Growing up in Muko
Generous shares her birth story and growing up with us:
I was born in Rugarambiro Village, Karengyere Parish, Muko Sub-County, Rubanda District - Uganda, into a family of nine children; four boys and five girls. I was the last born. My Mum gave birth to me at home in the house. I was very tiny and they thought I was under weight and may not grow (a story told by one of my elder sisters, Mabel, who was there by the time I was born).
Generous's Mom, Peninnah (in the traditional dress), Mabel, Generous, Jovilo, Kedreth, Joseline
By God's grace I grew up. Another sister, Kedreth, was a Primary teacher (grades 1-7) and I started following her to school when I was not yet the age of beginning school. She accepted to keep me at school and take care of me. I continued finishing Primary school and joined secondary school at Muko High School.
At Senior 2 in 1994, I was elected a Head Girl. I was happy to obtain that position in school and perform my roles well. That very year, I lost my Dad, Erik Bakeine, to a stroke. He died in the stretcher taking him to the main road to find means to the hospital 40 km away. My Dad was a businessman and a giver. He paid school fees for us, his children, and other village children whose parents were not able to pay school fees. When he died, my brother Victor and I were the ones in school by then and we struggled. Before Dad died, my two elder brothers had died as well. One passed away in the same year with Dad! It was a big loss for the family. Our Mum was a small scale farmer and used to sell sorghum to get money for the family's basic needs and could not raise enough to pay for our school fees. We could not find help from other people. Even our elder siblings had families to take care of. Victor and I opted for growing Irish potatoes and also found some business at the market area with some other friends of cooking katago (beans, potatoes and matooke) and bushera (sorghum drink). We saved some money with some little additions from our Mum, we then pushed on through school.
At the end of Senior 4 (equivalent to 11th grade), we had to take a short cut and both of us joined Teachers Training College instead of joining Senior 5 and 6 (equivalent to 12th and 13th grade) that would have led us to university. We decided to do this because even if we finished "A Level" (Senior 5 and 6), we could not manage university tuition and other requirements.
When I joined Teachers College, I came to live with my sister Kedreth in Kampala (the Ugandan capitol) and she took some part of paying tuition together with our Mum. I completed in 1999 and joined teaching starting with a Kindergarten class for 4 year olds. I got married to Richard on Christmas Eve 2002. As I continued teaching the Kindergarten class, I gave birth to our first born, Jesse, in October 2003. While looking for a Primary school to teach from, that is when God relocated me from teaching to community services. In 2003, Richard and I started ACT! And the rest is history!!
Back row: Richard, Generous, Jesse; Front row: Jorryn, Joash, Josiah
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