Unemployment…and what you learn from it!

1. Never. Ever. Ever quit your job if you are a workaholic. Leave? Yes! Quitting? No! Not unless you have something already set for you.

2. Series are a couch potato’s best friend. I can’t even begin to tell you what I have watched….and I doubt there’s anything I haven’t watched. Apart from 30Rock. I am dying to watch it.

3. Kids may become the most company you have while other people go make themselves “happy” at their jobs. Joining in adult conversation might therefore become a very difficult thing to do.

4. Free mango jazz to jazz calls may not be that helpful. While you have a lot of time to jazz, other people actually have stuff to do.

A conversation with one of your best friends might go thus:

Me: “Hey!”

Her: “Eh hey, my sweet katungulu. You’re so lucky. I was about to switch off my phone. So what’s up?”

Me: “Ummm nothing. Just thought we would talk for a bit. It’s been a while.”

Her: “Oh fudge! I want to. But I am doing gynaecology this sem and I have twins to deliver in like twenty minutes. Call me after like 7:00pm.ya?

Me: “ya, of course. Enjoy!”

But because I am thoughtful, I know how exhausted she will be in the evening so I don’t call.

5. You may become the nagging girlfriend that is always seeking for attention simply because you are always thinking, “How come I am the only one making time for us these days?”…well, you have the time! You constantly drag him into fights because now you have alot of time to bitch about anything and also you have time to cook up these fights.

6. You get very mad at people for always asking, “So, where are you now?”

7. You miss out on alot of things such as being present to receive that one award that you got even though it wasn’t “Blog of the year.”

8. You become fat from doing nothing and when you finally get a job , you have no clothes that fit you.

9. You get loads of time to read, write for yourself

10. You become a namikolo. Going for every plot there is in town. You may sometimes even gate crash.

11. You get sometime to travel

12. You eventually become broke

13. …and very depressed

14. You learn never to trust people who say they will call you after an interview. Don’t even believe it. that way, if they call, you will scream, “ Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. I have my dream job!” (Gag)

15. …you eventually become cynical.

And a really big lesson, in on-a-personal-note kinda way, you realize that there are many people out there that will freely try to convince you that maybe you have had the wrong dream all this while. That maybe you aint got shit. That as a matter of fact all those reasons for which you quit your last job were just a bunch of B.S…and it is very easy to start believing those things because of what maybe around you. But then what will you say for those opportunities albeit small and short-lived that bring you alive and reinforce that belief that it wasn’t the wrong dream? I want to tie those down to God’s way of telling me that I still matter…and that I can still dream big and that I can still change the world!

*******************************************************************

Granted, not all dreams are achieved, but not because they cannot be. Sometimes the timing is not right, sometimes the idea needs to mature. But to not give your dream some breathing space is cruel.

                               -Angela Kintu on Dream Killers

Oooh, this an S.O.S

“Next time I see you
I’m giving you a high five
‘Cause hugs are overrated just FYI”
S.O.S by the Jonas Brothers (…and teenage gals all over the world are fainting just as I mention their name)

This isn’t exactly a proper post but I just can’t let this go. So I’m googling the lyrics of the song above, which I tot’lly love by the way even though I am way past my teens, and in the comments some chic asks, “What does FYI mean?”

Another dude says, “I think FYI mean friend (you&I).”

Seriously?

Anyway, this is my way of saying I am, as a matter of fact, still alive…and I am curious to find out whether people still visit here.

Howdy, people?

…because nature abhors a vacuum!

There is alot that has happened this year that hasn’t made alot of sense. And yet for the last two months, you have made alot more sense than alot more things in my entire life.

I am still amazed that for three years…three years you were right before me and i had no idea that you were what i was praying for…and more!

 

Oh! How i love you!!!

On the Playlist:

a) The ones that are really so meaningful now

Nakudata by Weasle

Diana by Philley Lutaaya remixed by Juliana

Pepper pot by Sean Paul

Finally by Brandy

Wow!!! by Brandy

and that Luganda song Withi u Withi u Withi u by Chris Brown

b)The ones i want you to listen to when words fail me:

Speechless by Michael Jackson

Diana by Juliana (Philley Lutaaya originally)

Baby Boy by Big Brovaz

and especially: Charge it to my head by Commissioned

                         More than I by Commissioned

 

****************************************************************************************

… have found that person. Now I laugh and love in the same breath!

(words of a very lucky blogger)

Waaa!!! This is just my way of saying that am not the lousiest blogger!

Not just lousy but lousiest?…Shya! When there are people like Dante?!

’nuff said!!

 My new job is taking me around the world. Yay baby!!!…i was in Lira and Mbale (stop the sniggers , will you?) from Wednesday till Sunday. I was working so don’t ask whether it was fun. what do you think am a tourist?

i know now you are saying “our pics,our pics,our pics!” but you know me and my maalo! i took nice pics of Karuma falls, women riding bicycles in Lira and on the way to Soroti…really amazing pics of me eating kasooli on the way. i really wanted to show off! then i get to K’la and somehow, the pics come out in a funny way. funny way i tell you…i can’t embarrass myself any further.

