I joined St. Peter's College, Tororo in June 1988
I joined St. Peter's College, Tororo in June 1988 for my Advanced level certificate of Education. My interest in the school was kindled by Victor Ekesu, an acquaintance that I came to know back in the days I was studying in Kololo High School in Kampala. Victor Ekesu popularly then known as rex inspired me by his attitude of persistence. I remember where he stayed at his uncle's place in Kisementi, was an old Bedford lorry whose engine had a problem that I didn't bother to find out. After all, all that took me there every day was to draw a few jerrycans of water.
As I went daily for my water fetching I would stand there and engage with others but Rex would be on his repair works on the ill-fated engine that was almost abandoned and left at the mercy of fate.
One day while we were all absorbed in conversations and Rex, very busy assembling his work as usual he joined us in the place where we were seated and announced that his engine was now ready for a trial firing. With hands still stained with characteristic dirt from the engine he asked for water which readily brought in giant sized mug. He gulped the water voraciously and replaced the mug on the table, want back to his work and fired up the engine which started and ran successfully. Remember he wasn't a mechanic.
In subsequent days Rex went missing only to surface during the school holidays. I demanded to know where he had been and he told me he went back to school and he was in Tororo College. He began to tell me how Tororo College was one of the best schools in Uganda. I instantly fell in love with TC even before we met.
The Bible says delight yourself in the Lord and He will grant you the desires of your heart (Psalms 37:4).
At the time of completing application forms in my Senior Four, I was only stopped from making TC my first choice through a decree by the career master that Kololo High School was the first choice for every candidate.
God was not sleeping meanwhile. The Bible says delight yourself in the Lord and He will grant you the desires of your heart (Psalms 37:4).During our examination, a teacher misunderstood me when I forgot my Identity card at home, I decided to ran back home, just across the road to pick my ID. The teacher blasted me and that was the year 1987 when any black complexioned person especially from Northern Uganda was referred to as Anyanya in Kampala. I became a victim that day an it was a terrible experience for me. It was geography exams we did that morning. After the paper, my heart still thumping my chest, I went and wrote an emotional letter to the teacher with a caption "APOLOGY" but I took off time to assure the teacher that for sure if I were given opportunity to choose my place of birth I would not choose Uganda in general and Buganda in particular. The gentleman didn't see the intrinsic sarcasm but another eavesdropping teacher read and detected it. The next day before another exam started I was called to the staff room for a disciplinary meeting where the career master demanded that I be given strokes of a cane as a punishment. Some teachers objected to the suggestion. The concerned teacher then suggested that I should be given one room alone to sit the rest of the remaining exams from. The then Headmaster Haji Sakka Kamoga rejected the whole idea of punishing me arguing that I was provoked and as young person no one would provoke me and expect not to draw such emotions.
No wonder when I submitted my Application Forms they rejected it straightaway. I shared my problem with an uncle of mine, then working as a Commisioner in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. He then connected with his colleagues in the Ministry of Education. I was required to take the form and was duly submitted to the relevant office at the Education Ministry.
When our results came, I was the best in the school and paradoxically, Kololo High School has given me Physics, Chemistry and Biology combination, while St Peter's College, Tororo had given me Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics or Biology.
I reached Nyangole campus in the evening hours when most students had gone to the stadium, for it was sports season. The students I got there gave me a warm welcome. It was a Friday and the next morning most students went to the stadium. I chose to stay in the college with the few that remained. I was introduced to Eastern Market, the Downer Shops, Father Jones complex and in the evening we went to the town loitering.
The first term of our senior five was a short one. There was discipline in the dining hall at meal times since it was run on table system. Enter second term.
When we went back for second term it was cafeteria system. Getting food was like milking an elephant or rather brushing the teeth of a crocodile. Supper time was especially very hectic. For almost the whole of second term a friend and roommate of mine who remained a gentleman up to now, continued to miss supper unless a one Ojok Faustine who, like me, originated from the present day Amolatar would come to my dormitory, Mill Hill, collect me an escort me with a club in his hand.
Come time for election of prefects I would have to stand and offer myself for the position of house captain. All this I did to make my life easier in the dining hall. Being a prefect was no easy task. There was the fear of monsoon winds, some students did not only smoke but sold cigarettes in the dormitories.
Kasoli and Railway Quarters provided drinking hideouts for students. Sanitation was a challenge to the school administration especially in the second half of the school term when the pit latrines would change the retaliatory mode. Students would then take to the bushes, or Kakungulu Mango Forest to ease themselves. Other ultra-indisciplined ones (ocoilees) would "coil" in the shower rooms or on the verandahs, a vice that was punishable by mob justice.
TC was and I think still remains ground for breeding hard nut. Anyone who passed through the school matures a survivor, no wonder the motto Palma Sub Pondere Crescit (Through Hardship a Palm Tree Matures).
