Ugandans are amazing, genuine, kind and welcoming. It takes no time to forge a lifelong connection to these wonderful human beings. Despite only having been in Uganda 10 days last year, my mother is putting together care packages for the people she met in 2011 for me to take and deliver from "Mama Erika." In such a short time these people have become like family to her. I wish I could see them more often and spend more time with them; they have such a serene way about them. Some of them I don't see each year and while I am so sad that I've miss them, for them it's just part of what happens and they simply say that we will meet next time. No expectations; they just accept everything as the universe presents it. So unlike us who have our predetermined expectations that we focus on and that disappoint us when they don't develop as we want them to. Such a simpler and gentler way of accepting the events in life.
I met Muhamad in 2008 when I "worked" at Kawanda Secondary School just outside of Kampala. I was assigned to work with him as he is a Biology and Chemistry teacher and I was a Science teacher at KLO Middle School. I didn't teach much in his class and spent more time teaching and talking in other classes but I did sit in on many of Muhamad's classes while I was there.
We exchanged email addreses and have kept regular correspondence since my first trip despite the fact that Niteo has not returned to Kawanda to "work." In 2010, Muhamad invited me to his family home to share a meal and meet his relatives. He applied to come to Canada for Christmas hat year but was refused entry by the Canadian government. It ended up being a blessing as it was the year of the tremendous storms in London and he would have spent his holiday in Heathrow.When we first met he told me that he really wanted to see snow but that he gets cold induced asma if he is in an environment below 15 degrees! I think he would have enjoyed watching winter from the inside of our condo.
I had not intended on going to Uganda in 2011 due to my summer univeristy course schedule but on December 26th, 2010, Muhamad emailed me to invite me to his wedding on March 19th, 2011. Mum, always ready for an adventure, agreed to accompany me to this incredible event.
In the year leading up to his wedding Muhamad taught full time at Kawanda and spent his spare time building a home for him and his bride to move into after the wedding. He studied Science at Makerere University and was involved in research to find a new and environmentally friendly form of energy for Uganda but the funding ran out and he had to leave his research to teach. He is writing a biology textbook (over 400 pages at last count) and he hopes to return to school in 2013 to study to be a pharmacist. He is a very dedicated and intelligent man.
Hanifah, Muhamad's wife, has a degree in IT. She is a lovely woman. She is expecting their first baby this fall.
I feel so fortunate to call these two amazing people my friends. I am looking forward to seeing them again!
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