I had planned on writing a short review of two books I’ve just finished reading – Wizard of the Nile by Matthew Green and First Kill Your Family by Peter Eichestaedt. As luck would have it, a bookstore in my neighborhood had on display, Tall Grass: Stories of Suffering and Peace in Northern Uganda by Carlos Rodriguez, the colorful former Catholic priest whom many of us in Uganda know well.
So the review (it will be detailed, catchy and explosive, I promise 
) will have to wait for another day.
After reading the first two chapters of Carlos’ book, I called Joe Wacha and Caroline Ayugi, colleagues of mine who have lived and worked in Northern Uganda all their lives. They, in my humble view, are among the best journalists in the country. I wanted to know what is going in the Acholi sub-region now. Do people in Kitgum, Pader, Gulu and Amuru still speak of Joseph Kony? Have opinions changed since Operation Lightning Thunder? What is going on now?
Caroline answered it best:
People are just getting on, Tumwi. Talk of the LRA (the Lord’s Resistance Army) wearies them. They just want to rebuild their lives. They are just getting on.
I haven’t been able to blog in the past two weeks. Perhaps it is that I haven’t had an episode of insomnia since the pro-Buganda riots that rocked Kampala. It’s hard to be creative when I’m sleepy all the time. Then there’s that issue with my work that is unresolved, numerous incomplete projects, a car that I depend on is on its last legs, a family situation that is worrisome, bank balance that becomes smaller by the day, an ever-expanding waistline, some guy … God, I’m fickle.
If a population that suffered and endured 20 years of death, disease, abandonment, marginalization and despair can pick itself and get on with it, who am I to wallow in my nothingness?
Oh well.
*****
On books and other things, did any of the Ugbloggers aka The Blogren attend Baz’s big moment two weeks ago?
In case you didn’t know this already, Ernest Bazanye, The Blogren’s very own, won the top prize at this year’s Literature Fraternity of Uganda Literary Awards. The award for his HIV/AIDS reader for children titled ‘Chasing the Dream’ was given at the climax of this year’s National Book Week.
I know it’s not the Nobel Prize for Literature, but the ka-fellow has greatness in store. If work hadn’t taken me to dusty Mbarara that week, I’d have been right in front giving Baz the odd whoop-whoop. Hopefully he’ll read this and call me for that long-overdue pint …
