When the Wasps stung Amavubi last Saturday, people were thrilled and ecstatic. It was a moment to savor. But for Aggrey and me, it was not the greatest experience to talk about. Do not be mistaken – we were not supporting Ethiopia. We were behind the Wasps all the way. And when our boys scored the winning goal, all hell broke loose. But as we rejoiced how we had beaten Ethiopia in the soccer World cup qualifiers, we remembered a huge opportunity missed. This opportunity I am talking about relates to a visit we had made in Mutara. Aggrey had identified a candidate who could become his lifelong partner. In other words, Aggrey had decided to go and beg some old folks in Mutara for a bride. Being his main man, I was appointed to become his best man. The visit to Mutara was supposed to be a low key affair. I mean, this was not supposed to be a day for introducing the bridegroom to be. This visit was just a courtesy call which would involve small time negotiations before the real date for introduction could be set. But when our group of five people approached this village in Mutara, we were surprised to find a sizeable crowd of people waiting for us in a tent. They were singing songs to welcome the so called bridegroom. We parked the Jeep at a distance and walked majestically to the makeshift tent. For us, life had become easy. We thought we had come over to start serious negotiations only to find the small village ready to throw a party for us. We settled in and immediately soda started to flow. Aggrey and I could not swallow that very bitter tasting soda. How we missed the sweetness of an Amstel! Anyways, we relaxed and listened to the village MC announcing our big arrival at their home. The guy was praising us and calling us several nice names. In his speech, he was telling the villagers that we had brought good luck to them. This was followed by clapping and chanting. But as villager after villager stood up to speak, we soon became bored and decided to switch on the FM radios on our mobile phones. When we tuned in, we realised that Ethiopia had already scored the first goal against the wasps of Rwanda. This was very discouraging for us. So we just kept listening to the live commentary all the way from Addis Ababa. We were no longer paying attention to the speeches. How could they expect us to listen to them when they couldn’t even afford a bottle of Primus for us? IBAZE! We continued to listen and before long the Wasps of Rwanda had scored the equalizer. As we prepared ourselves to rejoice and leap out of our seats, we suddenly remembered that we were guests to Aggrey’s future in-laws. We tried to contain our emotions and kept praying hard for another goal. The gods indeed answered our prayers. The second goal from Rwanda was announced by the excited radio commentator. Intisnzi!!! Wow, Aggrey and I immediately jumped out of our seats and embraced each other. We hugged and screamed and even cursed. At this point we were like mad men. We jumped over the villagers and run towards the small hill at a distance. From there we commenced a war dance in celebrations! We had completely forgotten about our mission to Mutara. And we cared less! By the time we had come back to our senses, Aggrey’s hopes of getting a bride were over. The villagers chased us away as we quickly jumped into our jeep and fled… Contact: diaspoman@yahoo.com
