No longer a doubt,her worth
Her labels far more than childbearing
Or mating in kind
A root to mankind deeply abound
In resolve holding the world in mind
In check for peace in love&joy,
Of a progress that leaves no one behind
A woman, indescribable, invaluable
Published on March 8, 2023 on my twitter @MableTwegumye for commemoration of #WomensDay2023
Bits of ME
For how long can you keep your mouth open? I kept mine open for over an hour and if curing my cavities meant not zipping up, I would have offered myself for another extra day!
As I write, 16 of my teeth played a number on me.
I hope it’s not too late for you to pick a leaf. Since my senior, I have had no relief – sensitive teeth. A couple of dentists, consultancy fees here and there…the result was constant.
The recommendations were a sea: the magical fluoride paste I religiously used.
But during the cold and warm weather, I was occasioned with the feeling that perhaps I didn’t have teeth for once (the one thing I adore so much).
Twenty years later, I stumbled on the right treatment; meeting Uganda’s first periodontist. He had discovered that the excessive pressure I employ (perhaps a result of too much love for my teeth) during brushing had brought my years of discomfort.
Bits of YOU
The dentists call it a cold jet of air. I will call it the ‘nightmare on teeth street’, that causes hyper sensitivity according to Dr. Mbabaali Muhammad, Uganda’s first Periodontist.
I hated it; when it was unleashed on my teeth street, pain reigned on the suspected teeth surfaces and Dr. Mbabaali made the diagnosis: tooth brush erosion and in other cases it can be chemical erosion or abrasive wear.
Diagnosis of dentine hyper sensitivity clinically is based on physical signs of tooth wear. It can also be reported if a person feels sensitivity after taking hot or cold drinks/foods. They may also report increased teeth sensitivity when exposed to cold weather.
It’s a common condition, Dr. Mbabaali said, mostly seen after 3 years due to the chronic effect of wrong brushing techniques. He said: “As the wear increases, the sensitivity becomes unbearable and persons start appearing in the dental offices for solutions. Four out of 10 adults present with some form of dentine hypersensitivity.”
So, are we taking brushing techniques for granted? I also thought I knew it all on brushing!
Dear reader, we could be alike. Hypersensitivity can also be a side effect of other situations like reflux oesophagitis, a condition in which acidic content of the stomach is refluxed back in the mouth.
“Weak enamel structure also causes hyper dentine sensitivity, persons working in chemical industries which produce corrosive products are also at a risk from these side effects,” Dr Mbabaali said.
I presented 16 teeth under the tooth brush abrasion diagnosis that triggered dental hyper sensitivity but don’t lose sight of other causes like chipped teeth, fractured restorations and incorrectly placed dental pins, gum recession, vital bleaching among others.
Yet, a simple brushing technique(bass) will excuse you from that heavy price. This is how.
Dr. Mbabali said it includes both the rotary and vibratory motions.
“Angle the toothbrush onto the teeth at 45 and brush from a vibratory motion to push the food off the teeth upwards from the gum to the tooth surface. Insert the bristles in the free gingiva (sulcus of the tooth) – the part of the gum that’s not attached to the tooth so that the bristles can remove the food which is stuck in between the teeth,” he said.
The force used to brush must be mild with soft bristles that can gently enter the teeth. So, go buy a soft toothbrush with a smaller head which should reach any part of the mouth.
Since the food we consume is often softened through chewing, Dr. Mbabaali emphasizes that excessive force must not be used in brushing it off- mild force should displace it. In treating dentine hypersensitivity; various methods are used depending on the complexity of pain assessment and nature of the episodic condition.
During my treatment, Dr. Mbabaali applied the joint usage of the desensitisation method and restorative material using the composite and in other cases glass ionomer is used.
In case you are undergoing a similar or related condition he recommends the following treatments:
Over the counter products like Strontium salts, Potassium salts, Oxalates, Fluorides,Sodium citrate pluronic F-127 Gel Professionally applied, Vanishes& precipitants and/Chinese traditional medicines.
