BIENVENUE-POPE FRANCIS

Dear pope Francis,

Welcome to Ouganda! We are so excited to have you here. We have been anticipating your visit since about a year ago. Well, we hear some gossip overheard a conversation between you and your buddies on a plane (how is this even possible) that you had plans of visiting Uganda. Then later, we heard rumours that all that was a rumour.

I kind of don't know how you changed your mind and decided that you wanted to come to Uganda after all that. One thing I do know however, is that you made the right choice.

We Ugandans are such lovely people as you shall soon find out. We love visitors! When we are expecting a visitor, we shall out do ourselves. We clean up, buy new clothes, decorate, prepare lots of food et al. Now, you are just not a visitor, you are a pope!

I will tell you what we had to do ever since we heard about your visit; we have cleaned up the city, planted flowers, redone pavers (do you know those?-well they are used on side walks).  We even had to do a fundraising walk in honour of your visit.We have widened some roads, like the one you are going to use to go to your Ugandan vatican( i was told that is what it is called). You know I actually go by that road every evening on my way home. But just today, I noticed it had a fresh coat of tarmac on one end of it. I am actually happy that it has been made wider. That means that we shall no longer be stuck in traffic jam( that is what we call it here). Oh pope, let me take some time to tell you about this traffic jam nightmare. It is so annoying. Can you imagine being held up for upto 3 hours for a distance that should normally take 20minutes? I tell you! It is terrible, I hope you will not experience any of it while here. Just make sure your entourage moves very early in the morning, that is what I do to beat traffic in this town. Hmmm, I hear it can be worse in other places. Recently, I heard that some motorists were stuck in traffic jam for 3 days! Just over here in Kenya. It was both amusing and scary.

Anyway, I set out to revise for my French test this Saturday and I ended up just saying

Bienvenue! We cant wait to have you in Uganda.

TRAFFIC & HEADACHES

I live exactly 15minutes away from my workplace. Most times arriving early to work isn't an issue and neither is what time I leave work .

The last couple of days has seen an increase in traffic on the roads especially during evening time when everyone is rushing to go home . Last evening's traffic was the winner though. It took me over 3 hours to do a 15minute journey! I wish it was just the time, because one can say, it is the weekend so what was the rush all about. Well, not only did it take me 12 times as much time. It cost me quarter a fuel tank of fuel as well as a migraine headache. 

Here is why I hate getting stuck in traffic. It is so engaging mentally especially in Kampala where I live. Mostly, because I have to kind of watch all my mirrors at ago as well as care not to bash my front neighboring car, in a bid to prevent my neighbouring car to the left  getting to fix themselves into our lane. Do you feel my headache yet?

Well,  during such times, it is not uncommon to witness accidents mostly of drivers scratching each others' bumpers. Then there ensues a  strongly heated argument as the offended driver confronts the other party. For a while, there will be extra build up of traffic as  the rest of the drivers try to carefully drive past these two arguing adults. It always amazes me how people get accidents while moving at a speed of zero km/hr. Anyway, I witnessed  three of such incidents last night- sad. Even more sad is that I too was a victim of such an incident, not last night though. Trust me, I wouldn't be writing about it just yet. Such things tend to upset me too much and once I am upset about some thing, my mental state is to try and shut it out completely. As such, I didnot ever talk about the time I got knocked by one reckless driver at traffic lights. Just how annoying is that!!!

That is why am ever so thankful to God that a gun license is not easy to come by -in my country!

Have a splendid weekend and whatever you do, do not scratch your neighbour's car!

LOOK OUTWARD FEEL GOOD INWARD

When things are hard(difficult)look outward.

I have learnt that when we focuss so inward, we realize just how much we lack. We realize we are not beautiful enough, not tall enough, not blessed enough, not fortunate enough, do  not  have enough friends, are not popular enough and all those things. All this spells one thing -selfishness! I know ....

I have been looking to change jobs, I have talked about it, prayed about it, sent out my resume but still have not gotten the kind of job I seek. As you can imagine, I was not feeling great about myself. While I was still at it, a friend of mine got a promotion to a new job, had a great send off a king size gift and he was gracious enough to share all this information with me. I was excited for him. It felt nice and lifted my spirit.  For a  time I did not dwell on my own struggles and I felt relieved.This was not my success but  someone else's  but it felt good. 

