Gossip and Rumor…

A few days back a friend called me complaining that she is bothered by the way neighbors attack her verbally through rumors. She was too upset about each word they talked about her and she wanted me to give her my opinion about attacking them and questioning them about each word they spoke about her. Making matters worse, she told me these neighbors talk about her when she’s hearing, but of course when they think she’s isn’t. So I told her, “Why bother your self? Just keep quiet, be silent. Don’t talk to them in any rude way or confront them over anything like gossip, they’ll get tired and give up."

This reminded me of the place were I grew from. My home town is at the extreme waste of Uganda, one or even the most blessed district in Western Uganda, and one of the most blessed in the country of course. This small but highly populated town has people with a common origin: this means that these people know each other well, so it is easy to identify themselves or identify any new member in the society. Now, one thing I has to let you get straight is, every time you visit an area were people easily identify themselves, know that you’ve reached an area where you have to be very careful with the way you behave because every step you take is being watched.

Considering this area were I grew up, in addition to it’s small size and high population, there was a problem of unemployment, which still exists, and this means that people, especially women have the time to carry on with “co-curricular” activities like gossip or rumoring, adultery, alcoholism, prostitution and many of such kind of activities.

Gossip or rumoring was one of the things we easily got used to while growing up. People would talk about anything they see and local “news” was easily spread through this thickly populated area.

Because of growing up in such an area, I learnt such things as;

1) Minding my business, especially since I hated gossip.

2) Avoiding the public eye

3) And, I grew stronger emotionally, since gossip or rumor couldn’t easily move me.

4) The best medicine to gossiping or rumoring people is being silent.

I always tell friends that silence is the best medicine for any kind of gossip or rumor. You see, sometimes people talk about us for good, for bad or while sharing some information say giving examples, and we call this gossip or rumor, yet some times the things they can have talked are true. Say for example, a neighbor might see you in the middle of the night with a young girl or a neighbor’s wife somewhere and tell a friend about it. Sometimes, in fact many times he or she can’t prove that he saw you but this does not mean that you should argue. Be quiet, just keep quiet; silence in such a case is golden. Let him or her talk and talk, but if you don’t reply, soon the topic will have no attention and your life will normalize.

We have experienced gossip or rumor, one that sometimes comes with false allegations and we still live on. Silence has rewarded us with the best gossipers and rumor mongers being our faithful friends rather than our enemies. We have been able to influence gossipers and rumor mongers how to speak more useful words than destructive ones.

You're best able to achieve this through silence.

The Preacherman... The Good Teacher...

This morning while in a taxi to my work place we met a preacher asking people to accept Jesus as their Lord and personal savior, and telling them that life without jesus is painful, fetal and therefore useless.

We were all silent, and suddenly a man at the back of the taxi laughed in a despising and surprised manner. In an instance all of us in the car gave him our attention and he said, "I wonder were these guys get the courage to stand and shout the whole day in sunshine when they know so little about what they are talking about... they read only two scriptures in the Bible and shout them all day..."

Of course no one replied him, but each one of us heard him loud and clear.
I jumped out of the taxi at the stage and walked all the way thinking about this guys words... analysing the truth in them and the weakness in his thaughts...

Later on in my thaughts came these wise words,
"A good teacher is not he who knows a lot, but he who is willing to share the little he know with those who don't know at all or who don't know enough..."

These words moved me... they remained me of my school days when teachers on school practice would come and train on our little brains and we challenge them. These words were so true and real to me.

This Preacherman's activities have taught me the lesson of a life time; to share the little I have if I have to earn credit from sharing. Are you challenged?

In My School Days...

School days are the days I don't think I'll ever forget.

It's so amazing how life changes from one stage to another... especially when I look at myself now; my attitude, my work, my knowledge, my experiences and more...

The days I'll never forget are the teenage years; those amazing school days and the related experiences. Their is this experince I got when I joined secondary school. Since I started school at a very young age (African Standard), I reached secondary when I was quite young.

My secondary days were characterised with a lot of Teasing, Bulling, and many other things that were characterized with a lot of intimidating. Now, looking at the pictures below; at Kibuli Police Station, which is the CID Headquarter here in Uganda, I remember those fear-filled days of secondary school when Students in higher classes used to stop us the young ones from going beyond certain boundaries, reaching certain places or even doing certain things.

This life taught me a lot though it was a hard way of learning. These big guys made us do a lot of staff for them like picking there food from the dining, washing their plates and clothings too, fetching there water, even to laying there beds!

Now when I see this information or "caution" post, I remember those good-to-learn-from but not good-to-experice days...

Life has taught to me that no matter what level you go on, there is always a lesson for you; something challenging, intimidating, confusing and sometimes complicated to understand.
God has made a lesson plan for every body at every level.