The year that was.

2010 started out for me in a characteristically  drunken stupor, I was a guest at  a house party organized by one of my longest serving friends and confidant, Kun Lao, who has curved a place in my heart for her unconditional,unwavering and cordial love that she continues to bestow upon my staggering (pun intended) soul.The minute I got to the party,I proceeded to imbibe all sorts of drinks visible to my eye and as always,it didn't help that they had a meticulously mixed concoction which in itself would render a dozen Irish men out of service.

Partners in Crime.

A couple of minutes towards midnight and all I could see was a clear sky with no stars,no clouds,no moon but just the reflection of my forehead.The usual countdown started and I have no re-collection of  whether I counted 3,1,...,2 or 2,1,4....,but all in all,the year started literally on a high note.
Fast forward to 4.00 a.m since I have no idea who called me or who I called between midnight and then.
My heavily intoxicated mind connived with my legs to carry me from Sir.Apollo Kaggwa Rd.to Kisementi,a place i had no idea I would begin to love more than life itself.It was while here that I met a very beautiful young lass standing by herself waiting for her friends to make up their minds so that they can all go home.Apparently she was from an overnight at Watoto Church and she didn't remember seeing me conducting the orchestra while there(Kampala gals,hmmmh)
Okay,so I quickly forgot about the orchestra I was playing and decided to focus on the issue at hand(please note that at this time I was actually holding her hand) At that point in time,I was a telecommunication engineer who had just finished grad school and was just looking for a gal exactly like the one whose hand I was holding to come into my life so that together we can produce the next generation of children who will take after the likes of Martin Luther,Obama,Einstein, Wangari Maathai etc...Up until that point we shared the same vision.But after the various rounds of God knows what,!!! I wasn't going to give up my pursuit of a happy nite(and we all know how that ends).I mean honestly is there a better way to start the year?
But the gal at hand seemed like she had an even bigger vision for both of us.She had asked God for one thing this year and that 'thing' was holding her hand.An intelligent,young,ambitious boyfriend to make her smile,laugh and do all the things that lovers do.(How prayers can be answered,don't ask me).
Moving on,being the gentleman I am,(choking on this)I escorted her home and promised to take her for ice cream the following day.Unknown to me at that time,I had just needlessly started the journey down the relationship path,a journey I was not familiar with to say the least and one that in retrospect I believe I was not prepared for(but what could have possibly prepared me for this journey)
Well,as the months went by,we had ice cream,more ice cream,and plenty more ice cream.On a any given Sunday,we would be found like this.

How adorable,(banging my head on the wall)

She slowly melted the walls of my heart(are they still called ventricles?) and before long the grapevine was ripe with rumours that Cupid had actually shot me, me.,Davis....,not if I had something to do with it.But all that macho talk went out of the window but so did most of my brain cells courtesy of late night binges,sleep overs at the brewery(read Sir Apollo) and the lack of any academic activity going on in my life.
While still talking about the lack of academic activity,I must add that it is during this year that I graduated with an Honors degree much to the surprise of some people who thought I was at university for the wrong reasons.This was celebrated in the only way I know how,with friends,family,well wishers and sooth sayers.

January gone,February past by so fast cause I was probably to hung over to notice and it didn't help that at Baroque Publishers where apparently I was the Editor in chief,I wasn't being paid a dime for all the sleep I was generating both on and off the job.I felt like my life had entered a kind of comatose state and any efforts to get out proved futile since most of the people that worked around me had been in a similar state long before I came along.
March and most of April saw a resurgence brought about by an interview that I did at Aga Khan University where two lovely women traveled to Uganda to inspect the contents of my cranium and found that therein lay something that needed to be checked and urgently so.
I waited for the results of this interview like my life depended on it.I prayed,made promises I haven't kept,did all the positive thinking one could possibly do,envisioned myself as this tough talking lecturer with a bunch of dim-witted students as my best friends and drew all the possible scenarios that my mind could conjure up to keep me going and determined that this job would surely be mine.I waited.....,May came and June passed by and still no call,no email,no sign of any light at the end of this tunnel. If I had seen any then,I would certainly believe that it was a speeding train coming to save me from this patient patience.By July, I was clearly clutching at straws,I was working as a salesman at a bridal gown store and my boss who was Nigerian kept whispering into my ear that I was the right man for this kind of job.Armed with radiant,positive energy and dozens of literature on how to make a good sale,I attempted to convince some marriage-happy women to buy some gowns from our store.I worked hard at this and quit after 4 hours and 12 min.
My only hope for redemption,survival and a meal to eat now lay at the behest of some strangers who lived not less than 300km away from me.
August found me in a parasitic kind of relationship with another of my longest serving friends,Bossmo who was still at University and therefore had the luxury of asking his parents for accommodation,food to eat and clothes to wear.I lived with him in his one roomed domicile well aware of the repercussions that this could carry if the land lord found out so you can imagine,late night visits,and early morning getaways.
From Kampalas'  7 hills,I could be heard ululating courtesy of an email I received around mid August asking me to travel to Nairobi for a face to face interview with the said strangers.
I was required to study a 20 page document and present my findings in a coherent,logical and intelligent manner that would guarantee whether I get the job or not.I certainly wasn't going to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to get out of the unenviable  rut that had become my life.I read,studied and rehearsed every bit of my presentation with a dear friend of mine we prefer to call the Surgeon.

The Surgeon is on the extreme left looking suave and dashing.

Thanks to him,I employed some of the best power point techniques known to man in this century and needless to say I was rewarded with the job 4 weeks later.
September found me nested in the splendid Royal Apartments in Parklands-Nairobi where I dined and wined with some of the most intelligent people on this continent and if I had any doubts that God exists,they were all
brought to naught because I could not fathom how lucky I was to be in the company of these wonderful people.

A sizzling pot of cultures.

 October and November found me sashaying through the streets of Nairobi,dining at Tribe,tasting the finest Indian cuisine,swimming through the 14 falls,discussing multi-cultural experiences,new frontiers of knowledge and paradigm shifts in the knowledge economy(I have no idea what all that is,but it makes good conversation)
As we approach the festive season,I am happy and thankful to God for great things He hath done and as we usher in 2011,I hope it finds me in a more sober state than I was in 2010.