By Birungi Gillian
There is a certain mystery
About how our eldest brother was born
Nyongyera is his name
It translates into add me more
It's like my father asking God for more kids
But we are not sure
Because when the second was born
Mwesigwa
Translating into Trustworthy
We lost the connection
To whether God was asked for more and when he gave the second
He was deemed trustworthy
Those are my father's first children
He loved these ones, sons,
That he still talked about it years later
To them when they try to show grit
How he did what he could and the best for them
When life was still so good
He loved my mother
Or so we think
From words we gather from his stories
She was a very strict woman
And she chose him
And he was glad to be chosen
Tried to live as a good husband
Emphasis on tried
As selfish desires and life can get in the way
But he tried until he just gave up facades
And lived how he saw fit
The kids he loves the most,
Me and the youngest
Are ones he couldn't do anything for
Ones he wished he did more for
And in between, there is one
Who was just my mother's kid
My sister who lived in the house like only my mother lived there with her
About the rise and fall of his fortune
Men work, and others have evidence
And others are told in tales
But keep their dignity
Even when material is key to a man's dignity
Quiet as he was
He still lived
And worked here and there too
Till retirement in his fields
An agriculturist planting things here and there
Tending the fields like a love story
I loved seeing him work
I'd go to the garden and sleep
Eat berries and fruit I can't say in English
Play by the ponds he'd make for watering
Sleep under trees and day dream
Saturdays when we'd go to the fields to help out
I'd dose off hearing stories with his workmen
Of women and things they did
Things I would later understand
For he had a sort of abundant hand
And everything he touched grew and was sweet
And I guess that's why my mother chose him
Even when he had been a lonely child and first born
Sometimes I find myself going for male firstborns with a lonely childhood
Until I say not you papa
I want more from life too
Nyongyera
