Co-blog with Vanitah

Hey! It’s yet another BlogMondays that comes with a special guest blogger and a friend of mine Vanitah ☺️. After a long week of figuring out we were both able to FaceTime and co-blog considering I’m currently working in Western Uganda, we finally got a good two hours.

FaceTime video ringing…

Me: Hey!

Vanitah (Vn): Hey! Are you recording?

Me: yeah I’m screen recording. (Where by long story-cut-short after playing the screen-recorded video I found out it had no sound to it)

Vn: Kale

Vanitah at this moment is in prepping a meal for her Mum who is at work and on the other hand I’m in my hotel bed at 7pm drinking milk after a long day of work

Me: So what are we going to talk about?

Vn : ummm

After a short while of debating on what our co Blog post was to focus on we decided to free style and just have a normal multi directional chat like we always do. So I figured I’d highlight all the topics.

On life in Denmark vs Ugandan life

So we managed talk about how a part of her life changed when she moved to Denmark. I kept noticing that she would remember to say some somethings in Danish and forget their English equivalent. So it sparked this conversation.

Me: What was it like moving to a Danish speaking country? Like the whole language culture shock

Vn: umm what was the worst part was that I knew German before coming here and hence learning Danish was a bit confusing. But I ended up being good at speaking it because my step-Dad speaks only Danish. I also got done with the Danish classes faster than most people and moved into the normal classes. Also the older generation always speaks Danish only.

Me: Ah! So was there any other culture shock other than the language.

Vn: yeah, the way the children this side seemed to be disrespectful to the elders. Not like really disrespectful but like they were more frank when speaking to elders. Like the kids at my school can can talk to an older person so freely in a way that would make me feel like it would be disrespectful in Uganda.

So the conversation somehow led to another about how the people of Denmark love drinking alcohol when her step Dad entered the kitchen and disrupted us as he was high and happy that Vanitah’s kid brother was back from a camping trip.

Vn: So these people love drinking all the time. They can celebrate anything.

I recall he asked her something like “why were we talking about our sexualities”. I think cause we were speaking in English. Like really 😂😂😂. How could we even start talking about that. Moreover over FaceTime. He must have been high but oh well he sounded like a fun dad!

Me: I feel like you’re so free that side, you like go out at night to party. Something that most girls here don’t get to do when they are living home.

Vn: My Mum got chilled when we came this side. I mean she’s still a bit strict but it’s reduced ko.

Me: I think it’s probably because it’s safer that side to go out in the night as compared to here in Uganda. Also once your 18 you get money for the government every month so since it’s my money probably Mum is also more chilled.

Vn: Yeah. There are less cases and for example they don’t steal phones. There was only one case where a girl went out partying and got lost till today.

Me: Eh!

Vn: The prisons here are too lit! Hehe. People literally go to have a good time there.

Me: Ah yeah.

Vn: Also you know the legal drinking age this side is 16 so like it’s lit. Kids can literally sneak in liquor in a juice box. One 3 quarters full of liquor and the last quarter with orange juice. And a second juice box with actual juice.

Me: Damn!

She then went on to tell me how her mum found out she started drinking. Funny story there! She was like 14

Vn: Well I used to stay up late to open for my uncles whenever they came back from their late night parties and the deal was that they had to bring me a bottle of Smirnoff every time. My mum had no clue since she wasn’t around.

Me: Haha Lit deal! So when did your mum find out?

Vn: when she saw me downing bottles of wine sometime at home with some cousins. And she thought I wasn’t going to join them at first

She then mashed me up with the tale of the night when she was the highest she has been. Fun girl she is!

Vn: One more difference between the life here and that of Uganda is that in Denmark children depend on parents till age 16 and can move out after whereas in Uganda it can be till 25 years. I literally pay rent to my parents for staying in the house right now.

On Relationships

We then somehow ended up talking about relationships. You know that question we often face in relationships of whether to give the partner a second chance after doing something wrong or to just move on, Vanitah was able to give me her side.

Vn: I feel like it’s not that easy to move on from someone and having to restart a new relationship all over again. And I also know that we are human do I more forgiving when it comes to that. For those two reasons

Me: I feel sort of the same way

Vn: Because after sharing a lot of your life with this one person, I can’t just be like I’ve moved on..NEXT! That’s just not me. It’s not that simple

On how she survived the Budo Junior Fire

So years back, a girls’ dormitory in Budo Junior caught fire and some girls died. May their souls rest in Eternal peace! Little did I know that Vanitah happened to be in a dormitory next to the one that got Burnt.

Me: Woh! That was must have been scary

Vn: I was lucky that I was able to wake up because shortly after our dormitory also caught fire. I recal my mum and grandma came to school and they were so scared. I also lost a cousin in that fire.

Lesson: I guess it’s important not to take this life for granted. Be happy and grateful for living and for what you have every moment in Life.

…….Well this is last conversation I’ll share with you from our FaceTime considering we talked about so much!! like we always do. We should probably schedule a second guest-blog 😃😃 and this time I hope the screen recording won’t refuse to work.

Leave a comment or a like if you loved the guest blogger.

Thanks for the blog views,

Derrick Muheki

#BlogMondays

P.S. I’m not sure if all this talk happened on the same night since we talk literally all the time 😅😅 but oh well, the screen recording f***ed usup 🤣