A RAMBLING MIND : ....... and the award for the most innovative personality goes to…. SINA GERARD

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are not for any publicity or advertorial purposes to the person and products to be mentioned here in, any influence to your consumer behaviours will be regarded as coincidental. If you ask me why I had to put a disclaimer in the first place, it is because I don’t want this article to appear like another advert of Urwibutso Products, lest my editor refers me to the Marketing department to sign a proforma invoice or a space order, one of the two, am not sure which one. The thing here is; I want to share some of the things I have managed to see, hear and touch in my not so short adventurous life. I have gone places, seen and done things, some odd enough and it is imperative to share some of this stuff with you. So earlier this week, I ended up at Nyirangarama (am sure you all know this place) unless you haven’t taken the road to the North and Western part of the country. If you haven’t you should be ashamed for you don’t know your country and it’s high time you boarded the next bus. Just like you, apart from stopping over for some juice and a bite and do some little shopping before hopping on the bus (or private car) to continue with my journey, I had never taken time to venture into this one-man town. This man is called Sina Gerard-one of the most enterprising individuals of our time. The man who started with a bicycle way back and today owns a fleet of vehicles including trailers has made himself a name that the whole town and its surroundings runs on his engine. From the population to the street lights and fields, everything rotates around Sina Gerard. He owns schools, operates water systems, employs the whole surrounding population and knows how all the veins and arteries of the whole neighbourhood operate. Back to the heading, Sina Gerard has never ceased to be innovative; the reason he has scooped several awards. The visit to ‘Sina’s world’ gave me an insight into the innovativeness of this man. Forget the juices, pepper or the banana wine. I was seated there listening to his story and boom, he dropped the bomb! He is also rearing pigs but guess how?...under the influence of MUSIC. First I thought I wasn’t listening good or he was probably using music as an idiom, but he went on to explain. Apparently playing music in a pigsty for at least 6 hours a day will ensure that the ‘bu benzi’ will flourish faster than the ordinary pigs and guess what, more tastier and yummy than your ordinary pig. So he said next time you eat a ‘kabenzi’ and it tastes differently, know it is one of his pigs imported all the way from Nyirangarama to Kigali. Indeed the adage Music is food to the soul is true in the sense that the poor pig does not know the sweet melodies prepare it to be someone’s delicious food. I saw this I swear, a full time DJ is hired to play the music to the swine and I noticed they enjoy the music as they move around the pigsty in a rhythmic way, looking very happy. The music trick works kabisa!! He plays all kinds of songs, non-stop, from rock to gospel and hip hop depending on the mood of the animals. Trust me, the DJ is quite good and could give some of these DJ’s playing in Kigali clubs a run for their money, the difference is that he plays for pigs. So, next time you eat pork and feel like dancing, it could be the side effect of the music-influenced pork. I will not be surprised if one day Sina Gerard comes up with Bean or Maize Juice, everything is possible to this guy. You see one time, I was listening to the Uganda President saying that value addition is the way to go for EAC, adding that other countries have taken value addition to another level giving an example of meat sellers in Japan who first massage to a cow while playing music to it for about 6 hours before slaughtering, just to make the beef sweeter. I thought it was one of those hilarious jokes of the man but now I know it is possible and I did not have to travel to Tokyo to find out, the answer is at Nyirangarama. I hahad Sina you guy!! Can you imagine in a bid to save the environment he also bakes bricks using water? I hear he converts water into heat to bake the bricks red hot, hard to believe but very true. eddiebk2008@gmail.com