Restorative materials like Laser therapy, Iontophoresis, Periodontal surgery, Endodontic& Extraction of teeth.
NB
The financial cost for dentine hypersensitivity where it disrupts one’s daily activity using restorative material will range from Shs 70,000 to Shs 150,000 depending on where one goes and material used.
Dr. Muhammad Mbabaali is a periodontist and lecturer at Makerere University College of Health Sciences.
Bits of ME
It was so loud I could barely feel my body surrounded by all the kids.
Dozens yelled in sheer excitement, others wailed in sorrow.
I did neither.
Those accompanied by parents, fingers of reprimand pointed-for ‘failing’ to live up to the expected ‘result’.
Other parents in tight embraces with their top performers.
ME- On my toes, lifting my head trying to locate my name on the notice board in anticipation.
Then I saw it…my low marks emboldened in my agony.
PLE Results
The noise stopped. It was just quiet. I felt numb. I was by oneself
As I wandered back home, the bold mark kept a ringing presence, hammering the anxiety of my father’s wrath.
Not that I was expected to get a 4 or even a Division one, I thought to myself. The obvious was, ‘which school is she going to go to?’
When I got home and read the longing for my marks from everyone’s face, I couldn’t bring myself to the truth so I said, ‘my results aren’t yet out- didn’t see my name on the notice board’!
I never imagined this news would be worse than my result but it was- when my father brought the results the day after, I expected a reign of terror.
But he was silent.
In the night though, that question would creep into his dialogue with my mother: ‘Which school is she going to go to?’
ULALA!
Bits of YOU
The obsession with results is numbing both for the parent and for our children.
Imagine a 13-year-old girl in Hoima hang herself after getting harsh comments from her parents over performing poorly in PLE?
She left a note! Her grade; 28, division 3!
Judged and killed by a grading?
The pressure created by the education system is exerted onto parents and also downloaded unto the students.
I can now put together the ‘radical’ view from consultant Dr. Lawrence Muganga advocating for a ban on UNEB.
He said: “Children are like zombies chasing a particular prey that they must catch, if they don’t get it, it’s a do or die.”
The system is violating the human rights of our children depriving them of an opportunity to be who they’re.
He explains, it’s instead crafting them into what the system wants, ‘nobody cares about their abilities, interests or passions’.
In the school system, parents should be handed a seat at the high table to tailor education sized to children’s potential, natural abilities, interests, talents and passions.
As Uganda’s Ministry of Education reflects on the adjustments in the curriculum, Dr. Muganga said it must stop confusing academics and education.
While Academics exhibits one’s credentials; they accumulate overtime and one becomes a producer of knowledge through teaching themselves and others.
Education is geared towards creativity, imaginative potential and problem solving.
“Not all the over 600,000 students that sit those exams annually become academicians. Children who are obsessed with being academicians should be pushed in that direction but if a child is not that type, do not push them,” Dr. Muganga said.
“Students shouldn’t be measured on 4s/divisions but on competencies achieved over time. If a child dropped out today, there should be a skill they can do for life. As long as the only deliverable we have is a number (grading) then we’re failures,” he said.
The pest eating into this system is commercialisation. For every school to fit into the good school suit, aggregate 4 or 5 becomes the only choice.
Dr. Muganga says, statistics reveal that 98% of everything studied in schools will never be used in life.
“Educating children out of their creativity, imaginative potential and problem solving skills affects their abilities to develop into a group of thinkers and doers destroying generation after generation,” he said.
It is absurd to think that a person is stupid or has failed because of a grading system. It’s the system that has failed them by not understanding who this person is.
The obsession of parents sending children to first world schools must stop. Attention should be directed to a school that supports your child in getting hands on experience.
“Look for a school that is helping your child to think not outside the box but without a box. Any school that teaches English and Mathematics is a good school since the child needs to learn and count,” Dr. Muganga advises.
In addition to that, a school that mostly concentrates on doing things; tailoring, cookery, games, music, etc such that a child can discover their abilities in one of those things and capitalise on it.
