When Hunger superseded Disease

The road to my Village

Today, I woke up with enormous joint ache, but some pains make me forget mine which have persisted for 2 days; because I know that this is not even a 10th of what other people going through.

Today, I thought it wise that the children who are loitering around need to get revision papers to keep them "in class" while in this lockdown, avoid idling and possibly learn from one another.
I encountered a good friend of mine (bodaboda rider) who told a heartbreaking story but one which is a representation of many Ugandans under current circumstances.

A friend came to his place at 5:30 am and knocked (to his bewilderment). Just like a good neighbor, he opened to him asking what the matter was. The friend narrated to him how his family spent the previous day without any food and his little children have been crying all night. He was therefore requesting Simon to give him his (Simon’s) motorcycle so that he can be able to ride around hoping to get money to feed his family.

He also told him that the youngest of the kids is sick and the last time her mother took her to a hospital, they prescribed some medicine which he has not been able to buy. “how will the baby even swallow the medicine on an empty stomach?”

It is a painful story because currently, the bodabodas have been banned from carrying passengers which forms over 95% of their clientele. Simon ceded the motorcycle and 2,000 for fuel. Even as he gave out the motorcycle, he was not sure whether it will return because thousands of them have been impounded.

As if that was not enough, as I was bemourning the great pain the bodaboda riders were experiencing, another man from Namunyu, who had also come for printing told me that I have not seen enough

Simon the Bodaboda owner and rider loading cement in Busiu,
Before the lockdown

"I went to see the woman in the neighborhood who helps me with my garden and I wanted her to assist me with the garden. Fortunately or unfortunately I did not find her but instead her son who had come with his family to her mother. When I told him why I was there, he hushed me and asked me to just show him the garden before his mother can take that tender."

"He did not even suggest how much, he just said whatever you offer, I will take it. Apo na apo (there and then), he took to the garden with his whole family and by 6pm (after 4 hours) they had cleared the garden."

"He insisted that I choose how much I give him and seeing the desperation and also the speed at which they had cleared the garden, I gave him 2 times what I could have given another person".
This is how bad it is, the people out there are looking for survival not enrichment or convenience, they are hungry and angry but they have nothing to do.

Today, one young man was reportedly shot dead in Mbale town for carrying a passenger on a bodaboda but for those people out there, they would rather die of COVID-19 but not hunger.

We can do something about it; all of us. You can reach out to a neighbor who does not have food.