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.