Dogging it out in Sweden
My heart skipped a beat when I met this girl from Burundi in Stockholm (Sweden) taking a dog for a walk
By Angella Nabwowe
in Sweden
My heart skipped a beat when I met this girl from Burundi in Stockholm (Sweden) taking a dog for a walk.
“Yes, I do this for my living,†she assured me. Claudine, who speaks English with difficulty, told me in order to secure her job, she had to enroll for Swedish lessons since she has to keep communicating to the dog in Swedish.
And Claudine is not alone, many Ugandan graduates end up baby sitting, dog walking, cat and dog sitting, hair dressing and mowing lawns among other kyeyo (odd jobs) in Europe and America.
After spending over 16 years in school, surely, somebody should do something better and comfortable.
“A love for dogs is essential, you must like them and enjoy their company.
Here the dog is part of the family and you have to treat it as if it were your own,†says Claudine.
“The owners’ reasoning is that a dog needs social interaction, exercise and company too,†she adds.
“When I am busy at work, my dog walker drops in to play with it before taking it for a walk and if it passes by another dog, it gets an opportunity to interact,†says Ruth, a lecturer at Örebro University.
Actually Ruth comes with her dog to class, and this is when I got the opportunity to try out dog-walking.
She speaks passionately about this dog, which she refers to as her fifth child. She (the dog) is 10 years old and has just undergone a major operation after complications where detected in her digestive system.
Apart from the language, one needs to teach the puppy walking manners,†if he loses concentration when he sees a cat passing, change the direction.
If he tightens the leash by walking too fast, stop walking and he will get confused as well and stop and he will wait for your instructions,†explained Joseph Zamiwe.
Ugandans burst with pride to work in MacDonald’s food chain stores and make one feel it is not worthwhile to stay back home.
Many feel big when they fly to Uganda for Christmas. I wish they would get the courage to publish a memoir about their kyeyo experience.
Working in shops is a bed of roses if one has a natural smile, as the cardinal rule here is to be friendly and cheerful. “You must be cheerful all the time, in fact, the customer is always right,†says Rogers Ssemakula.
To most shop attendants in Kampala, this is rocket science as most think they are doing you a favour to sell their products to you. Unfortunately their employers don’t know sometimes that they serve customers mean-faced.
“Unlike our colleagues in Britain and America, the situation is worse for us here in Central Europe as you have to struggle for over a year to master the language,†said one Kato Philip.
Employers in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries for instance emphasise that one has to be able to speak a local language to get employed.
You, therefore, have to learn Swedish, Danish or Norwegian. One, however, would be hesitant to spend over a year learning a new foreign language just to finish and do the jobs listed above.
The situation is, however, different in the capital cities as a number of people speak English.
You can easily get a decent job in Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen even if you don’t speak the language. The difference, however, is that the cost of living in such areas is extremely high.
For example, in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo in Norway, one must pay an equivalent of sh700,000 per month to get a single room in a small hostel like Makerere University’s Lumumba Hall.
Compared to the cost of living, it would be hard for one to live here comfortably, while employed as a dog walker, baby sitter and the rest. The average salary paid for such jobs per hour is an equivalent of sh7,000 after the compulsory 30% tax.
However, there is also what they call the “black jobsâ€, where you get to work, but evade the taxes.
This sounds much, but unlike professional jobs, it is very hard to work for eight hours a day. The maximum hours applicable for dog walker or even a cleaner could be only three hours a day.
There is no reason why somebody earning between sh300,000-500,000 in Uganda would leave to go for kyeyo.
If you are a fresh graduate, do not despair, you will find a decent job in Uganda with time.
Your dream job may not come suddenly, but networking and being open-minded helps a lot.
Many argue the number of graduates has been growing, while job opportunities in the Government and private sector have declined. But by the time one buys a return air ticket to Europe, they can surely survive in Uganda as they search for opportunities.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Ugandans abroad and they share striking features about their life abroad.
“Nude modelling pays well, my girlfriend did so last summer and she even got free pictures of herself.
“You don’t have to speak the language, you just play with your toes and receive ululations from the audience,†said Allan Woods.
Yard work is good, but the physical difficulties make one wear out. “I had to get married to a european Union (EU) citizen, otherwise, I couldn’t manage hard work, in fact I ended up getting pregnant because I had to show this man that I really loved him,†said Justine Nakato.
