Before I saw the light, I once aspired to live that
textbook 1-2-3-4 dream of the average Ugandan corporate; 1 wife, 2 children, 3
bedroom house and a 4-wheel drive SUV, partly because many in our generation
seem to have been conditioned to live that way.
Every University alumni you meet a few years after
campus will ask the same questions;
"Wawasa?"
"Olina abaana?"
"Have you bought some ka land somewhere (Fat-Boy
calls it "in the middle of nowhere")?"
"Wazimba?"
We'll soon raise a generation of robots, at this
rate. People who do things just because everyone else around them is doing the
same.
Now, one of the people supposed to mastermind the
"3" in my then blueprint was Aaron Aroriza, a fine Architect with the
brains and experience to match.
Once, I casually asked him how much I needed to put
up a basic house. He had set up something cost-effective and decent that I felt
I could ape and "live happily ever after".
"10 million and you should be good to start.
Then you take one step at a time", he said.
Every time I took a stroll around my suburbia with
family, I showed them one of his projects and remind them about how the brains
behind that project will soon be camping at mine.
Nature, lady luck or "hard work" (like
those mystery Pakasa tycoons want us to believe) soon handed me what I thought
was enough to tickle Aaron’s fancy, only to discover that my friend had moved
on (from small projects, not the profession).
He now rolled with the big boys, and my fantasy house
now looked like the equivalent of a servant’s quarter’s extension that probably
did not deserve his full attention.
The man I had last seen pushing a humble Kikumi now
moved around in a mini-monster of an SUV that roars and the rest of the road
users listen.
Aaron turns 30-something today (Is men’s age supposed
to be kept confidential as well?) in what should be a merry-filled day for the
unassuming Architect.
Happy birthday, chief. When I grow up, I want to be
like you.
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