I have keenly followed my Moslem Friends through the holy month of Ramadhan, I guess because related stories have been all over my social media space. I am very fascinated by the lunar revolution so the arrival of Eid is always something I closely follow and look forward to. I hope one time I am able to get myself a very strong telescope so I can participate in trying to watch the moon sometime. When the news said that this Eid would fall on Thursday 13 May, 2021, lots of my friends were excited since this would come after the president’s inauguration giving them two days of holiday. Unfortunately for me Inauguration or Eid do not exactly mean holiday but I was determine to make the best of the time so that I can have a story to share on Friday as well.
So when Thursday came, I left home really early, something I have not done in months since most of work demands me to stick to my desk at home. I thought I would catch up with the Breakfast show at The Mansion Hotel. The show is hosted by Crazy MC and Monica. I love breakfast shows because I think they provide an ignition for the rest of the day for so many people and I think the duo offers it the required justice.
The Mansion Hotel is always fun. I have had a couple of of beautiful nights there but had not been there in the early hours of the day and now I am considering making it routine. The hotel manager is always amazing to hang around. He offered me and the others with me breakfast on the house and honestly having had a couple of drinks with him before I’ve learned to appreciate his generosity.
After my sumptuous breakfast, I took a ride to town which was virtually empty. It felt like more than half the population decided to mark the day in elsewhere. My next stop was the radio station for The Beat, Jinja’s lifestyle show but of course I crushed the tea break with Cathy who without warning got me on air. I could tell she needed the company since her regular co-host Davis was out celebrating the day. I had a great time talking to Cathy since we have not had a proper talk in quite a long time.
After my day’s broadcast I visited The Innovation Village along main street where The creative Tribe, an arts organization I am affiliated with was holding a pop up gallery. A Kampala based visual artist known as Libeikhare had her work displayed at this co-working space.
Libeikhare is an emerging self-taught installation artist, who is experimenting new techniques with her art and also works using different mediums to create art installations. She has used her distinct style termed “organic media art” in diverse projects and environments and also has an interesting sustainable edge to her work. She hunts and gathers different recyclable objects from the natural realms in order to re-contextualize them into multi-dimensional- sometimes soothing, sometimes disturbing – but always poetic and sublime artistic compositions. In her installation career, Libeikhare creates site-specific sense-intensive installations using light and fabric, engaging the viewer on several levels making them aware of themselves. She graduated with a Bachelor of Art in Commerce & Information systems and an MBA in Finance and has spent most of her professional career working in roles that require individual interaction from which she draws her inspirations.
My disappointment though is that I only got to read about Libeikhare but was not able to meet her. Even when her works are still displayed at The Innovation Village, she is not making an appearance at the exhibition.
To cap my day, a friend and I took to the beaten road upstream to one of Jinja’s most beautiful neighborhoods, Bujagali. After a random drive in around the gully rocked rocked roads, we ended up at Nile River Camp, just by the banks of the Nile. We got there just in time for the magical hour. I am convinced that Jinja provides some of most magnificent sunset views in the world. The clouds did not betray our awesome view, they offered the evening sun all the space it needed to perform its magic. They seemed to stick by the peripherals of the action as in awe and yet providing just the required blend of grey white to the golden sun rays creating the perfect evening soothe that makes the Nile one of the best spots for anyone to watch the sunset. Beautiful evenings don’t last long.. The sun steadily dove into the distant skies, the dusk skyline stood out in form of silhouetted trees and almost at once a choir of crickets took to the stage as though to compete the roaring of the river.
The dying sun was replaced by the magical fireflies that occasionally flew over our heads. I love fireflies and I kept trying to establish the intervals between the flickers, something I have battled with my entire life and I could have stayed out the whole night looking at those magical insects but thanks to persistent 9:00PM curfew we had to drive back home.