Being firstborn to our parents, my twin brother and elder take up the father’s name according to our culture.
He is called Opio John and am Ocen Gilbert. We are friendly to each other and the community is proud to have us although some people usually ask us to bless them to have twins too, yet we do not know how to go about it.
The twins are so identical that the people find it hard to tell who among them is. At times, their little sibling can tell who is by giving them coloured waistbands, but it is very had to tell them apart.
At home, anyone responds to each other’s’ name positively and does the work assigned with ease, but at school, the situation is different despite being in the same class, the twins share chemistry, Mathematics, and ICT subjects.
Ocen offers BCM/ICT while Opio offers PCM /ICT.
Opio says whenever they move with their parents, they are constantly stopped by people mostly in the village who ask them to bless their age mates and friends who are either pregnant or becoming parents so that they receive twins too.
“Being a twin has advantages and disadvantages, but you cannot change the situation and thoughts of people towards twins,” he says.
He adds that their parents keep telling everybody they meet how they are parents of twins all the time anywhere and they are so proud of them.
Ocen adds that twins are associated with very many cultural rituals, which they are expected to perform, but they have not done them and nothing harmful or dangerous has ever happened to them or the family in any way.
The twin’s life is full of joy, happiness at the same time disturbing that teachers, fellow students cannot tell who is although they are advised against being on the wrong side of the law all the time.
According to Samuel Ssemwendo, a teacher at Luzira Secondary school, the set of twins at the school sometimes overwhelm them as the staff as one is easily taken to be the other even though some sets do not share streams, but they are so identical.
Ssemwendo adds that being with twins at his place of work brings his memories closer to his children and he uses their experience to refer to his little ones all the time in terms of behavior, character and general being.
Opio is a staunch sportsman who supports the arsenal football club.
“I feel very happy when arsenal wins a match but when it loses, I can even become sick, but I void being too emotional as it also affects my brother as well”, he says.
Ocen is a movie addict who loves watching new movies only and closely follows up with new actors, actresses in different movies.
“I always take time to read about the different movie stars and their lives during my leisure time if I am not teaching classmates during discussion times”, he says.
He adds that he feels hurt and bad when his twin brother’s team is defeated because he becomes sad and sometimes refuses to eat, isolates himself to calm down.
“I love teaching or discussing for others as it challenges me in a way that I am reminded what was taught in class and add on more knowledge from other students ,” says Ocen.
