Still Moving

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore, “Andre Gide. Many times when you get into the lake and swim away from the shore, fear grips you because whichever side you look there seems no end. For me to be here today, I had to move from Kakuuto to faraway place to find meaningful life. I hail from the village of Kakuuto, Rakai district, 250km from Kampala. I am a son of a farmer and until 2006, I could not imagine what was beyond the horizon of Kakuuto. With a poor childhood characterized by great deprivation to the extent that I wore my first pair of shoes in P7 for my primary leaving examinations. As a young ambitious boy, I dare to dream of losing sight of the boundaries of Kakuuto to go to the big city that I had only heard of in stories. With farming as the most popular job back then, I knew that life was all about ploughing the gardens, planting, harvesting and sale of produce. My father was always travelling across the district looking for the market of his produce, such as coffee, bananas and beans. I grew up in that unceasing cycle, however I desired to go beyond the horizon in search of better life. Alas, opportunity knocked on my door. It was a time for my sister’s wedding and as an in law I could not miss the function, I could not believe I was going to Kampala since it was my first time, I rehearsed how I was to behave as a city borne however I was not fluent in English. I could not sleep that night as I was excited, enthusiastic and eager to go to Kampala. I dressed well, I checked myself in the mirror over 10 times. My parents and I boarded a car and set off on the 250km journey. I was mesmerized by the modernity of the towns we passed. The journey seemed short due to the sensory overload of the new things I saw. It was overwhelmingly exciting ranging from buildings, many people and cars in one place. the list was endless. Upon arrival in the tax park at 11am and I trembled due to the number of cars we found in the park, the number of people, noisy adverts and eats. I wanted to taste everything, I became puzzled. We headed to my sister’s residence in kireka. She welcomed us and we really enjoyed our stay. we ate lots of food. everything in the city was so different, cars were always moving. i tried to play with the town kids however I could not keep up with the intellect, English language and the accent. I decided to cool down and sit in house. As the night fell and I started looking around for kerosene lamps to clean them as was the routine in village. To my astonishment, my sister laughed so hard that she cried as showed me a button which when pressed caused something like a pot to produce light. She gladly told me it was a bulb. Fellow toastmasters, I finally lost sight of the shore and learnt that there was something like a bulb that gave light. All that I saw in Kampala was very exciting and nothing compared to what we had in Kakuuto Returning home after the wedding, I told my dad I would really love to go back to the Kampala city. My father told me there was only one way out and that was by reading hard and excelling in the Uganda Advanced Certificate Examinations. Tenacious enough I passed My A-level with flying colours and I was given a placement at Makerere University Business School. I said to myself, “Kampala here I come,”. As luck may have it, after my studies I got a job at JMS which has transformed me to overcome all that adversity and that is because I keep moving to lose sight of the shore to discover new oceans in life. with advice from my work mentor Joan, I have joined toast master international where leaders are made with hope of discovering new oceans. Blue oceans are always existing; we only need to lose the sight of the shore in order to enjoy them.