Ggayi’s 35-year-old love affair with a frying pan
Oct 06, 2003
Time check is 3.00pm and I am treading the narrow dusty path, which snakes its way into Gayaza Trading Centre. The sight of middle-aged women roasting maize by the roadside makes my abdomen roar as if to remind me that I owe it something. I have not taken lunch! I approach one of the women and she d
By Wagwau Jamesa
Time check is 3.00pm and I am treading the narrow dusty path, which snakes its way into Gayaza Trading Centre. The sight of middle-aged women roasting maize by the roadside makes my abdomen roar as if to remind me that I owe it something. I have not taken lunch! I approach one of the women and she directs me to a place where I can get chapati.
But as I make my way into the shop, I am overtaken by mixed feelings and my hunger seems to wane with every step I make. Am I in the right place?
A thin coat of dust covers the inner walls with some visible gaping cracks begging for repair. A wooden counter stands strategically at the centre of the room on top of which lie chapati wrapped in a transparent polythene bag. Smiles confront me from all directions. The smile from the gaping cracks on the dusty walls harmonises perfectly with the broad smile offered by a stout old man behind the counter.
This is Paul Ggayi, a man who has fried chapati from this premises for the last 35 years. As I settle down to order for my share of this delicacy, Ggayi moves briskly with the agility of a teenager to serve me. His sparkling face and efficiency at work contrast sharply with his advanced age.
Born 63 years ago to the family of the late Lozio Buteraba of Kimwanyi village along Nakasajja road, Ggayi fell out of school at junior 3 (presently P.7) and joined his father in business. Although Ggayi has a family of seven, neither his wife nor his children are with him in the trade. “My wife does not have interest in this kind of work. She therefore takes care of our home,†he says, adding that his children help him once in a while during the peak hours of the day.
Three customers who need chapati momentarily interrupt our interview. The old man excuses himself and serves them. This unique businessman who mixes the flour, fries and sells chapatis single handedly intrigues me.
“I do not trust employees because they perform substandard work. In fact, my customers are so addicted to my work that they can easily detect any slight change,†he explains. Several customers are simply hooked to Ggayi’s products.
His products have earned him a rare title of Jajja chapati within Gayaza trading centre.
“I have been buying five chapatis from Jajja chapati daily for the last ten years and I can testify to how delicious they are,†says Samuel Kamoga, a customer.
Ggayi has every reason to be intimately affectionate with the frying pan. Next to his working table lies a medium sized frying pan covered with black soot. The old man carries it tenderly to the fireplace.
As black as it is, his entire life lies therein. He sells every chapati at sh200 and he often clears all his stock by the end of each day. “During the week days I sell an average of 120 chapatis per day while over the weekends the sales can rise to 180 per day,†he explains.
Mzee Ggayi has educated all his seven children out of the frying pan and the last born is to join Makerere university this year. “Chapati has enabled me to purchase 10 acres of land in Bulemezi, six miles from Zirobwe. I have also constructed a permanent house some two kilometres from Gayaza.
As he walks into the sunset of his life, Ggayi has no regrets for having chosen to earn a living from the frying pan. He says that young people are jobless because they shun certain jobs as “dirty†yet the money earned is never dirty.
Obulamu bwetaga bugumikiiriza. (Life calls for patience) he explains.
Time check is 3.00pm and I am treading the narrow dusty path, which snakes its way into Gayaza Trading Centre. The sight of middle-aged women roasting maize by the roadside makes my abdomen roar as if to remind me that I owe it something. I have not taken lunch! I approach one of the women and she directs me to a place where I can get chapati.
But as I make my way into the shop, I am overtaken by mixed feelings and my hunger seems to wane with every step I make. Am I in the right place?
A thin coat of dust covers the inner walls with some visible gaping cracks begging for repair. A wooden counter stands strategically at the centre of the room on top of which lie chapati wrapped in a transparent polythene bag. Smiles confront me from all directions. The smile from the gaping cracks on the dusty walls harmonises perfectly with the broad smile offered by a stout old man behind the counter.
This is Paul Ggayi, a man who has fried chapati from this premises for the last 35 years. As I settle down to order for my share of this delicacy, Ggayi moves briskly with the agility of a teenager to serve me. His sparkling face and efficiency at work contrast sharply with his advanced age.
Born 63 years ago to the family of the late Lozio Buteraba of Kimwanyi village along Nakasajja road, Ggayi fell out of school at junior 3 (presently P.7) and joined his father in business. Although Ggayi has a family of seven, neither his wife nor his children are with him in the trade. “My wife does not have interest in this kind of work. She therefore takes care of our home,†he says, adding that his children help him once in a while during the peak hours of the day.
Three customers who need chapati momentarily interrupt our interview. The old man excuses himself and serves them. This unique businessman who mixes the flour, fries and sells chapatis single handedly intrigues me.
“I do not trust employees because they perform substandard work. In fact, my customers are so addicted to my work that they can easily detect any slight change,†he explains. Several customers are simply hooked to Ggayi’s products.
His products have earned him a rare title of Jajja chapati within Gayaza trading centre.
“I have been buying five chapatis from Jajja chapati daily for the last ten years and I can testify to how delicious they are,†says Samuel Kamoga, a customer.
Ggayi has every reason to be intimately affectionate with the frying pan. Next to his working table lies a medium sized frying pan covered with black soot. The old man carries it tenderly to the fireplace.
As black as it is, his entire life lies therein. He sells every chapati at sh200 and he often clears all his stock by the end of each day. “During the week days I sell an average of 120 chapatis per day while over the weekends the sales can rise to 180 per day,†he explains.
Mzee Ggayi has educated all his seven children out of the frying pan and the last born is to join Makerere university this year. “Chapati has enabled me to purchase 10 acres of land in Bulemezi, six miles from Zirobwe. I have also constructed a permanent house some two kilometres from Gayaza.
As he walks into the sunset of his life, Ggayi has no regrets for having chosen to earn a living from the frying pan. He says that young people are jobless because they shun certain jobs as “dirty†yet the money earned is never dirty.
Obulamu bwetaga bugumikiiriza. (Life calls for patience) he explains.