The kids are back home and it is like an attack of sorts. I am trying to find the discipline of implementing a typical school program at home. Wake up at 6 am. Bath. Go to school (I mean the reading room). Have a break at 10 am. Go back to class (reading room) at 11 am. Study up to 1 pm. Get a lunch break and return to class at 2 pm. Study up to 3 pm and go for sports. And at 4 pm, come back home.
That is my strategy. After all, I am called Mr Strategy. I am trying to create that routine so that the kids are not sleepy during this term which they will complete at home.
My trip to the market.
Now with panic buying, the market was full of activity. So many cars, trying to find a spot to park. Add rain in the mix, the market was one of the best escapades I have endured this month since I decided to do the ‘small’ activities I had left to my wife.
In this market, common items have always been fairly priced. Not this time.
Three mangoes went for Ugx. 12,000. As they say, ‘African eyes are in their hands’, I picked one mango from the heap of three, looked at it. I decided to select. I picked three mangoes. The lady seller intoned: your choice. Either you pick what I have heaped. Or you select whatever you need, at Ugx. 6,000 (the US $2) per mango! Can you imagine? In this same market two weeks earlier a mango went for Ugx. 2,000! I was alarmed!
That is why I don’t want to be involved in such small things. It is a little money but I never like cheaters. And it is my motto never to bargain with small retailers like these people in the market. I decided to turn off my money sense and pay. “I am just doing it today only’ I said, as I did some panic buying. Beans. Maize. And corn flour.
The reality check
As I drove home I realized what it means to find your true north.
Uganda must embrace agriculture. By far, we are still surviving because we have farmers who can supply foodstuffs to the city. Click To Tweet Otherwise, the current lockdown is a huge challenge. Where else in the world can you find affordable supplies of greens.
And if matters #coronavirus become worse, I am now doing plan B – the village escape.
Another reality check that we all engage in some form of leisure farming. It is necessary. Go and do some farming – whether you make money or not, just do it.
The world will always need the best quality foods.
Now I know why my grandpa loved his goats even when he never got any money from them: pride farming.
Copyright Mustapha B Mugisa, 2020. All rights reserved.
