#bappasita

Scores of people line up outside Pastor Samuel Kakande’s Synagogue Church of All Nations at ku Bbiri roundabout every Sunday.
The lines along Gayaza road are long and winding, even stretching up to a kilometer sometimes. There must be something special here because of the sheer number. And they line up as early as 3am, arriving in their droves and standing in the file. 
They carry plastic jerrycans of all sizes- five liters, ten liters, twenty. Yellow, green, purple, white. Some hawkers walk up and down the queues selling more jerricans.
I have heard that there is some holy water here. That Kakande promises them blessings and eternity in exchange for their loyalty. That the water must be sprinkled on everything that seems to bring them bad luck- if its at your market stall, if its your finger that needs to wear a wedding ring, if its your husband who’s not living up to his patriarchal duties, if its your child’s head that is not kutolaring at school, if its your chronic backache.
I used to live on Mawanda road before I moved to the Mansion. There was a couple who lived in the servants’ quarters for whom bad luck seemed to follow everywhere. The guy had been thrown in prison for something he didn't do. Two months after they were married, a "kiwempe" church in which he was praying, came down in the rain and he ended up with two broken limbs- an arm and a leg. And they couldn't find work. Which means that money and food were scarce. But they were very cheerful even as they suffered.
One day, after enduring this state of affairs for one and a half years, and with the landlord breathing down their necks, the man of the house announced that he was going to start up a church in Kyebando. That since there was no work coming their way, then his only option was to become a pastor because it was a quick way to make quick bucks.
Within a week, they had moved out, their belonging loaded onto a small Datsun pickup.
I did not hear about them for a while.
But I met them in town one afternoon. They were walking to the Old Taxi Park carrying their shoppping in Capital Shoppers plastic bags. The wife was pregnant. A third one on the way. Mister was dressed in an oversized suit.