Johannes being welcomed by our mother at our home near Iganga
After our sumptuous dinner, we made some small talk before retiring for the night at our apartment. Outside our apartment, we found a stray cat. The gateman informed us that it belonged to a French journalist who lived in the apartment for sometime. She had however been transferred to Nairobi in Kenya and she left the cat in the care of a neighbour. We were told she transfers nearly 25 dollars per month for the upkeep of the cat. Unfortunately, the guy decided he had more demands than the cat and ignored it, so it left him and returned to live near the apartment.
Johannes immediately fell in love with the cat. He examined it carefully and assured us it was one of the rare Siamese breeds. He wished there was a way of carrying it with him back to the Netherlands. He cuddled it, and it purred with pleasure. He asked me to escort him to the supermarket to get some cat food. (Supermarkets in suburbs like Bugolobi close after midnight). We walked all around checking at the supermarkets, grocery stores and small shops, but we didn’t even come across anyone who had ever seen cat food!
Johannes then bought canned beef, some eggs and a plate for the cat before we proceeded home in disappointment. At home he prepared for it a meal, placed it on its plate, but the cat wouldn’t eat it. We assumed it was so used to leftovers and live rodents, that food off a plate was better left to humans.
The next day we took our time, woke up late to a late breakfast and later in the day proceeded to Kasolo, our home village near Iganga. Our ancestral homestead is composed of a number of houses and many people. Our parents’ house is the biggest of them all. At any one time, there are never fewer than 30 people. The time we arrived, there were about 50 including neighbours and friends who had learnt of our coming. There were ululations from the people as soon as we alighted from the vehicle.
We arrived at around 7.00pm. We were served tea and groundnuts, bananas, maize and many other edibles. I warned Johannes not to overeat, as dinner would be served in a few hours. Since he thought that was dinner, he had taken plenty, so he asked me to accompany him for a walk. I in turn also asked 2 brothers to walk with us.
As soon as we left the homestead, we were hit by black darkness! Johannes was very excited! He wowed at the darkness, and swore he had never seen anything as spectacular as black darkness. He could see all the stars in the sky, but could not see anything beyond one metre in front of him. Everything was pitch black. To compound it all were cyclists without headlamps. Johannes had to keep running into the bush to avoid a head-on collision with the lightless cyclists. He wondered why government doesn’t have a law on riding at night without lights! He then asked us why we don’t ask government to make normal roads!
We assured him this was as normal as expected. Bad, potholed roads were the order of the day in Uganda. And that should he find a well-leveled road, then that would be abnormal, out of the ordinary! He just whistled!
What had been thought of as a long leisurely walk and star gazing before supper was cut short by Johannes’ weariness over the cyclists, pedestrians, potholed road and worse still by full headlights of vehicles. He could not coordinate all his faculties well and he asked us to return home.
My mother prepared for us lost of delicious food as usual; steamed bananas, pillau rice (spiced), baked potatoes, goat meat stew, chicken and the like. Whatever one tasted was yummy. All dishes were mouthwatering and scrumptious. Save Johannes, all of us were busy chewing. He was talking about the food, how different, tasty and fresh it was, how it was cooked and comparing it to the Dutch diet. In the process, by the time most of us were through, he was not even halfway!
I warned him that in our tradition, whoever finished last, had to wash the dishes! Poor man didn’t know it was a way of making him hurry up. After dinner, he collected the dishes, crockery and cutlery and took them in the back room for washing. If it was not one of the house helps who pushed him away, he had embarked on the job of washing up!
When Johannes went to his room to retire for the day, he first went to the bathroom to bath and brush his teeth. He found a huge rat there and he shouted at the top of his voice, “he is here, a big one,” we who were in another house thought it was a human being – thief or something like that. Johannes and the house help chased the rat around, it dived into the toilet bowl, and Johannes was able to take it to sleep with one big blow. He explained later that it is important when you are getting rid of animals not to let them feel pain. So only one blow should be used in the correct place, so it would not even know what hit it. Just like he proudly did to the rat!
Taking photos of the darkness
Tea on the day we arrived
Johannes and Ali at Kasolo
Photos in our parents' house in Kasolo
Our parents' living room
The boys greeting their grandmas on arrival
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