Social media hypocrisy

Author with Ritah Nahurira (RIP) at Wanale Natural Pool

When going through the social media accounts of the Uganda community, I am terrified with the opportunity it gives us to pretend and lie without remorse.

scroll through a few lines and you will come across a post or comment by a man glorifying another person's wife on Facebook. Then his next comment on another girl's photo will make your heart skip a beat. 

All over the place, people are flirting and on public platforms and with persons some have never met in real life. Somehow, it has helped to push true love down the drain. It is now hard for one to differentiate between flirtatious post from genuine show of love.

What has actually triggered this write up is the lamentation of a friend. He was crushing on this lady for some months until January when he chose to man-up and texted her. He did all this against my advice. I had advised Paul to never hook up a lady in January considering the financial conditions which push some Ugandans to desperation. But Paul went ahead and linked up with the damsel.

Her response was telegenic and right away, Paul decided to push the interaction a notch higher by suggesting a physical meeting. It was then that all hell broke lose; the lady asked Paul to wait until she had consulted her husband..

You cannot imagine how flabbergasted Paul was upon the revelation that she had a husband, not even a boyfriend.

Pejoratively, he wondered why the lady was being nice and flirtatious and yet she is married.

"It is just social media", I told him.

Nonetheless, the lady had her intentions as I later came to learn; she has been looking for a job and Paul posed on social media as a person with networks from his posing in pictures with big names in the country. unfortunately, Paul was merely putting up looks to impress but he is also looking for a job

Paul blocked her!

My Love Affair With My Dentist

 Last week, I visited my dentist; same problem as I had 4 years ago; stains on my teeth.

 He served me well to the extent that even when he did not say it this time round, I would not disobey him again but....

My dentist is a wonderful guy; he talks and jokes a lot. In 2019 when I went for my second visit over the teeth stains, he asked what he had asked 3 years ago; whether I smoke, take lots of coffee or coke. I replied in the affirmative to the latter and he advised me to tone down or abandon them altogether.

This, I promised that I would do after emptying my tin of Nescafe and I did. I stopped taking coffee and Coke for a month and a few weeks.

However, in early tweni-tweni (2020) I heard that there was a strange outbreak of disease which was going to kill all of us - COVID-19. Within, I asked, why preserve teeth when the flu is going to kill us anyway? Therefore, I resumed my caffeine diet. This time round, it was too much that I could count over 5 liters of Coke in a week and the coffee in plenty.

By the time Museveni locked down the nation, I had forgotten all about my dentist and as you, town people rushed to buy toilet paper, I was scampering for large stock of coffee and assurance that the village shop will not run out of Coke. Who cared about toilet paper when there were trees all around us?

Just like that, COVID derailed my efforts to keep my teeth healthy.

Therefore, when I walked back to his dental clinic, I was praying not to find Wilber but lo, he is the one who received me. He smiled but I could not smile back, my heart was heavy with guilt. 

"I can tell that you have been taking coffee and coca-cola"

He summoned me to his room and started his work. Mid-way through the cleaning, I was just praying that I may retain my jaws and the teeth gum; lucky enough, I did. Since then, every time I have been seeing a dental clinic I take to my heels, lest I am summoned for another operation.

When I told this to my best friend, he gave me the best advice you would receive from a friend; "continue taking coke and coffee, but stop staring in the mirror, it is the one which will show you that your teeth have stains", he said.

As I speak, my heart is divided between taking the advice of the dentist or my OB who owns a depot of coke!

Support to Complete their House

The family of Kaboole Robert and Muyama Sylvia stays in Malukhu village, Musese Parish, Mbale District in Uganda. The father was working as a security officer at Musese Primary School. He was earning Ugx 30,000 (less than 10 dollars) per month. He lost his job when he was sick for 3 months in 2020.

Kaboole with his wife, 2 of his children and grandchildren 

They have borne 10 children between themselves but one died last year.

They currently stay with their 4 of their own children and 2 grandchildren in a badly damaged, old house seen below.

Their House in the background

In January 2020, the family started saving money to buy iron sheets and build a new house. But in 2022, one of their daughters, Esther fell so sick and after a few weeks in hospital, she died and they used up their savings.

But before Esther's death, they had started building a mud-wattle house (made of soil) and bought 10 iron sheets. However when she died, the building stopped because they had used up all the money and part of the wall was destroyed by the rain as seen in the pictures below.

Robert standing before the collapsed section of the new house

In their house, they have 1 mattress which they bought in 2022. The children sleep on papyrus mats and rags which they put together in the night. I did not enter to take pictures in their houses, for respect of their privacy.

For a latrine, they have a hole which is surrounded by dry banana leaves to cover a person when they are inside. 

Appeal for help!

Their appeal is that if someone lends a hand to them, they can complete the house. 

The following are what are needed to complete it:

Estimate cost to fix and complete the house. Dollar rate use is 3684.9

This is an estimate and it is a bare minimum based on the fact that when building this house, some materials can be collected locally and the family can offer support during construction. The labour cost is for the person who does work which needs technical skill.

More pictures of the family and the current situation are below.

The roof of their current building.
When it rains, the roof leaks and the family gather in one place to keep warm

The small structure is a kitchen which is roofed with plastics (kaveera). If he gets new iron sheets for their new house, they will use the old iron sheets to make a better kitchen.

A cross-section of the cracked house

The New incomplete but broken house.

END

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