It’s grave for someone to start pursuing who they’re when they’re 24 years old yet you deprived them the opportunity to do that when they were 5-10 years old.
As parents, we must stop putting pressure on our children, ask and listen to them. Taking a decision for a child without their involvement is a disabler that deters them from self discovery.
*Dr. Lawrence Muganga is an internationally acclaimed education consultant, Author of You Can’t Make “Fish Climb trees” and Vice Chancellor Victoria university.
Bits of ME
Is it painful? I asked, “No”, my sister Liz blushingly responded.
Are you sure it doesn’t pain at all?
I probed curiously, my eyes glued on the little fingers that grudgingly squeezed at its mother’s breast.
The pink tiny mouth had enveloped the whole nipple, with a little push using her left hand, this baby was in control and wouldn’t let go until its choosing.
“No it doesn’t, may be a little ticklish but after awhile it becomes normal. Unless if he bites you but that rarely happens, you’ll experience it when you have your own one day…” Liz explained dropping the last line.
When I have my own…!
My first time, my options were thin; little angel couldn’t breastfeed well, for she was critical.
She later left ‘us’ to meet the angels, and the trial thus-far, I will share that ‘Bits of me’ for another day, but when her brother arrived, I breastfed him for two years.
Ohh boy, he was a guzzler…
I weaned him off only when the milk tank was empty. Was that the right action?
The questions about breastfeeding are always a bulk, yet for a baby, it is as effortless as the bond to their mother.
Bits of YOU
“Will the milk be enough? Will I be able to handle?”
It is an experience that has teased quite a number.
Renowned Paediatrician Dr. Sabrina Kitaka said that personally, it was humbling, especially when the baby was able to latch well.
“I was rather concerned about exposing my breast in public especially when the baby’s demands to feed happened to be in a public place,” Dr. Kitaka revealed.
Joyce Bagala Ntwatwa, District Woman MP, Mityana emphasized, breastfeeding is normal, healthy and should not make any mother guilty.
“Once in a while I would breastfeed in public…feel free to breastfeed as long as you’re in a hygienic and peaceful environment,” she said.
She advocates for public offices to provide breastfeeding centres for lactating mothers because breastfeeding is very crucial in Early Childhood Development.
Unfortunately, the myths about breastfeeding still linger.
Will you handle exclusive breastfeeding? Will your breasts fatten or sag and you lose your awesome cleavage?
Most of it all is aided by peer pressure.
Personally, I didn’t even have to exercise, as the breastmilk reduced, my breasts would also be adjusting back to their size.
Breastfeeding is best for the baby and breast milk is the first vaccine.
Fathers should be enablers to breastfeeding mothers through attending breast feeding classes, burp the baby, buy nutritious food for the mother, and always remind, encourage and support mum to breastfeed effectively.
It is a shared responsibility
BITS
HADIJAH NAMANDA- Sports Personality and Former President UVF
With Tendo, I was a first time mother, it took me about three days to get milk. By regularly putting them on the breast, milk started flowing. It was the same experience with Kirabo, they’re 2½ years apart.
At one year when they started talking, they would request to breastfeed individually.
One time at a wedding function, I had to untie my Gomesi to breastfeed Tendo (1½). Elderly women thanked me for continually breastfeeding since today many women don’t want to do it.
FAUZIAH NAKIBONEKA- Ugandan Actress and the Ebonies Leading lady
The first week of breastfeeding was a little painful but I carried on until it wasn’t anymore, I knew how the benefits were important for my baby.
I breastfed my first born until one year and when my busy schedule couldn’t let, I felt so bad.
Aside from eating a healthy diet, Dr. Paul Kasenene of Wellness Care recommends the following for increasing Breast milk production.
Orange foods like carrots, orange sweet potatoes and pumpkins also increase breast milk
If I tell you that Solomon and I were friends from the moment our eyes locked, I would be a liar. We were fire and ice. Whenever he would try to light me up, I would put him out! For those diagnosing our first interactions, it seemed our pairing was destined only for disaster.
