By Ndawula Ronald
I always tell the story of my driver Jimmy who missed food because of language.
Jimmy was a very humble driver the one you would wish to travel with on all errands be it private or official.
He never gets involved in your business as his boss unless you require him to.
Jimmy never listens to your phone calls or knows how to pretend not to be interested which gives Comfort to bosses about the secrecy of a leader and night maneuvers to sustain power.
One day I was trying to date a very important beautiful lady who was clearly not interested in making it a public affair and by some reason I had moved with the driver.
When we reached our rendezvous at Serena hotel I realised we were both hungry and personally had no money but was confident the lady was going to foot the bill for both of us.
I invited my driver to come with me in Serena and obviously it was his first time to enter the the 5 star hotel.
Jimmy was visibly frightened and excited and an aura of fear pervaded his face.
I didn’t want to sit with him and I advised that he orders the lunch of his choice as I proceeded to a far table with my date.
I ordered our starter on the menu and main course because I had to prove to the lady that much as am from Luwero I know the sequence of service in a civilised world and it was really an evening to reckon.
We spent close to 2 hours discussing and pouring sweet nothings to my honourable sweet date because I wanted her not to have any doubt ,at least to foot the bill.
When time for departure, I asked for the bill , swallowed my pride and informed the lady to be lady enough to pay for us!
It was a tense moment but the lady said naye Chair! Gwe okwaana atenze nsasula?( you’re dating me but am paying?)
She immediately got her bag and removed a bundle and settled the bill.
Little did I know that Jimmy failed to order for anything!
When we reached him he was pointing to the plate the waiter was carrying to another customer.
He was saying, ‘that one’ … ‘I want the mother of that one’.
The waiter and me looked like all lost at what he was meaning.
He repeated pointing to the plate which had a Spanish omelette , I want the mother of that one.
That’s when my date and I realised that all the time he wanted to order for chicken but had failed to remember how the eggs and chicken are called in english.
The time had reached for our departure and my date removed another shs 100,000/= from her bag , gave Jimmy and we stopped the order then we left for Luwero.
On the way I kept thinking about the plight of Jimmy for the 2 hours he spent failing to order for the food and looking at us eating!
Then today, I realised Jimmy is not alone who misses his much needed orders.
Today parliament laid the appropriated development budget figures for the different districts.
I saw some districts which have low population having too much money and those with high population and big land area getting very low funding.
I pondered over this until when I got the answer that some MPs are like my driver Jimmy.
They very much know what they want but saying on the floor of parliament in english, the allowed language in debate is a challenge.
So, those dumb Member of Parliament who come to your villages without attending parliament know for sure they get leftovers and miss the various courses on the service menu.
Ndawula Ronald, the author is the former chairperson of Luwero district
