Mpande and Achen have telepathy

On 20^th August, Sunday Vision will hold a twin's festival budded Kampala Twins Festival at Kyadondo Rugby in Kampala. Until the event, we continue publishing stories about twins. In the article, Mpande and Achen share their experience of being twins.

Born on November 14, 1964, Rosemary Apio Mpande and Catherine Achen are identical twins that were separated by marriage. While Mpande works as a transport officer at SGA Security and lives in Kampala, Achen owns and works in a printing bureau in Jinja.

"When we were young, we looked identical, but now that we are grown up, there is a difference in our sizes. As we grew up, we weighed exactly the same," Mpande says. Because they were identical, their classmates and teachers at Stella Maris Nsube Primary School, St. Joseph's Nsambya and Sacred Heart Girls School in Gulu could not tell them apart.

Mpande remembers that they would sometimes be chased from the food queue because they would think one girl had come for a second helping.

"Recently, at an Italian priest's 50th celebration, when my sister went for food, she was told that was her second round until I came in and showed my face to confirm that we are different," says Mpande.

Even the time they were separated in school, the twins would cry and later get back together.

"At school, in most cases they would put us in different dormitories and streams in order to differentiate us, but we would cry and go back to the same place, especially when we were still young," recalls Achen.

She adds that although they have separate lives because they are married, they somehow have similar clothes. "We have lots of similar clothes, shoes and jewelry, but we sometimes find ourselves wearing the same things when we meet," says Achen.

Their bond also enables them share telepathy, where they both reach out to each other at the same time.

Raised in a family of eight by Cirrillo Olango and Juliana Achayo Olango, in Gulu district, the twins come fifth in the family. They say their home was modest and they had all they needed.

Incidentally, the twins have not had twins, but their siblings have, and their uncles and aunties also had twins. "It is a family of many sets of twins," says Mpande.

Heart matters

Mpande recalls the only downside to being an identical twin was when they started dating.

"Our partners took ages to know who was who, so they would find themselves talking to the wrong person," she says.

On a good note though, their children have two mothers. "Even our babies never knew their real mothers. They would always cry for any of us, even when it came to breastfeeding. To date, they all call us mummy," Mpande says.

Confused by workmates

The twins admit that their colleagues cannot tell them apart. "I visited my sister's office and while at the reception, her boss asked me why I am wasting time, yet he needed the work he had given me very fast," says Mpande.

On one occasion, Achen visited her sister's office and her boss asked her about office work, thinking that she was Mpande.