Lethal tongues wagged as we battled each other. I would swing at his ego that tried to unseat mine. He believed I was a misfit in his colourful news world. When the cameras were on, it was magic but when the off button was pressed, it was war! We just didn’t exist in each other’s world –yet we needed each other to be the enviable on-air couple (incidentally- it was the only fantasy we shared).How were we going to work together? PASSION…For it coiled the demons, and lit-up our aspiration ‘to be the best’ The passion for the flair was there but the partners to steer it were worlds apart. Conversation on the strength in our differences is a remarkable asset in extinguishing conflict, yet it often eluded Solomon Serwanjja and I until we finally accepted that what makes us uniquely different as ‘news artists’ may actually be our mine gold (strength).
Today as I say ‘ciao’ to my mate Solomon Serwanjja embarking upon his new journey, I can strongly follow it with; “We did it, mate…our anchoring duo was epic…Ulala!”Yes, you can too!
Bits of YOU
Perceptions often blindfold us from opportunities in front of us.“I had heard that you’re a tough person, anti-social; I thought you had ‘lugezigezi’(wiseacre) and I imagined ‘she is hard to deal with’ and it would be hard to anchor with you! That is the perception I had towards you,” Serwanjja once revealed.
The ‘magnetic duo’, like many fans often dubbed notwithstanding, he admits ‘we fought and people didn’t even know we used to quarrel offset’.“We were at a different equilibrium having come from different wave lengths” he recalls, “but ultimately with time we found ourselves: understood each other’s weaknesses, worked more on our strengths and also complemented each other and hide each other’s weaknesses.
To allow a window in our lives where criticism of one another is accepted is pure gold! ‘It’s okay for your colleague to critic you…Somehow we rebuked each other to even be better.
Thinking that you are going to outshine the other defeats double anchoring.Leaning on each other’s shoulder for six years since 2015, Serwanjja and I co-anchored NBS TV’s prime news bulletin LiveAt9 but he had for 14 years immersed himself in the trade as a radio presenter, investigative reporter and News Anchor.
The boy whose dream was to be a doctor and had been a science major throughout his education career had been dragged, almost against his own will, by his natural love for journalism.In telling stories, he dared to go where many dread.
In 2019, Solomon Serwanjja won the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award for outstanding individuals living and working in Africa with strong journalism skills, on-air flair and exceptional talent in telling African stories.
Fourteen years later, Serwanjja is the executive director of the African Institute of Investigative Journalism purposed to enrich the vineyard of investigative reporting at home and the mainland.
“It is the right time to concentrate on this baby and grow it more, nurture the next Solomon Serwanjjas and live a legacy…’ Serwanjja said about his decision to leave NBS TV.“…. Who knows the world of television is open, maybe one day I’ll make a comeback.”
For now, though, Serwanjja’s dream today, for tomorrow, is a futuristic investigative journalism 20-acre complex built to lead from the front. One of the halls in the facility is called the Solomon Serwanjja Hall….Ulala! what a way to ‘ornament a wall of fame’ for a deserved candidate.
With a successful media career that has been dipped in humility and hard work, I see him live the reality of this new beginning, don’t you?
My parting shot to my mate is, “Make that step if you feel it is the right time to jump and never regret the decision that you’ve made Solomon Serwanjja.”
Bits of ME
Its often the bubbling and whispers behind the closed door that crawls into my nap and often time until I fully awaken, these mellow whispers of ‘… Mummy is sleeping…don’t wake her up…wake her up…she will hear us or don’t knock …knock…’ are what my dreams entangle with.
In the midst of a blurry sight and slight nudge of my body, I give in to the little ones happy ‘disturbance.’
Let children…be children; is most parents’ playbook- I embrace it too.
Many a time, I eavesdrop their little chats and I stumble on some glaring dose against stress.
Their splitting voices cut through the walls from the kitchen to the compound – our children’s world is a playground fun.
