Mukono

 “This is your time, this is your dance;

Live every moment, leave nothing to chance;

Swim in the sea, drink of the deep;

Embrace the mystery of all you could be!”

Once upon a time, I was infatuated with [or is it by?] Michael W. Smith. This particular chorus flooded my ears for years before I could accept that the odds of he and I meeting were slim-to-none. Nonetheless, the song remains an anthem of sorts. i.e. try to live every day as if it’s the last you’ll have. Our trip to the African Village Hotel in Kayunga was innocent enough. We – Yiyi, his Papi and I – all needed a change of scenery. It turned out to be perfectly timed – and perfectly in keeping with the theme of Michael’s chorus.

Papi was a bit wary of public transport. He was surrendering to my sense of direction [which, at best, is so-so] and my memory. Yiyi and I had been down this road a few weeks before to visit a cousin in the infamous area of Nagalama. As we passed the sign to African Village Hotel, I made a mental note to look it up. Now here we were wandering about the countryside, with Papi hoping the place actually existed.

It turns out traffic on Jinja and Kayunga roads is terrifically light on Easter Sunday. We found the taxi stage easily enough and within an hour and a half we had passed Mukono town and were staring at Amin’s famous Mpoma Satellite.

African Village Hotel is unassuming as one approaches it. The entrance is a small black gate – completely unlike the excessive grandeur of Kampala’s luxury hotels. However, once the gates were opened, we were greeted by a sea of calm, green lush gardens and the tantalising scent of roasted chicken.

The botanical gardens encircle the manyattas, restaurant and swimming pool – making you feel like you are wading through a tropical paradise. Yiyi – so enthralled with the green space – turned into a mini explorer. Soon he was lost in the bushes or behind a tree or trying to scale a rock pile.

We attempted to swim in the pool [which is decent-sized], however, there were too many people. All of Kayunga [and parts of Mukono and Jinja] had descended on this little haven. I did a few laps before it was clear that there wasn’t enough room for serious swimming. Yiyi dipped into the baby pool but was scared by the overly excited children. Papi was content to marinate in peace at the pool side. So, Yiyi and I resorted to more garden escapades for most of the afternoon.

The food – world class pizza in Kayunga – possibly better than in some Kampala joints I know. This is one of those places where the buffet meals are all you can eat - where you don’t feel like you are cheating by getting a second helping. The staff were helpful and never-endingly patient even when Yiyi kept playing with the straws. Then there’s the fact that the head chef personally hands you a wonderfully roasted slice of chicken at lunch or that he personally prepared every egg dish to order at breakfast – while we watched. It’s like the meal is part of the entertainment – not just a filler of tummies. Yiyi was so happy he jumped for joy [like a mini kitaguriro] before he dropped to the floor, rolled about and finally, passed out. The other guests smiled knowingly, as if they, too, understood his joy, but were too adult to express it fully.

That night – we slept blissfully. We were well-rested, well-fed and well-pampered.

In the next week, life reminded me that one can never foresee when it’s one’s time to face adversity. But it also reminded me that I need to keep searching for and experiencing joy. I need to store up memories that I can look to when the glass is more half empty than full. After all, you never know what will happen to you tomorrow.

Yours 

Yiyi and Dada [and Papi]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jinja

Image
We had been driving through the narrow marram road in the Madvhani sugar plantation for more than 20 minutes. The only people we saw were workers clad in gumboots and coveralls, some of them carrying machetes. The cane was tall enough to create a canopy above the car and dense enough to prevent us from seeing beyond a half a meter. I was convinced that every person who appeared and disappeared into the plantation was quietly plotting our demise. I half expected to find an ambush around each corner. You see, I had been told stories of how the plantation owners valued their cane almost as much as human life. I did not expect it to be so easy to drive around their estates – uninvited. But there we were – wandering around like we were the owner’s children. Tutu [the munaSummer from my previous note] was ever hopeful, as usual, that we were not going to succumb to some serial killer-ish end. Yiyi was, as usual, asleep from the moment we hit Jinja road 2 hours earlier. Jess [NOT Jesca!],...
Read more

Ibanda

Image
  Perspective. That is why I initiated this process. I hoped that seeing something new might rearrange the boxes in my head in a more meaningful way. Perspective is what this particular trip was all about. So, full disclosure – there are three of us on the road now. Yiyi is now a veteran traveller and is introducing his sister Aleru [a. k. a. Leritu] to the wandering ways of his mother. Ibanda is my mother’s birth place. Given that we made the trip with my mother and two of her sisters, we, of course, did the rounds with the usual relatives; my eldest uncle - the clan leader, my various cousins and their children. This particular trip, however, was about my grandmother. the Aunts and the Children You see, my mother is writing a book about my grandfather, who was a great preacher, priest and reverend of the Anglican Church. He was particularly active during the great revival of the 1930s. Stories are told of him on his bicycle weaving his way through the hills of Ankole, Toro, B...
Read more

Nwoya - PaKwach

Image
When you stop to picnic in a national forest reserve on the side of the road, is that encroachment? Nevermind that there was a herd of goats grazing right next to us! The forest got me thinking that this could be a natural alternative to the oily fast food restaurants for long distance travelers. To the calm and shade of the trees, add benches, tables, rest rooms and decent, affordable eateries – and we might just have stumbled onto the idea of the year! Or not. Who will maintain the spaces? The National Forestry Authority? Uganda Wildlife Authority? Ministry of Tourism? Local Council? Just thinking about the bureaucracy is already too much drama. Anywho, it was a nice stop over – courtesy of grandpa Nyeko. Yiyi and I were headed to Purongo, Nwoya district, along with his Papi and Grandpa [we do not have a pet name for the Acholi Jajjas yet – working on it!]. We’d picked up a pineapple in Luweero and the entire drive the car smelt like it had been sprayed with pineapple air freshener...
Read more