Hon. Peter Nyombi

I met your Father for the first time at that special Hill that is home to the Kings College. I had accompanied dad (the former headmaster) to an event where I hoped to find out a little more about why he is constantly talking about the School and why so many of his peers and students alike are also so fond of the place. This was the first encounter that we had but people in the public space are really not strangers...at least we feel like we know them. He was introduced to me and was smiling with his son in tow. I was dressed for the occasion and donned a particular tie that I can only call Victorian. So there was no likelihood of my forgetting the encounter with your dad. Other meetings would take place at our home in Mengo immediately after dad appearances became few and far between. He was keen to have me meet your Father but this took place right at the point when the Law Society had taken its tough stance against him. 

That was a family storm as you have described and I am afraid not many of us were willing to bring our boats too close to such a massive ship in distress. Our conversation with your Father Peter Nyombi was brief and if I remember correctly we traded business cards. He told me that he was glad to meet me although he was saddened that had he met me on the street he would not have recognized me. It is that part of the conversation that has stayed with me. 

A few days ago while reading I came across a piece of paper with a poem that best summarizes some of his and our challenges should we get to live that long. 

It was written by Rudyard Kipling and is titled, 'IF'.

I hope that you can derive as much as I have from it. 

If

By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same:.

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings,

And never breathe a word about your loss:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Eva Josephine Nakabiito Mulira.

I met your sister around the time after I had arrived in Uganda. Mother was keen to have me meet her friends to see if I could design web pages for them. You see that was and still in some regards is my business. The area was new to me and so I needed directions. The location of the office was between Kintu Rd. and Clement Hill Rd. right next to the HQ of MTN. There were actually two clients in one place and I was filled with a mix of enthusiasm and expectation. 

Your sister is a beautiful human being. I say that deliberately because she was beaming with what I now know to be the intelligence that had her spend some time studying law both at Makerere and Oxford University as the first graduating class in the former and naturally no better more distinctive school in the latter. 

We talked at length on a range of subjects chief in my mind was ofcourse the nature of my business and the hope of designing a page for one of our own...a former student of the prestigious King College Budo where my Father was the HeadMaster. I confess that I did not expect her to know a word of the Ganda Language but to my surprise she mastered a lot more than I expected and even threw in there a wise saying which I gobbled up and went on to memorize. 

We were talking about proposals when she stated, "Ensiba mbi Edibya Mutele". The translation of this is loosely, "Packaging Matters" (when you package wrong, the goods will not sell). When she said this I was sold. We would go on to have a few more meetings but the message had already sunk in. I would go on to develop and create much more with a greater tenacity and focus on great products and packaging. 

Later I went on to meet her team whose enthusiasm for their jobs was notable but whom she also had a great deal of respect for. We have since gone on to maintain a relationship with some of the same team members some of who still work for Black and White. When I learnt that she had spent some time in New York in Real Estate and now in Uganda, I was keen to find out more and held on to some of the brochures when they landed on one of our shelves amidst Dads collection. I was also interested in the principles which she used to sustain her firm as well as her additional work regarding land ownership in Uganda. 

Our next encounters were few and far between but her hold on me was sure. I remember her as the lady with a captivating smile and an active knowledge of Ganda sayings who reminded me of the important relationship between quality and product.