This weekend, late in the evening I travelled home – just to
catch up with family and since it was the eclipse week, I thought it would
appear better in the village.
I left Kampala on Saturday night and having called my grandma
about my intentions, she also spread the rumor of my coming to other villagers
around.
By morning, almost three quarters of the population in our
little town knew I was around; the story was that am an ambassador from The Observer in Kampala, and I had
allegedly brought the eclipse with me.
I had to fit the part so I gave those at home old issues of
the Observer newspaper, for my grandmother’s house, I pinned cuttings of my
articles in the kitchen, corridor, dinning and her bedroom just in case her eye
misses all the others.
Then the moment for the Eclipse came, earlier it had been
announced that it would kick off at 3am, so I told everyone not to view before
I test – yes I had been appointed the chief viewer, which also had privileges,
I would give a little speech.
In my light and quick speech, I told them of how, my bosses
had delivered the eclipse, I warned and encouraged many of them to acquire the
right viewing gears from me, they were black polythene bags.
Being a journalist, I was on twitter for most of the time,
#Eclipse was trending and I couldn’t stop imagining the kind of headlines that
were going to come from Pakwach; President
launches the eclipse, promises to bring the moon, Or better; President raps opposition for trying to fail
the eclipse.
Then it was time for
the thing to happen, I waited for the total darkness we had been promised and I
saw none, there was even this common notion among villagers that the sun and
moon were going to fight!
But I still didn’t see any of that, in fact the dynamics of
the eclipse left me the chief viewer/astronomist and journalist more confused,
I could barely understand how a person in Rakai sees just a bit of clouds and
some light yet those in Masaka saw the entire scene.
Then I didn’t understand what was wrong with this TV
station, instead of showing the eclipse, they concentrated on showing us this
guy watching it.
However, the show had its advantages; by the time I left all
girls knew my name, wanted to take pictures with me and yes, they all
pronounced my name with passion, like it were a beverage. How I wish every day
is eclipse day.
kaggwandre@gmail.com
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