The pandemic has put some locks on it, never mind. Financial strains, stress, anxiety and depression are poking at us.
The ailment for that has been the kids’ dosage- Invest in it, you will owe me.
That therapy has saves expenditure on counselling.
I find myself stealing a moment to jump rope with them in the compound.
Reliving my childhood memories while teaching them how to play ‘7 stones’ or the old undisputed dodge game, ‘kwepena’, is the icing on the cake.
Folks does anyone recall the escapades of ‘Hide and Seek?
Don’t feel so reserved not to indulge.
These are such cheap remedies to encounter stress at your disposal.
Liken them to other paths like listening to music or listening to your children sing or perform for you in the comfort of your sitting room. With just ‘mummy can we entertain you? ‘ all my predicaments are unloaded.
Bits of YOU
With the down sides of the pandemic; entertainment centers- bars and recreational places in permanent sleep – invite the entertainment and fun in your household and close the gates to the anxieties of the lockdown.
Renowned therapist Evas Atwine reveals that the cost for a 1- 2 hour counselling session ranges between Shs 80, 000 to Shs 150,000. This covers consultation, diagnosis or problems analysis and therapy/ treatment.
Atwine is strangely unselfish to disclose a bouquet of home remedies for anxiety that may include: exercising, looking at problems with a positive mindset and avoiding too much negative information.
The doom information we are fed in the news, social media, telephone calls, engulfs the human mind and races the heart like an antelope fighting to stay alive from the lion’s teeth.
Free yourself with the favourite question that called for fun answers.
What are your hobbies?
The answers to that question are what Atwine prescribes as your antidote to a stressful season and revamping your mood.
Atwine says most victims of stress, anxiety or depression are unaware of its snake bite.
“They take symptoms such as irritability, constant headaches digestive problems, etc as normal occurrence or imagine medical attention is required,” she says.
“Other serious symptoms such as panic attacks are confused with witchcraft.”
Before you become an experiment in an emergency room and cash in on hospital bills, lets try the simple preventive measures:
Nonetheless, in case this Bits of ME and YOU is a little too late and you need professional counselling, contact the International Centre for Mental Health and Family Care in Ntinda.
If you need to schedule an appointment with a Counselor/Therapist, please contact: The ICFC Counselling Centre Plot 432, Kigowa-Ntinda Tel: 0772425449 or 0770944597.
Bits of ME
“Please find me something to do, anything to do, I am desperate! I can be your housemaid or if you can talk to any of your friends who may need one, I am willing to work otherwise I don’t know how I am going to feed my children. I am their mother and father,” pleaded a woman.
“Their Dad doesn’t help at all”
Except for the waves and the smiles, I hardly knew this woman but with those statements, the stench of need( without) in her life was clear.
In just a few minutes she had pulled me into her life!
As a tailor, schools and other institutions are what put bread on her table, pay tuition for her own children, and there is nothing left to buy a lotion.
With the shutdown, now what?
In the first lockdown, she made and vended face masks. And in afternoon, she alternated with making french fries. That was enough to take her through the opening months when ‘lockdown naive’ customers did not have enough options.
As months went by with no customers to buy new masks and as people found cheap substitutes for her fries, the taps dried up.
With another lockdown that was declared recently; four mouths to feed and monthly rent to pay, she is out of her depth!
Bits of YOU
During the first taste of the lockdown, as reserves emptied, friends and family offered a helping hand. Not many are that willing now, or perhaps well placed to display this kind of help.
A reckoning for those who had broken ties with their kindred and a nightmare for many with a thin circle of friends.
These are times when we need each other- don’t label us beggars!
There are many calls for help in our inbox from teachers looking for alternative entry into other jobs, the warning notices of halted salary payments, that we now have phone alerts reading; STORAGE FULL’
What these anecdotes preach to us is all of us are involved- either as sufferers or Samaritan’s.
Maggie Kigozi (Director-Crown Beverages said many people innovate and try to find alternatives to survive.
Others, she said, have even carried their market products online trying to make sales and do deliveries here and there but unfortunately this lockdown is longer.
