The village made me. The streets shaped me.
The village is my first ground. I will not rush past it.
I am 29 and next year I make 30. I sit here and look back, around, and ahead. I do not have the whole beginning in my hands. Some of it I only know because I was told. I will not fill a hole with a fine story.
It is beautiful to be here. Alive, well, and healthy. The hard things are still here. But all this is a blessing, to experience this thing called life!
I will not call myself the finished man. I am only starting. I will use these pages to share a little glimpse into my life journey.
This is my space for my journey, my history, what I see, what lifts me, and what cuts me. I write it plain, the way you talk at home, not dressed for a show. You are welcome to walk with me.
School took the first stretch. Almost 25 years of school, primary, then secondary, then university. They laid it out like that, and I followed. The first two decades, I look back and I think I did not do much of my own. Just the system. That feels slow, and a bit unfair, but not a waste all the way through. Some good things came out of those rooms and a lot of time went in there too. We will talk about that as we go.
I only started living after school. That is when real life began, and that is when I started on the streets. The streets are the best school in my view, real life. I think the best school life should have a good mix of books, street life and business. Not village, then school, then streets, as for many young Ugandans today.
The streets did the other work. They shaped how I stand, how I look at people, and how I read a hard day. I own that. I will not hand it to someone else. I will not make it clean, and I will not dress that up.
I am still becoming a man. Sex, women, and men will come here as it is, not later as a speech. I am not writing so you can copy my life. Take what fits, and leave the rest.
When the truth is told, the story gets bigger than you. Someone far away can read it and say, “That resonates with me.” That one, and that one, and that one.
I will also put the books I am reading here, and the things I am learning. The hard day and the good day. There are very many of both. I will keep writing so we can look through them together.
This is Joe. Welcome.