Muli mutya eyo?

who’s the lousiest blogger now?…Can’t hear you?

The iggle squigs trazed wombly in the harlish goop

You guessed right. I have nothing really sensible to write. Actually i can if i want to but my mind has been under intense thinking that all i want to is to just have a moment of nothingness: no thinking, no feeling, no action…

So, how have you been?…I’ve been looking around so i know what most of you have been up to.  Can’t say i have been up to much though. Between exams and fighting with my mum over having gone to Kasese when Ebola is on rampage and being the chaperone to my sister in S.6 vac, i could only do so much. Except for this life changing decision that has taken me almost a year to make.    

 I put myself back on the shelf

I got tired of half living. I guess everybody does.  I got tired of being the wimperish clod of ailments that is begging the world to be good to me and pleading to God to tell me what to do when i knew what i had to do.

So i woke up one day and screamed against the wind, “Fuck this shit!”and quit…i guess that moment comes for everyone.Only for cowards like me, it takes much longer.

It’s liberating, what i did. and am proud that for once i chose the harder path.  I won’t lie that it’s been easy but hey, there comes a point where the only prayer you can say is “Dear God, let me wake up at 40 and stare at my lap with nothing but a kitten in my company. But help me Lord not to wake up besides this man because i will not be happy!”

 There are moments that are hard though. Like those times when everything that you look at is coupled up? …When you can swear that those two flies on the wall are not looking at you with pity but they are looking deeply into each others eyes and professing unending love for each other. Those…. Those are the hard days!

**************************

I took the one less travelled by

And that has made all the difference.

       -Robert Frost

Dust to Dust, ashes to ashes

“Sometimes I wonder whether God will forgive us for what we do against each other. Then I realise that God left this place long time ago.”

Leonardo Di Caprio in Blood Diamond

In other news, i have been breathing through by bouth(thanx to flu) and malaria decided to also come in for good measure.

Am fine now except for the flu and a few rockets to punctuate my every other sentence and laugh.Hope you are doing well.

     -H!

I dined with Maya Angelou…and John Donne asked me out

For Iwaya: because there might be more to it than what meets the eye.

I hear there’s a term modesty. I promised myself that I would try it out but I guess you can see I haven’t picked up yet. So yes, I am so name-dropping.

School, my ever present nemesis, is back before the word holiday can be formed in my head. For that reason, I must say, I felt no excitement at all. And that’s not good for me. Am at my best when I feel some excitement for something. something that gives my blood an extra surge.
A call from my dad the other day asking me how school was woke me up though. Or as it is, woke up the guilt so I decided to pass by campus to see if the show had kicked off yet. By some stroke of misfortune or fortune (depending on whether you are a half-empty or half-full person) I had a lecture scheduled for 6:00pm. Poetry. By a lecturer that knows me a little too well and for some reason thinks that I am an angel privileging the mortals with my presence. And because I don’t want her to start thinking otherwise, I attended.
Poetry as a subject however has never been that kind to me. In terms of marks, that is. Am not a poet myself. I tend to use a lot of words to explain the simplest of things. I only resort to poetry as some sort of refuge when am trying to hide behind words. As a subject though, you are pushed to separate the words, the punctuation and dissect the lines the process of which can make you lose the meaning sometimes. It’s like taking a friend out for pizza and she separates the onions, the sausages, the cheese bits. That is not pizza any more. That is onions, sausages, cheese bits and baked dough. And that is what I feel when I study a poem in a class environment.
I love simplicity. I believe that the simpler meaning takes you to the deeper meaning. Simple words picked and woven into an amazing piece. Like a simple skirt simply and yet perfectly matched with a top to give a great outfit. Or make up? “Less is much, much is less”? Again, simplicity. Giving the impression of not trying too hard but simply saying, “Am not making it up. Am using this to show you what was already there.” Those are my best poems.
Most times I also prefer when they are read to me. Or if I can’t have them that way, a quiet place where I can listen to my heart beat to the rhythm is a perfect setting for me. And when someone else is reading them to me, I want to have them with my eyes closed so I can take it all in. The act of closing my eyes is my way of utter surrender. A way of gathering all my energies to concentrate. A friend of mine told me that she noticed that I dance with my eyes closed. Of course. How can I open my eyes to a song like Maroon 5’s Sunday Morning or the great new Brick and Lace, Love is Wicked? And that is how I want my poems served. And therein lays the reason perhaps why the exams turn out differently.
In every way, my lecture yesterday was like that. I couldn’t close my eyes though. I didn’t want people to think I had had a long day(which I had had anyway)and was dosing. But I could do with more of lectures like the one I had any day.
I had Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman which I had met earlier and also her Still I Rise. Then I had Prof Wangusa’s Africa’s New Brood from his latest anthology with the same title. Then there was Niyi Osundare and lastly Jack Mapanje. That’s all we did. Listen to poems beautifully and simply written and eloquently and artistically read.
Am happy to be in class again, am happy to say. I’ll be meeting John Donne later in the semester. I had heard of him before although I hadn’t met him. So I googled him first thing today. You know, just to make sure. For all I know he could be married. Or wanting to do a cross generational thing on me. I found The Bait, a poem by him and I think this is going to be a wonderful relationship. Don’t worry. I have done post humous relationships before. Even Shakespeare still sends me sonnets. Every. Day.
There’s a new glint in my eyes. Warmth in my heart. A new found ease of pen connecting with paper…and am smiling again, without anxiously waiting for a smile in return.