Others are sitting back helplessly, ebbing away to hopelessness.
The elephant in the room is: have these times recalled our humanity?
Recycle the untold experiences of those reaping big from these unfortunate times.
The extortionists are spoiling it for the genuine souls!
Imagine a distraught friend /relative frantically calling to STOP a save a house eviction from pending rent arrears.
Only to be reawakened by several of your mates in the same circle to have received a similar call from the same person and rushed to Mobile Money accounts to rescue the friend.
Maggie Kigozi recalls a woman she helped who consistently kept nagging her for help.
“When I blocked her number, she changed to another…and I wondered how many other people she had told the disastrous story…it has become a business for some,” Kigozi said.
Words from the wise that I have come across that consistently fit within challenging times inspired Galatians 6:2- “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ” are as follows –
Like they say : No one does anything alone. You can help friends and family get through life’s big and small obstacles, and they will do the same for you.
For those who are going to receive government’s Shs 100,000 Covid-19 relief fund, Kigozi advises on how one can use it gainfully.
Bits of ME
‘I am so disappointed Mummy, I am so disappointed…,” my two and half year-old son at the time had responded after a reprimand about something.
Seemingly upset, he had broken into tears and innocently uttered his misgivings.
With my re-battle cocked, in that second, I was disarmed: My mouth hang open, body motionless. Yet, my brain raced backwards into my past.
I could not speak English until about primary four or five; meaning by then, that word would never have surfaced in my vocabulary.
The young Mable Twegumye Zake, hearing a new word for the first time would have run as fast as her legs could carry her and pick up the ‘big book’ (that’s what I called it) my favourite then; Longman Dictionary of contemporary English
(adjective)‘disappointed dis‧ap‧point‧edunhappybecause something youhopedfor did not happen, or because someone or something was not as good as youexpected
This little boy of mine who hadn’t even started school yet, was using this adjective
Questions lingered from within: how on earth did he conjure up dis‧ap‧point‧ed
While I was excited and proud that our child was picking up the queen’s English way earlier and faster than I did, his father and I had disregarded his mother tongue to which he couldn’t speak a single word of it at all.
It was the visits to my parents that brought me back to ‘civilization’. My father, no fun of ‘importing’ foreign language, sprayed fear of ‘our children missing out on their mother tongue’
Bits Of YOU
It appears to me I am not alone (you may be guilty too)
Then, lets ponder on the fate of our local languages by shining a light on how deeply we’re entrenched in our children learning the mother tongue.
Some children are unable to speak their mother or father’s languages because a good number are urban groomed where popular lingua is assumed more fashionable.
Ruth Mukama a Professor of Linguistics says, parents confine them to English usage.
“Leaders and the elite believe…English alone in the households prepares their children for success in education and subsequent careers,” Mukama said.
While for others caught in tribal intermarriages, English becomes the common language for obvious reasons.
English as a global player, traps minds in the sense of ‘the prestigious tool for communication’. Square that with the ‘pale look’ our indigenous languages are viewed, and know we have a deep sore at the skin of our cultures.
Mukama explains that with that lost, the children lack an enabling environment to develop their creative abilities spontaneously.
“… like the art of narration or storytelling, communication through music, proverbs and riddles remain an integral part of these languages”.
The antidote may just be simple: learning to co-exist with the dominant player (English): between English and the indigenous languages it is not a question of either/or, rather, it is a case of complementarity
The recitation done in classrooms in English merely constructs individuals into robots with the ‘art of talking without feelings. That is why Ugandans easily blurt out many things in English which they would otherwise find difficult to say in an indigenous language. Why? Because the indigenous languages touch one’s morals and propriety chords in a way that English can never do.
Yet, the indigenous languages cannot successfully dislodge English either for international communication or for educational purposes at higher levels. The compromise for us is complementarity: Are indigenous languages ready to accept to share territory with the monster (English)?
Surely, we already lost yards in our own backyard, so, co-existing is not a cowardly ACT.
