she needs a job

It’s been hard waking up lately. The maid was fired and duties had to be shared. the hardest are the mornings after a long days work, a late news bulletin and only a few hours of shut eye is hard on a girl. Hardest but most interesting part is waking up my 2 and a half year old nephew to get ready for school. In between rousing myself and then nudging him gently (his mother believes he should not be stirred harshly, bad for his day and heart)6.30am, I should be done with my bath and partly dressed and getting little nephew out of bed. clinging to his thumb as always I am forever bearing the brunt of his 'morning blues' from rolling over and telling me in his baby formed English, he wants to 'shleep' to asking for his mommy and daddy, then kicking me in the face, neck, wherever if I push too hard... to finally getting out of bed, running to his parents room, then coming back after they throw him out to shower to getting into the humongous basin and throughout the showering and dressing moments calling me 'a bad boy,' kicks and at times slaps, clawing added to the list. it is a night mare I tell you but then again, sweet pain. I love the little guy so much.After that, the battle of shoes. Despite the fact that he has a gazillion shoes, he picks on a particular over-sized pair that he won’t let go of unless the world ends.It ended today when parental efforts schemed against it and hid the shoes letting him know they were stolen. Poor innocent thing run to the parents to inform them of the unfortunate incident and they were shocked and hurt for his loss. Funny, huh?Well this is not about my adorable nephew or his family. This post is about that one particular incident two mornings ago that stayed with me for some reason.sleepy, groggy, I stumbled into the car after a hectic getting -my nephew-ready few hours, i practically dozed in the back seat to town, I had a dialogue workshop thingy to attend and wished i could have said no but went nonetheless. dropped off a few yards from my destination center, the 2 min walk just seemed like an uphill task to the peak of some mountain so I called up the first boda that passed by. in less than a minute I was at the gate of the hotel and as I turned to pay the guy he asks me, 'do you work here?'I smile 'no i don't?' then curious I ask 'why? Also surprised at how fluent his English wasHe tells me, 'my daughter has finished school; she did BA economics from Mukono university and needs a job. She is still at home.'In that instant a zillion and one things came to me, but they all boiled down to one thing, I wanted to help. If I could.I asked where she had tried; I even told him the ministry could be a starting place for her. He thanked me and left but our conversation, his concern, her plight stayed with me. It suddenly hit me again, not as a new item but the harsh reality Uganda has plunged into, rampant unemployment. A girl with good grades in Econ at that couldn't get a job. My heart melted at the fond concern for a father that was/ is earning a living as a boda boda driver, making ends meet to having taken her to school. Was he a single father? What did the wife do if she was alive? Compassion gripped me and couldn't let go and for the first time in so long...The news was not just something I read but something I experienced on my way to work.