The writer is a master’s student of global journalism at Orebro University, Sweden
in Sweden
My heart skipped a beat when I met this girl from Burundi in Stockholm (Sweden) taking a dog for a walk.
“Yes, I do this for my living,†she assured me. Claudine, who speaks English with difficulty, told me in order to secure her job, she had to enroll for Swedish lessons since she has to keep communicating to the dog in Swedish.
And Claudine is not alone, many Ugandan graduates end up baby sitting, dog walking, cat and dog sitting, hair dressing and mowing lawns among other kyeyo (odd jobs) in Europe and America.
After spending over 16 years in school, surely, somebody should do something better and comfortable.
“A love for dogs is essential, you must like them and enjoy their company.
Here the dog is part of the family and you have to treat it as if it were your own,†says Claudine.
“The owners’ reasoning is that a dog needs social interaction, exercise and company too,†she adds.
“When I am busy at work, my dog walker drops in to play with it before taking it for a walk and if it passes by another dog, it gets an opportunity to interact,†says Ruth, a lecturer at Örebro University.
Actually Ruth comes with her dog to class, and this is when I got the opportunity to try out dog-walking.
She speaks passionately about this dog, which she refers to as her fifth child. She (the dog) is 10 years old and has just undergone a major operation after complications where detected in her digestive system.
Apart from the language, one needs to teach the puppy walking manners,†if he loses concentration when he sees a cat passing, change the direction.
If he tightens the leash by walking too fast, stop walking and he will get confused as well and stop and he will wait for your instructions,†explained Joseph Zamiwe.
Ugandans burst with pride to work in MacDonald’s food chain stores and make one feel it is not worthwhile to stay back home.
Many feel big when they fly to Uganda for Christmas. I wish they would get the courage to publish a memoir about their kyeyo experience.
Working in shops is a bed of roses if one has a natural smile, as the cardinal rule here is to be friendly and cheerful. “You must be cheerful all the time, in fact, the customer is always right,†says Rogers Ssemakula.
To most shop attendants in Kampala, this is rocket science as most think they are doing you a favour to sell their products to you. Unfortunately their employers don’t know sometimes that they serve customers mean-faced.
“Unlike our colleagues in Britain and America, the situation is worse for us here in Central Europe as you have to struggle for over a year to master the language,†said one Kato Philip.
Employers in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries for instance emphasise that one has to be able to speak a local language to get employed.
You, therefore, have to learn Swedish, Danish or Norwegian. One, however, would be hesitant to spend over a year learning a new foreign language just to finish and do the jobs listed above.
The situation is, however, different in the capital cities as a number of people speak English.
You can easily get a decent job in Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen even if you don’t speak the language. The difference, however, is that the cost of living in such areas is extremely high.
For example, in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo in Norway, one must pay an equivalent of sh700,000 per month to get a single room in a small hostel like Makerere University’s Lumumba Hall.
Compared to the cost of living, it would be hard for one to live here comfortably, while employed as a dog walker, baby sitter and the rest. The average salary paid for such jobs per hour is an equivalent of sh7,000 after the compulsory 30% tax.
However, there is also what they call the “black jobsâ€, where you get to work, but evade the taxes.
This sounds much, but unlike professional jobs, it is very hard to work for eight hours a day. The maximum hours applicable for dog walker or even a cleaner could be only three hours a day.
There is no reason why somebody earning between sh300,000-500,000 in Uganda would leave to go for kyeyo.
If you are a fresh graduate, do not despair, you will find a decent job in Uganda with time.
Your dream job may not come suddenly, but networking and being open-minded helps a lot.
Many argue the number of graduates has been growing, while job opportunities in the Government and private sector have declined. But by the time one buys a return air ticket to Europe, they can surely survive in Uganda as they search for opportunities.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Ugandans abroad and they share striking features about their life abroad.
“Nude modelling pays well, my girlfriend did so last summer and she even got free pictures of herself.
“You don’t have to speak the language, you just play with your toes and receive ululations from the audience,†said Allan Woods.
Yard work is good, but the physical difficulties make one wear out. “I had to get married to a european Union (EU) citizen, otherwise, I couldn’t manage hard work, in fact I ended up getting pregnant because I had to show this man that I really loved him,†said Justine Nakato.
The writer is a master’s student of global journalism at Orebro University, Sweden