Bits Of ME
Innocence is to children; whose guilt conscience is at no fault for their vulnerability. After all, the mother is unconditionally willing to share a piece if not all of the blame.
To an adult, whose open secret is publicly grilled, guilt is an ever present ‘monkey on their/your back!
Ask Mukulu.
Sometimes the good things are far hidden in the dreaded jungle (that jungle could be your laborious job you curse every morning waking up to or a long trip to the well to fetch water) but the yield is worth the torture.
It was so many years back: walking through the quiet of the jungle, only our voice rubbed nature that surrounded our little physiques.
Within the thickets amassed by several shrubs and wild fruit trees scattered, our anxiety would be fattening at every feature.
As our little eyes searched for the gold among the bushes, my sister Liz and I would nourish our cravings mostly with the tiny guavas.
This ‘gold’ at the direction of our mother was what our bodies needed to receive a deep cleanse.
Memodica feotida also commonly referred to as Ebombo in local Luganda dialect was a constant. At no point would we even risk to ask, but her beckon was always loud and clear and unsurprisingly we just knew why.
Throughout our teen years, this was a local herb that countered our body odour. Then, my mother felt the guilt lay with her if my hygiene did not appeal to the community. Fast forward, those jabs will now be directed at me if what my body odour chokes the breath of those nearby.
Bits of YOU
“I lost my mother 39 years ago but my most memorable moments with her were the mother-daughter dialogues. Body hygiene was one of them and unfortunately such conversations are what is lacking in today’s parenting,” said Aisha Nakasujja a natural medicine scientist at Aloesha Organic.
Nakasujja shares that it was from such conversations that a child was told about body hygiene and taught proper cleaning and washing of their body to prevent foul body odour.
“…if you develop body odour, you would publicly be shunned but it is also a sign that you were never given any body hygiene lessons…That’s why whenever our mothers would tell us to go and bathe ‘ebombo’ we would automatically know what they meant so we would just run,” she said.
Herbal remedies leave the skin pores open so the normal skin breathing goes uninterrupted unlike in the case of using artificial formulations that may clog the pores thus leading to pore infections, says Dr Grace Nambatya, a medicinal chemist.
Dr. Vincent Karuhanga a physician at Friends Polyclinic said our bodies have certain areas which produce oily sweat mainly in the arm pits or leg pits, also the anus and the pubis; the perineum areas,
While a person may not have any smell, Dr. Karuhanga said once bacteria breaks down this oily sweat, one produces foul body odour. Oily sweat is produced by scent glands which develop at puberty.
“That’s the sweat responsible for making white t-shirts yellow in the arm pits and knickers yellow. The odour it emits is what is commonly known as kavubuka...” said Dr. Karuhanga.
Those indicators come out loudly during puberty.
What starts as whispers within the walls of an office often spirals into labels of ‘awunya’ (he/she smells) that wait for no ‘LUKE’ to save the victim.
The cold shoulder and silent treatment from a better-half who has been told that his body spills unwanted fumes to his beloved can turn a tasteful romance into bitter butter.
Then when the virtue of decency and discreet is ignored in a talent contest upon ‘agents of body odor’, a protest song is fired back and the ignorance about the unpleasantness of this condition are overlooked.
There can be odours from other areas such as armpits, thighs, cleavage, buttocks, under the breasts, mouth and nostrils and the feet.
Dr. Karuhanga says that on many an occasion, the person with a foul body odour will not know they’ve it because the victim gets used to how they smell which is scientifically known as olfactory fatigue.
“That’s why when one is told that they smell, they deny and can actually say, you are the one smelling,” Dr. Karuhanga explained.
I can liken that to the ‘Muwunya’ banter that has turned what would have been a lesson into a hangout laugh-about at a joint! Isn’t that the unscientific social olfactory fatigue?
