divided as the breasts they suckled on. This took hold after I watched the six season of Beverly Hills Housewives. Throughout the season, Kyle was trying to mend fences with Kim and her efforts went by unappreciated. It taught me that however much you may want to improve some relationships, it is better to leave things as they are.
What the heck am I sipping on to be in the reflective doldrums? Is this what it feels like to get old? Sitting on your porch with a cup of tea and looking back on your life like an old biddy in her senior years? If this is what I have to look forward to then I want none of it.
However, it is good to reflect on your life each passing year. Note your key achievements and the lessons that came with it. If you are a planner, go ahead. Plan. Although I would not encourage you putting much stock in the plans. Life never goes according to plan. It is full of sharp corners to cut across and intricate hairpins no one ever sees coming. Let everything happen as is or was meant to then you won’t be disappointed.
Happy birthday to me and all the May Babies that share this month with me. !!!!!!! :)


 Photo Credits: google

Work Firsts

With the Gomba district police

I think every job brings with it little new lessons and experiences to make you appreciate it more. Like I am doing of late. The more I learn, the more appreciative I am for the experiences because most of it is so new to me.
Recently, I was tasked with the creation of a weekly newsletter for the organisation I work with. To say it was daunting would be putting it mildly. I know nothing about content creation, lay-out and design. The newsletters I read are usually brief and to the point. On top of that there were design issues to consider. Aside from the content within the newsletter, the design has to be appealing as well.
This was serious food for thought. How do I have it created without incurring design costs? Why should it even dip into funds when it is for staff consumption? They do say ‘where there this a will there is a way’, right? Indeed. For the first time in my life, I looked into what MS Publisher is and what it does through the attainment of a manual. I downloaded the tutorial and after a skim of the first page on publisher, I dived right into the practical.
Going about its development brought this feeling of satisfaction I never expected. I enjoyed every little step of the way and could not be more proud. converting that baby into pdf added the finishing touches that brought it all together beautifully. I certainly feel confident in my creative abilities. Who knew? At this point, I can definitely hack it in the magazine world.
I also got the chance to go to a far off village for fieldwork. To sensitize the district police on handling women with disabilities in cases pertaining them. The officers were so young! Literally fresh from University and as smart as can be in their uniforms. Looking at them with the jaundiced eyes of a city born, I wondered if this is what the girls wanted out of life. To be district police officers in an undeveloped district going nowhere. It brought to mind the local officers we read about in novels whose only achievement in life is being the law in a two-bit town as they call it. Generation to generation.
Much as it was an educational experience, village life is so simple and so basic. People have to do a lot to get out of there if they want more out of life.

@NuwoduAdvocacy

Looking For ME!

There are situations or rather experiences we go through that are sometimes indescribable.  Situations where there are no words befitting of a description on what is being felt at that  moment. You find yourself going on with your life and the memories the experience left you with.
I have come to realise that just like everything else in life, words also come to you at  a time they are meant to and they couldn't be any less honest and befitting of past experiences.
These are my words to sum up a situation and an experience that thankfully no longer brings that hitch of regret.

At first I was looking for you,

Then I realised the reality of you,

Is much more different from my dreams. 

Now,

I am looking for ME. 

 

Incredible Experiences.

At the memorial lecture

 I had one of the most incredible weeks of my life! It kicked off with an attendance to my Grandfather’s lecture where this time round; I was roped into doing registration of invited guests and I got the chance to meet the Who is Who of Kampala. Seeing our Lord Mayor made me feel like asking for a selfie because I am most likely not going to run into him again.
And then came the Prime Minister of Buganda fresh from the success of his ‘tofaali’ collection. As the key note speaker for the night, he delivered quite an impressive speech, judging from what I was able to catch. I was so impressed by him. He is so eloquent, articulate and charismatic and very impressive. He left me in awe to say the least. I loved his little anecdotes on my Grand father. These are what I honestly love hearing the most at these lectures because these people knew him as a student, friend and colleague whilst I only knew him as Grand father- pillar of strength, infinite love and wisdom.
The Prime Minister proposed the development of a memoir for my Grand father’s works and brought to the fore the country’s poor reading culture which may or may not deter the development of this collection. The nation’s reading culture is appallingly poor and abysmal. Few Ugandans read and rarely out of interest which puts us behind on so many intellectual and development levels. However, the reading culture should not be a deterrent to the publishing of good books. Let the material be available and the decision to read or not be left to the individual. Besides, more people than I would be interested in reading my Grand father’s body of work.

On Radio

After that enthralling experience; I got the opportunity to be on radio! I still can’t believe it to this day because it left me mortified, petrified and very horrified. It is one of the experiences I have been through that I keep wishing never happened yet it did. The proof is in my memory and picture I took. I was so ill prepared I could kick myself and on top of that the program was in  a local dialect I have failed to master. Much as I may try, Luganda is not my strong suit and being unable to hold a full conversation in it leaves me at sea. I kept thinking, ‘I am not making any sense’ which I definitely did not and came across as stupid.

However much I may wish the memory away, it happened and left me with a little homework. I thought I need to practice public speaking and work on my low but husky voice but there is the urgent need to polish my Luganda if I am to continue with these radio (I hope not) things.