As Kampala kids eat pizzas, getting an education in Zombo is a hassle

Being a first time parent comes with a lot of crazy ideas ,the sleepless nights, the hustle of changing the diapers, and the craze of having to figure out why a kid cries at a particular time of the night.

Now for a Kampala kid ,the crazy city mind rotates around everything exotic, the fancy foods the kid needs, the hang out places the kid will go to and all this craze about photo shoots which my Zombo brain has failed to comprehend.

My daughter recently made six months and it finally hit me that sooner than later, we shall have to dig deep into our pockets to pay school fees.

My Zombo brain pushed me to find out what an average Kampala school pays per term and my brain went hay wire.

What do these schools offer?

Do they instil in kids an automatic wisdom activation drive that automatically propels a kid to success ?

In Zombo, our schools don’t have those fancy names. We call our schools wise names like Ukemu which means to peep , Adiadwol (squeezed throat )and Anyola loosely translated to mean giving birth to.

In my early primary school days ,I went to Ukemu primary school. We would walk for over 10 kilometres on foot and it was criminal to to reach the school after 8.00 am.

On arrival at school, we wouldn’t be pampered with weird names like sweetheart or darling.

We would meet mean looking boys with sticks ready to show you the portion of the compound you have to sweep and they would not hesitate to give you canes if you acted big headed.

By 8.30 am, the sweeping process would be complete and woe unto you if you didn’t make it  to the list of those who were early enough to sweep.

That would mean at least five strokes by the meanest teachers on duty.

Infact kids from near by homes would rush and sweep the entire compound so the rest could get punished.

By 8.00am, there would be prefects and teachers with sticks and they would whip our tender buttocks thoroughly as a punishment, occasionally you would let tears escape and on remembering that the girls were watching, you would quickly shut up.

Make no mistake, before leaving for school, you had to deal with taking the goats out to graze and cows if you had any.

Then you would wash your feet, eat some left overs and then dash to school.

Back then when I was in primary two, I was among the three kids who owned shoes.

My father, a medic back then, had rewarded me with Bata shoes for coming top of my class

The rest of the school population would show up at school in bare feet, and it became extremely dangerous to wear shoes so I had to abandon my pair to fit in.

Our teachers would ask us to bring firewood, reeds or grass depending on the need they had individually.

If a teacher was a building a new house, you had to deliver all the materials whether you liked it or not.

We never spoke English at school. It was criminal. When they tried to force us, most of the pupils would be condemned to eternal silence.

During those years, no one got a first grade at PLE. Getting a second grade meant that you are clever.

Well years after, I doubt the school even gets the first grades. Years after I left to join a town school, the story remains the same.

I can go on and on about how our schools rocked, do Kampala kids know these things ?

Can my daughter walk half the distance I walked ?

Can she even allow to go Ukemu or Adiadwol ?

Can she spend her early primary days in a school where no one owns shoes ?

Make no mistake ,the crazy schools instilled in us values that we have appreciated over the years.

Much as Kampala schools would produce the bulk of the slay queens and snobs, someone who has crossed 17 bridges from Zombo wouldn’t have the luxury of not transforming into a hard worker.

Sadly it is now fashionable to ferry kids to Kampala to get the super grades ignoring the other aspects of life.

Has life condemned you to educating your kids in Zombo ?

Look at the positives, train them to be resilient, disciplined and focused when they cross to this side of the world they will surely survive.

As I folded the papers with the exorbitant fees rate, I imagined the contrast between the two worlds ,the fancy school worlds of Kampala and the great environments of Zombo.

Make no mistake, we also want those good schools back home but what happens if in your lifetime they are not forthcoming ?

Somehow you have to make it look cool.

If you ever asked me why Zombo votes for NRM probably some of the reasons are in there.

Years down the road ,the place looks almost the same, NRM has preserved the education sector and it appears the people are grateful !!