A friend of mine asked me to read through his diary that he started writing just before he started his A level exams back in 1995. He travelled to the UK after his exams and wrote about his experience while on that visit. I asked whether I could tell that story by selecting a few extracts from this most interesting collection of observations, some quite sad but by and large just hilarious. Some names have been changed to protect identities. His entries are some of the most interesting I have read from a Ugandan, reflecting in many ways some of the things that people travelling from Uganda for the first time experience. He called these entries Ntalindwa.

Arthur Mwenkanya Katabalwa
Sunday 12th March 1995

Monday 13th March 1995I thought that today will be uneventful. It sort of was until I got one of the most amazing prepositions in my life. Earlier on in the year, I came back home from a school trip and I found that we had guests at home. My parents had been asked to look after two Bazungu women who had come to work in the country teaching English. I had been moved out of my room to another one so that they could use it. I had become friends with them over the time. One of them, Jackie, has asked me whether I would like to visit her family in the UK for my vacation. I do not even have a passport! I thought that she was joking. But she insisted that she was serious. I have told my Muzei about it and he has said that it is OK for me to travel as soon as I finish my exams. Its weird. My father does not usually agree to plans like that at the first go. This time he never even hesitated. The excitement is feverish! I have never been beyond Tororo to the east, Mweya to the West and as for the North, probably Kikandwa in Bulemeezi. South, Entebbe. I am going to the UK, Lando, London, Bulaaya, Bungereza. I can not wait. But first, let me deal with these exams.

It’s the eve of my birthday. I doubt tomorrow will be that eventful because I am thinking about CANTAB! MUGOYA! ONGOM! (Call it what you want) I will be starting my A level exams soon and I have tried to read and “spot” as much as I can but I still do not have a good feeling about these exams. I am heading for a collection of grades that will not take me anywhere. There even no scuds (Missiles) about! Apparently there are loads of these false scuds doing the rounds in Kampala and people are paying a lot of money for them. Scuds or missiles are supposedly the real papers students are about to sit circulated around for a quick perusal.

I hate exams! I think everyone does but I am special. Its all the cramming and the essays one has to write in a very short time. Some of my friends I bet cheat with the wording. I happen to be doing History for A levels but even with double spacing between words, before I finish with two sides of A4 paper, some of these other students are asking for more paper. Where do they get 40 points on a question like “Describe the trans Saharan trade?” Or “The separation of classes in France lead to the out break of the 1789 French revolution?” It was in 1789 wasn’t it? I think some are just verbose. But that is what I will have to go against.

And this trans night reading. I failed on that one a long time ago. The guilt is almost unbearable when I sneak into my bed by midnight. But I have seen some of my colleagues come back in the morning heavy laden with all sorts of text books! Do they read them all? I don’t know.

I will have to look for that man “Peacock” who wrote that text book on European history and tell him about all the misery he has put generations of poor Ugandan students in. Gideon S Were!!!!! Who is this man? Thank God I am not doing Economics as “Ssekamwa” is torturing all those that do economics. And isn’t it interesting that we have come to know about text books by the authors? The only two things I remember about O Level chemistry is The Mole Concept and Lambert, the writer of the dominant text book used for O level Chemistry. When my Chemistry teacher wrote the heading “The Mole Concept” on the black board, I switched off.

Pamphlets!! Who started these pamphlets? Every beginning of term a student has come up with a new pamphlet swearing that if we do not read that particular one, we may as well say goodbye to Campus (Makerere University). I have devised the best means though of reading up on my English Literature plays and Novels. I have the films. “King Lea”, “To Kill a Mocking Bird”. I have them. So when I have had a quiet time, I have switched the old VCR on and presto! I am “burning”.

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