CPAR Uganda Ltd

It’s day one in my new house, and I am cleaning up, scrubbing the floor and washing walls, picking up used condoms, which tells me a lot about the character of the previous occupants. My landlord, a dark giant Hajji, looks on with curious red eyes. An abrupt question awakes me from my concentration.

“Mutabani, eno nyumba onagyisobola?” (Young man, will you afford this house?)

Landlord of one-roomed house in Kikoni

I gave him a stern look, amazed at the truth of his pessimism, but firmly answered in the affirmative. He returns moments later, armed with a three-months bill reading 18,000shs, which he tells me is the advance I must pay to prove my “rentworthness”. I calmly pick the paper, despite having no idea where the cash would come from. My neighbors later tell me that it’s the old man’s way of doing things.

*** End of Mr. Bernard Sabiti’s Real Life Experiences Diary Entry ***

With the permission of Mr. Bernard Sabiti, we are serializing and publishing selected episodes from his column “A Job Seeker’s Diary” prior first published in a national newspaper. Whereas, Mr. Sabiti is now a very successful consultant, we decided to share and to publish episodes from his column on our website because they are directly relevant to the stakeholders of our project: “Challenging Categories: Educated Unemployed Youth as Institutional Innovators in Rural Uganda;”  And they speaks directly to the young adults whom we are mentoring under our project: “Mentoring Young Adults into Innovators Against Poverty.” Mr. Sabiti’s life story, as a whole, is the more relevant to us, since there seems to be nothing he has not done, innovating to better his lot and to contribute to the bettering of life for his wider communities. Read more here.