I happen to be a serious mature student at SFB. Having arrived back from the Diaspora, I failed to nail down a job due to my limping qualifications. I had thought that the influence of my rich and famous Aggrey would come to my aid. But whenever I sat for interviews, the questions used to box me into a corner. Aggrey was generous enough and decided to sponsor me for a 4 year degree course at SFB. When he first told me that he had arranged for me to take up SFB, I got confused. I thought that SFB stood for Special Frothy Beers! However after some more deliberations, I realised that SFB meant School of Finance and Banking. You may recall that when I first entered the SFB classroom, all the youngish students stood upright as if they had seen an Afande marching in. They stood upright to give me their maximum respect. They thought that I was the senior lecturer who had come to teach them econometrics. I just walked majestically and instead of standing in front of my students, I chose to sit behind the rest of the class to start my serious search for a degree in management. Eventually, the real lecturer walked in and started to teach us about the laws of demand and supply. To the students, they now believed that I was an invigilator who had come to assess the teaching skills of this particular fellow. After the lesson, I tried to mingle with the students but they were trying to dodge me. I somehow convinced them that I was one of them and that is how I started my long search for education. Students were shocked to see me attend school with them. I was fit to be their father! That is how I also acquired a nickname of Baba SFB. The kids would surround me everywhere I went. In the evening hours, I would lead them on to the Gikondo surroundings where we would sit in a makeshift bar and drink all the booze on credit. The booze sellers respected me and so credit facilities were readily available. Now, last week, I happened to board a bus with some of my SFB classmates. The bus was heading to Uganda where we had an appointment with some students at Nkumba University in Entebbe. The students had invited us for a get together to exchange ideas and promote fraternity. At Nkumba we were cordially welcomed by our hosts. As usual, the Nkumba students thought that I was the senior lecturer who had escorted the SFB kids. It took them a while for them to accept that I was part of them. Once they were convinced that I was actually a fellow student, our hosts revealed to us that our meeting would be held at a place called Vogue. This is a joint just below the Nkumba University where things are happening 24 hours. So we strolled down to the venue and instead of pulling out files and folders to discuss, we embarked on guzzling pork. Within a few minutes, the place was crowded. Loud music blasting, people started to dance as darkness set in. We joined in and started to boogie and shake our bums at the famous Vogue. When it approached midnight, our hosts advised us to proceed for another meeting in town. The venue was a new place called Knight Raiders. It’s in down town Entebbe. We entered the place and got down to business. It was a new discotheque and was on everyone’s lips. We crowded the place and danced up to the wee hours of the morning. Our mission to Nkumba was over and it was time to board our buses back to SFB. Now, I guess it’s our turn to invite the Nkumba students for some meetings over here. We need to exchange ideas on how to survive the tough examinations. Contact: diaspoman@yahoo.com
