Nungamya; Birthday Reflections

Yesterday was my birthday and I clocked 31, for us we are not shy about age and I go by the moniker,”old man” now way before I fell ill, the plan was to have a masters by 30 and a PhD by 35, everything seemed going in the right direction till the stroke happened, I had got an offer from Proffesor Frans the head of the Center for Human Rights, Pretoria and I had applied, the first person I contacted when the email came was MM as we call him my former lecturer and boss then his words were, “Roland hit the metal while still hot apply right now”I did apply and he duly recommended me another recommendation was from Dr.Anthony Kakooza so every thing seemed perfect and life was being kind to me so around November, the Stroke strikes and life seems useless, it’s literally walking on the boulevard of broken dreams with nothing to live for and generally hopeless.

Today the song on my mind is Nungamya by Brian Lubega, baganda readers will excuse me as I can’t find the nga that kind of J which has a front arm.on a lighter note manyi walifu yoluganda ela ndumementula okusinga kamugye ku binyebwa.Since then I accepted the tragedy or strategy as Sseya calls it ,i was 27 then,its been a gruelling 4years Stroking as I hold on and keeping the hope alive,its not been easy at one time the doctor had to prescribe antidepressants because depression was setting in now generally,they tell us to speak to someone about the problem and work around it but now the challenge was aphasia as a result of the Stroke that is generally impairment or communication issues, so I had to text friends and tell them that depression was setting in,A good friend of mine Kuyang Logo gave me a powerful message that I should not leave but rather live for the glory of God.

Now fast forward the reason I am in love with Nungamya is because Lubega is a gifted artist,but yesterday while Kemberg ( that’s what the old man calls her mentioned something that I have literally been in the valley of death yet I still fear no evil ,then my mind ran to the song which is a recital of psalms 23 , that song speaks literally to the spirit and I think it was made in the room near God’s throne it has that magic then the piano oh my it’s literally out of this world, the first friend to remind me of that verse was Jonathan a good friend we were with at lawschool,his words were, Roland even in tough situations the Lord still reigns and is the sherpherd, so I started proclaiming that and the Lord has been faithful.

Now as the Birthday was approaching I thought to myself, how best can this day go,I had of two special childhood friends coming along we cut cake and it’s a day unknown to me life had other plans, first comrade Manyali came he had gotten directions from Silver kayondo,then Chris arrived then Hope Bunori then Okiria who no sooner had he arrived than kimere set in(kubila mukama engalo ezamanyi) I remembered the luhya proverb that no matter what you are going through in life,eat first,who was I a mere mortal to refuse, I then knew that it was a full full condition (ntv point blank speak) Initially I had written to Aunt Marie not to organize anything as I had done my organization or thought I had, the gifts came then the keekyi as we the old men call it it was a full house and we seemed like Tanzanians when it came to social distance but guess the ideology was if we die we die, it’s mwenes birthday

Yes then it came to keekyi cutting I selected that I cut it with Khalesi as I call it because she is my childhood friend and is a yintalekicho, Yes I do positive discrimination and have no apologies for that . Now we old men have three rules for the keekyi,they don’t pray for it,they don’t wash hands and it is never enough.We failed on the third rule as there were three cakes (kubila mukama engalo ezamanyi) the best message perhaps was,”Roland Age like wine” I wondered shall I take that four cousins again,then came the speeches, Silver, Khalesi then Kemberg they all commended me for soldiering on,I remembered a line,my head is under the water but I am still breathing fine” Certainly iam breathing fine.Purple was the last visitor then at 6pm, Silver had a webinar where there was a virtual tour of Washington DC and I remembered most of the buildings we toured with Mocca.The day was done and I started self reflections on friendship, folks invest in the right people they will have your back.