*******************************************
“You are the reason
My song comes in stanzas of seven.”
Niyi Osundare: You are the reason (from his “Tender Moments” anthology)

What year are we in?…what day of the week is today?

The title is my way of saying that I have been so busy that I have even lost count of time. I know. It’s a weak excuse for missing this exhilarating, invigorating, turbo charging (the guy next to me has asked for his dictionary) activity that is blogging. But, it is an excuse none the less. We are cool, right?…Ok. Let’s do this baby! (Am in one of those moods. Excited over what I don’t know)

This week might be the last that am having with my Chinese friend, Judy. Yeah, when she came to Uganda (about 6months ago) she got herself an English name. She told me she chose that one because it is easy. It’s been a wonderful month-on my part.
Judy is an intermediate student so that means that her English is quite good. So I was supposed to be her learning buddy (the lecture who asked me to teach her’s words) or her tutor (Judy’s words). Me, I call her my Chinese friend as opposed to my Chinese student.
I wasn’t so sure I would be able to teach. Sometimes am very impatient especially when am trying to explain something very simple but I was willing to give it a try.
First, she wanted me to help her with pronunciation and intonation of words so the first few days were more of conversations as I identified her weak points and tried to figure out things I would teach her. During the conversations I would tell the words that she says because of mother tongue interference (MTI) and the ones that she simply could not pronounce. For example, because of MTI, she mostly pronounces l as n as in simply will sound as simpny. On the other hand she pronounced cycle and circle as cycle so there I had to point out the difference. The conversations also help her to apply the things she learns in class and the words that she learns. One other mistake that I really struggled to get rid of was her usage of couldn’t where she was supposed to use can’t. She knew the difference but she just found it easy to mix them up. So we did many written and oral exercises on it and she’s doing better now.
One of the things she told me when we started was that when she watched movies she couldn’t understand a thing because they speak very fast and the new words are too many for her to understand so I decided to work on vocabulary building and the best way I thought we could do it was if I introduced her to reading-another weak point. So one day we went shopping and I got her the abridged versions of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Although her understanding of the ideas is good and her inference of meaning of words according to context has improved, am not happy with the speed. And I told her that much and she said she is going to try and make me happy.
Teaching Judy has been quite an experience for me and I have learnt a lot from her. Because we are age mates we have found it easy to talk freely and we are more like friends really. From suggesting what hairstyle I can wear to making me fruit salad when I have a cold to seeking my opinion about some modeling deal some woman was giving her. I thought it was cool (the modeling deal) because that would help her make more friends but that was until I saw the lady who had asked her. The truth is I had been seeing her only I thought she was a he and was gay. He/she is in the shape of an inverted triangle. Yeah, like that guy whathisname? Johnny bravo! And she is tall with very little hair on her head and she wears hot pink vanish! Pink’s my fave colour but her pink is an absolute no-no. The other day Judy told me she was a woman and we had discussed homosexuality previously and she used the opportunity to use her new word-lesbian! I advised her against it and she took my advice.
She is very hardworking and intent on learning English and that made her such a challenging and there fore interesting student. When am not with her she watches CNN and then she asks me some of the words she doesn’t understand. She has told me a lot about China (she loves to talk about China!) and I have definitely learnt to be more patient. Any word that I used to speak thinking it was kawa turned to be unknown to her and I had to be ready for questions like , “what does obvious mean, H!?…that was really tricky, but I have learnt to prepare for such moments.
One day we were trying something on her computer and she was getting frustrated and she said out loud “F*** you!” and she left me gaping for about a minute wondering where she had gotten that from. Later I was happy that at least she hadn’t asked what it meant in one of our vocabulary building sessions.
The month is finally over and Judy says I am a good teacher and she would like me to stay. Bad thing is, the lessons in addition to my other work are very draining and the only thing I can think about when I get home is eat and sleep. Honestly, I know am young and should use my energy when I still can but I need a break. Thing is, bailing out on Judy makes me feel bad. So I have told her to let me think about it.
Meanwhile, yesterday she told me that she blogs. I had never told her about it because I find it hard to explain blogging to some Ugandans. Anyway her blog is in Chinese but it is apparently being upgraded. I told her about you guys (Ugandan bloggers) and I told her about BHH. So when is it?…’cos Judy and I would like to come over.

….and that is how i have been. You?