Chasing butterfly dreams

 

Jean Nakacwa, popularly known by her stage name Mukyala Neighbour, was an actress with Bakayimbira Dramactors, and a radio presenter in the 1990s. She left Uganda to go and do casual work (kyeyo) abroad in 2004, but the life she experienced there fell far below her expectations.

 

Nakacwa’s younger sister was already doing kyeyo several years before Nakacwa left and she used to send her money. So Nakacwa had always imagined it was easy to make money abroad. 

 

“Whenever I asked for money, she would send it quickly without complaining. But when I landed in the UK and realised what immigrants go through to get money, I appreciated how much she loves me,” Nakacwa says.

 

Nakacwa lost her husband and father of her children in 1992. Her first born was only two-and-a-half years old and the second born was six months. 

 

“I became the sole breadwinner at a very tender age, but I was determined to see my children through school, and not just any, but schools with the best education in Uganda,” Nakacwa says.

 

Apart from her jobs, she also owned a hair salon, but the money she earned was not enough to fulfill her dream of giving the best to her two daughters.

 

So she opted for kyeyo. In her search for a better life, Nakacwa travelled to the UK to try her hand at any job she could do. 

 

Her first job was at a fish processing plant. Immediately she got to her workplace, she started having mixed feelings about her decision and even thought about boarding the next plane back to Uganda.

 

  “I remember the boss asking us, the new recruits, over five times, ‘are you ready?’ We did not know why he did so, until we got inside the factory.

 

The store was like a freezer; tears flowed from our eyes, and mucus from our noses.

 

Both hands and legs felt paralysed in the cold room. Though we were given safety clothing, it was not enough; it was too cold for the normal functioning of the human body. And I just could not get used to the conditions.

 

This was the case for the six months I worked there,” Nakacwa says.  

 

She met people who had worked there for over eight years and still counting.

 

“Such jobs are highly paying and I think that is why they insist on staying,” Nakacwa explains, yet for her the working conditions became more unbearable every passing day.

 

 

She finally gave up and went for less paying jobs with more favourable conditions. 

 

“I worked in salons and packed goods in supermarkets.”  

Nakacwa says there is still a lot of racism in the UK, though it is downplayed. It is not rare to see children gathering to stare at someone as though they are a chimp. After a while, being called a monkey by the ill-bred ceases to be a big deal.

 

She says some people look at black people as though they are from another planet.

 

After two years of working in London, Nakacwa crossed to the US in search of better opportunities. But life there was not easy either. 

 

“Unlike the UK where public transport is organised, in the US, it is a mess. There are few states with organised public transport,” Nakacwa says. 

                         

She remembers the day she missed a bus from work, and ended up walking for eight hours back home. “I did not know the route, it was winter and very cold. I had to constantly call the person I was staying with for directions,” Nakacwa remembers. 

 

And just like in the UK, the jobs in the US were not easy. Nakacwa spent a better part of her stay in the US caring for old people. She insists that kyeyo jobs are not for the fainthearted. “If you do not know what you want, you will be on the plane the next day,” she says. 

 

Caring for old people was a challenge. “Many who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease become more like children and lose their memory. They become delicate like new born babies,” Nakacwa says.

 

“They may ask why you have not taken them to school or they may want to talk to their mother who died 50 years ago. Every day, one will ask: ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’ over 10 times a day. Some soil their clothes, but even in such extreme situations, you are supposed to be as hospitable as possible and wear a smile all through,”  Nakacwa says. 

 

“Some of them are racist and would not let a black person touch them even when they have soiled their clothes. And if the boss finds them in such a state, you immediately lose the job,” she says. 

 

Nakacwa adds that a kyeyo worker in the UK saves more than one in the US because the English Pound has a stronger value. However, attaining citizenship in the UK is a tall order compared to the US. Nakacwa is now a citizen of the US and shows off her social security card. 

 

At 40, Nakacwa feels she has achieved her dream and can now afford to relax a bit. Her two children are now living in London, one is a graduate of Makerere University and the other is studying in a London university. Nakacwa has built a decent home for herself as well as several rental houses. She says now is the time to do what she has always wanted.

 

Acting is where her heart, passion and desire have always been, even if she does not make big money out of it. 

 

Thousands of Ugandans, like other Africans, leave the comfort of their formal jobs for “greener pastures” in the West, as well as the Middle East and Asian countries such as Japan, China, Thailand and Malaysia.

 

In the Arab world, for example, many Ugandans work as housemaids, guards, supermarket attendants, and some even end up working as prostitutes. In Europe and the US, many Ugandans, armed with good degrees, work as cleaners, sweep roads, plait hair, care for the elderly, and do many other jobs they would never do here or confess to doing. 

 

Jean Nakacwa explains that the reason they do these kind of jobs, despite having formal qualifications, is because most of them have not formalised their status in the foreign country and cannot, therefore, be allowed to hold proper jobs.

 

“Most people travel under the guise of being visitors or tourists with hopes of becoming citizens. This is a long process that can take even up to 10 years. As one waits, petty jobs are the only option, as employers in such work care little about your status in the country,” Nakacwa says.