While roots of culture and traditions that applauded and bolstered the use of local herbs to cleanse the body of any odour have been demonised by modern medicine, Nakasujja advises that a mix of both can help victims of body odour to avoid embarrassment
Treating body odour
DOCTOR’S ORDERS
Since the victim might not know that they have body odour; it is advised that the closest person to the victim should be the one to convey the unsettling ‘open secret’. One should also seek medical advice in extreme cases because at times it can be caused by medical concerns and the doctor can advise.
Bits of ME
A splash of water on the floor, and echoes of his name would be heard.
Martin! Martin!
Food stains, plates with left overs begging to be binned, spilled tea on one’s own desk and Martin would rise up a trot to clear up.
As the toilets beckoned his wash, a scrubbing long brush in hand, Martins day is imposed to tidying up.
At the slightest summon, he would jump on his feet: voices including mine would chorus his name if something was needed.
Brought in as an office cleaner in his teens in 2009, NBS offices at UAP, the ‘rag hugging’ humble boy mushroomed into a messenger thanklessly for his bounds of obedience.
All he did during day, was to consent to command, and in the wee hours, he was tied to my entertainment magazine show as my man on camera.
Bits of YOU
To be seen as a label of what others denounce including those who indulge is never one’s fate, I have learnt from Martin. And his timeline in history is a vivid case.
The first born of three, in a family which depended on his mother’s tomato stall, his father was an on and off special hire driver.
By 15 years of age, Martin Kisaamu had dropped out of school and managed to get his first job at Shoprite as a window cleaner earning Shs 100,000 a month.
“Before a friend of mine connected me to this job, fees defaulting at school had condemned me home for over a year. Our mother was the lone rescuer since my father was at the mercy of a car owner who either drove his own car nor didn’t procure an alternative taxi for his employee,” Kisaamu explained.
He found his breakthrough at NBS TV as office cleaner. His new found joy had a rare homecoming; floors, windows, bathrooms, toilets, overbearing characters, all that needed a treat.
Humility conquers the misers but also tames the masters; that was the weapon in his locker. For it survived him the roughs of a chaotic industry.
From the outset, he didn’t earn much to make a consistent return back home. So, on many nights, he found homage at his workplace.
“…I didn’t sleep much. I would clean all the offices in the night, then sneak into the studio and watch the live recording of the music show SNL as MC Percy and DJ Ivan did their thing with Henry Kyomu and Baby Ben on Camera,” Kisaamu revealed.
“I used to admire camera men and saw them as exceptional, I deeply wanted to be one.”
His request to hold the light equipment for SNL were positively received and with it, camera work tutorials.
His requests knocked me too; Pundonor Magazine, a programme I hosted then couldn’t resist him on team.
“I used to like Pundonor Magazine and fascinated by you interviewing celebrities. The day I recorded Bobi Wine for the first time, I hardly believed myself,” Kisaamu reminisced.
Need I say it again, to see yourself in the light of what you believe is your greatest strength: Kisaamu’s passion and interest on camera work enthralled the production manager Ivan Isama Kalla. He had earned his fantasy.
Doubling as an office cleaner and a camera man (unofficial) for five years was bitter sweet.
“There were people in the field who would see me as a camera man in the night and when they came to NBS TV during the day, they would find me toilet cleaning and scrubbing. I would feel embarrassed but I never gave up, I had to be patient,” he said.
By 2015 Martin Kisaamu had changed his profession cards from an office cleaner to an official NBS TV camera man and was recruited as part of the Production Dept.
Since the first programme that Kisaamu was allowed to record independently ten years ago, he has been on camera for NBS programs like People and Power, Big Deal, KUT, Youth Voice, Chat Room, Face Off, School Debate, Kitchen Kings, UNCUT Sabula among others.
Martin Kisaamu today is living in a future he once saw himself walk, but distant and to many, the kind of future more befitting to those, at whose instruction he bowed.
He looks back at the boy in rugs with a rag and a long scrubbing brush and says, “I felt myself change into a new person. I left Martin the cleaner in the past and now I am the future Martin. Anyone can decide to do the same if they choose to.”
Crossing paths again with education would complete his romance in the corporate world. Is there a Martin in your life?
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