This has been a topic from the past and will come through even to the future. Many times, people go on to ask, do you have a house in your village? What happens when you lose someone?
There were such questions when Joseph Mayanja alias Jose Chameleone lost his younger brother AK47 a few years back, pictures at the burial showed the popular singing family around a mud and wattle house.
Many started questioning why all of them could not afford to build a house back in the village yet Chameleone specifically was living in a mansion in Sseguku, along Entebbe road.
A work colleague of mine after getting a few savings right, dashed home, deep in Eastern Uganda to start a house.
“I have our land there for my family, I want to start building a house that I will be using when I return,” he said.
The house drained him, he kept taking every penny he obtained and sunk it into the house. In three years, it was done hooray, and there he was flashing images of the two-bedroomed self-contained house. He could not wait to celebrate Christmas.
The pressure shifted to buying things for the house, sofa sets, beds, and other things, and another financial battle commenced.
This colleague was renting in Kampala meanwhile and he soon started falling back on rent.
Should you, therefore, sink all your investments in building a house back in the village to just spend a few days in it? NO.
Putting money in a house in your village is economically not a good idea unless you already have a house of your own where you currently stay.
It is better you invest the money in something that will bring back the money to circulation and help you develop further. Imagine sinking 60m to sit in the village and only be available for use when you go over for festive holidays, then close again.
You have built for lizards and cockroaches, and maybe caretakers who will be calling you back to repair doorknobs, toilet pans, spoilt window locks, or even broken glass.
Making such expenditure is for self-actualization that is helped by societal pressures and fears echoed by a number of people; “Don’t wait to die then you are brought in a coffin” “You will be ashamed etc,”
It does not really matter, why build a house you will not sleep in? Why spend an amount of money that you will not get returns? Whether dead or alive, our aims are to ensure continuity for the people we have left behind.
Therefore, if it’s important that you must build a house in your village, why not rather plant trees with the same money and the first harvest of such trees will bring your enough money to build both home and away?
Should you die before the trees grow, your family will benefit from them as a worthy investment rather than a few rooms or brick and cement, that will not stand to support those you deeply love when you are gone.
Nonetheless, if you can afford it, then a village home is worth it.
Alternatively, the money can get you a fair house elsewhere to help you step down on the rent, using the same amount you have saved from your rent, you can then slowly start a proper construction of your village house minus pressures.
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