The writer of the book of Matthew in the bible writes; “Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits.”

I write this from the eastern part of the loveliest continent God ever created, Africa; in a country that is surrounded by nothing but land, many like to just say a landlocked country, with a population that is about 42 million or so and the biggest percentage of the population being youth, every energetic people. If you have not already guessed it, I am talking about Uganda. Oh did I mention that we are just a day away from changing government? Oh yes we are.

This period has come with a lot of mind blowing experiences and things seen unfold, unfortunately many of these have been undesirable and unfortunate to watch. We are living in the time of the fourth industrial revolution and if you have no idea what this is, it simply represents a fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technology advances commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions. These advances are merging the physical, digital and biological worlds in ways that create both huge promise and potential peril. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is about more than just technology-driven change.

To put this in the simplest form, just see the magnitude technology has swept every sector in the world. Nothing has been spared right from health care, education, social life and even parenting to mention but a few. In a very profound way we have seen a very big movement of mindset change when it came to these elections unlike the ones we had in 2016 as social media has played such a big role.

Unfortunately this came as a double edged sword. A lot of things that had been done and hidden under wraps, came to be seen by anyone and everyone who could afford an internet bundle. The camera became the strongest weapon one had to be heard or at least believed. When such information got into the world, it increased the furry of both those affected and those causing it. Both parties felt they had a right to do what they did and justified their actions. It is unfortunate that it reached a level of losing lives without any remorse or ownership taken however this takes me back to where we began, the bible says, …..you will be able to tell them by their fruits.

This is a very volatile time we are headed for and all we can do is wait and pray. Now that many of us have been able to ‘tell them by their fruits,’ my only prayer is that we all go and exercise our right to vote and vote wisely. Do not do what you would not want to be done to you or your loved one(s)

May the best person win. For God and my country.

It is a life that she did not want to taste even when all she wanted was to experience it thanks to her fears. She grew up mostly in the presence of her mother with so little clue of the relevance of men in one’s life except for the brothers who were nothing but just siblings. To her every man was a liar for she believed that they would soon or later be absent just like her father.

For the biggest chunk of her teenage life she stayed away from any emotional friendship and this went all the way into her university days. As she was about to leave university, She let her guard down to a man who had lured her for quite some time. She decided to take her chances but she carried her fears along with her. Just like any other new journey it was exciting and she knew she had hit the jack pot. She removed her fears from her sleeve and hang them not so far away. One thing for sure is that she was in love and determined to make it work.

It was not long before the turbulences began but for fear of rejection and the branding of a failure kept her there. Some days were good but many of them were not but she held out hope. She believed in a God who could never fail and this of course was no exception. She bent the rules of almost everything she believed because to her this was her version of submissiveness so if she started it this early the better it would be; practice makes perfect right? As the red flags flew high past her she ignored them because she was not ready to dwell on ‘negative energy’. She bandaged her wounds each time with a few cries and was strong all through

For three and a half years she prayed, fasted, hoped and did it all. Instead of letting go, she held on even with bruised hands unfortunately it never got better. It is good to hold on faith and believe, fast and wait out but sometimes it is better to let go. Sad as it may sound, not everyone is meant to stay in your life forever and also it is okay for the strong to be weak. Remember this today, reach out when you need help and allow yourself to be vulnerable.

Vulnerability is sexy, never let yourself tear apart alone and do not ignore the signs, even the small ones matter. Not all signs will be big.

To everyone out there who is wearing their fears on their sleeves and are afraid to move, talk to someone, go to therapy, find help somehow. It will be almost impossible to do it alone.

Borrowing from the words of a very prominent songstress, this year 2020, I lived, I loved, I did, I have done and it was more than I thought it would be. Everyone has a different story about this year and for many 2020 turned out a little (or alot) different from the script they had entering it.

I write with alot of scaring from the blows that 2020 has given me with the freshest being the loss of a brother, a friend and a team mate, JOHN DAVID SEMAKULA who we buried on 30th December. Oh! the sting of death. This year served me with a bitter pie to chew at but with lots of cherries here and there. I have had to cross some really dark tunnels along the streets of this year, alone most of the times but gladly there was always someone holding a light at the end of of the tunnel ready to embrace me each time I felt like I was losing it.

I had so many reasons to be tired, angry and furious to how this year curved out but I also have loads of reasons to be grateful and I choose to focus on those majorly. I will choose to mention just a few.

I LIVED

The year has come to an end and it would not be fair if I said I did not live. 2020 for some unknown reason took so many lives, including some of our very close people. I couldn’t be anymore grateful that I lived healthy for most of the 365 days this year. The gift of health is one that this year has shown us that it cannot be taken for granted

Big Audacious Goals

For the first time in my very many years here on earth I dared to dream and be intentional about it unlike other years where I would just muffle some words at the 00:00 hour of the new year and then pick up from where we stopped. 2020 saw me develop a vision board which was partly because of the decision that I took in the wake of the year to pursue a leadership course. This course stretched me to the core but I achieved 90% of everything I had set out to do leaving the 10% to things I had no control over, especially the travels that I had planned. Oh! did I mention I completed the course successfully? Yes I did.

Proud Author

I set a very high bar for myself in literally everything in life. My friends who knew that I could write had always encouraged me to write a book and I often laughed so hard at them for even daring to flatter me to write a book. I felt so ‘unworthy’ to write a book, it always felt like I was still very raw in this sphere. As the universe would have it, when I chose to do the leadership course, one of the year long assignments was to write a book. I cannot say it was the easiest things I have done, but I will say it is most definitely one of the most fulfilling things to have done. I am still a work in progress but I am more than glad that I am somewhere.

I celebrated

I am blessed to be a part of quite a number of circles and I can comfortably say that I am lucky to have quite a number of friends. Despite the rough turbulences of 2020 we celebrated. We laughed, we danced, celebrated life, achievements and life together. There was sure a fun face to 2020 I can a test.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10214421942182410&id=1834305694

I loved and I was loved

2020 was a year when I received alot of love from family and friends in all kinds of ways. Directly and indirectly. The feeling of being loved genuinely is one that no human language can correctly describe. None the less it was a year in which I probably loved the hardest. Many were kind enough to accept the love and of course some rejected it in a number of ways but I still loved. Love is a beautiful thing for sure

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I was favored

The favor of the Lord has not been short this 2020 I praise God. With the Corona Virus disrupting the economy, we saw so many workplaces downsize, many people lost their jobs which made life completely hard. I was lucky not only to maintain my job(s) but also get so many other opportunities to work. It was hard, long at times and very tasking but I wouldn’t ask for any better.

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The punches and blows

2020 oh! 2020 gave me a fair share of some hard pills to swallow. My heart was broken into a million pieces at several points along this journey with the freshest being the loss of my friend on 29th December just after my mother had broken a leg the day before. I have been so furious at the way this year decided to go down. It blurred all the good things that were (are) happening around me but I am thankful for them all. After all it is said that iron sharpens iron. Atleast I did not have to go the fire all by myself. I had (have) people around me holding out my hand either physically or in prayer each time my legs wobble.

All I can say is 2020 is a year that I was excited to come into, did not exactly enjoy living through but glad that is ending. As the new year 2021 comes along, I will be hopeful for a good year but will not hold out any expectations as such. I will just enter it and see what there is in store for me.

To everyone that was a part of my 2020, I am so glad that you were with me. Let us do this gain in the new year.

Happy 2021, full of nothing but God’s love and favor.