When I focessed away from myself, I felt better even about myself indirectly. May God teach me to look out for others more than look out for my own needs!

But please do pray for me,I still need that job!  

Happy Happy Happy

Today is an awesome day. For some reason i feel so happy for absolutely no apparent reason.

Do you know that feeling when you are smiling to yourself and you feel silly? I do not even have enough cash in my purse so it cannot even be due to that. That I wanted to grab a meal at the mall like I habitually do once a week and I remembered that I had nothing to pay with.

That  I desparately wished that one generous soul would tip me for absolutely no reason and they never did.

What is causing this happy feeling oh God!

thank you anyhow!!!


Happy day :)

DON'T GIVE UP

Do you ever feel like  you have reached the end of your road? I have felt like that before.  Guess what,  i the end is quite far!

Not too long ago, I did feel like my world was crushing in on me . To be precise, exactly two days ago. I understand the point when people totally give up on life and decide to shorten their lives. (Don’t get me wrong, the thought did not even cross my mind but you know....)

Normallly, I do a very good job of remaining calm and collected for the most part. This could be attributed to the fact that I react slowly as I tend to process issues through and later react. When I received very disappointing news exactly 7 days ago, from my work place , I “pretended”that all is well. This was not until five days later when the news sank in and so did this depressing feeling.

When this happened, I completely shut down. On that fateful Monday morning I woke up early as usual and reported to my desk but I was totally lost in myself. I did not have a single ounce of will power to carry on. While there was a lot of activity buzzing all around me, I heard none of it. I was not irritable or impatient or rude but I just was not present. Whether a team mate mentioned something funny or annoying, I did not respond. Meanwhile, my mind kept racing; what is my worth anyway? How did I get here? What does anything in life matter? How can I get away from all this? What would I love to do? I felt so down cast and worse still I did not know what to do to cheer me up.

Now, isn’t this the point when people give up on life? I think it is. So I went to bed Monday morning dreading the next day...... Guess what, I woke up more cheerful on Tuesday morning and every other day has been better. My circumstances did not change, time went by.

This my dear friend is how I proved the good old adage “time heals everything.” I pray I remember this the next time I feel low, to give me some time and everything will be just fine.

CELEBRATE ME NOW

I hate farewells! Maybe not quite as much as I hate new environments. I have also noticed with a lot of concern that people are excessively good when you are bidding farewell. They will say the kindest things about you, declare how they are going to miss you, perhaps throw you a party and give you farewell presents, exchange contacts or even call you.

I say instead of making me a one day hero, celebrate meeveryday.Be kind to me as we interact, apologize when you do me wrong, buy me a present(okay maybe not this really),take me out for a drink. Just make my experience memorable. Do not wait to overdose me when I am on my way out!

As a matter of fact, much as I did not set any New Year resolutions (do people still do that?) and iti s just 3 months to the end of the year, I resolve to make people’s lives memorableeveryday for the rest of the year and here is how;

I shall smile more often.

I will let all the cars in the middle lane turn off before I continue on my way.

I will be polite on the telephone

I will try to find out what makes my neigbours,days and avail it.

I shall say thank you, sorry and please more often and more sincerely.

I will call up my friends regularly

I shallkeep adding to this list.

So help me God!

NEVER TOO LATE TO .....

I must be one of the most resilient people that I have come across in this not so short journey of mine called life. How many times have I purposed to make more frequent posts on this blog and how many times have I failed?

I shall not give up, I shall rise up and try again! It is never too late start again. Today I read this article on linked in about preparing for retirement. This article was aimed at people in their twenties( well at least the writer seemed to be addressing that category of people). We always hit the ground running at that age, new job, new friends, no responsibilities and lots of time. Saving for retirement is the least of one's worries at that time. I am not twenty anymore and neither am I twenty nine but It is not too late to start tucking some funds away for retirement. Even when I fail this month, I shall try again next month. Let us keep trying!

Back to my posts, yes, they shall come more frequently henceforth.