Mutumba went from classroom to charcoal burning

John Bosco Mutumba, a teacher at Kireka High School in Wakiso district had to innovate to go through the lockdown.

Mutumba, who is the director of studies in a private school and has been a teacher of History and CRE for the past three years stopped receiving a salary for five months.

He found himself burning and selling charcoal as a business after the closure of schools left him with no income now that his modest sh860,000 monthly salary was gone. 

"The situation made me think of survival. That is how I found myself in charcoal burning," he said.

The second born in his family, Mutumba first returned to Namugongo to stay with his grandfather, John Mayanja Kiguli in June.

"Being my role model, I told him about my plans of going to my home village in Gombe, Butambala to start farming. He gave me the go-ahead. I planted beans but, after 2 months, he called me back. That was in August. We discussed making charcoal from his 8-acre forest at Kiryamuli in Kyabakadde village and accepted," he narrated. 

Mutumba said he got two people to help him and that he used sh300,000 to cut trees and slept in the forest for three days burning charcoal.

"Each day, I paid sh10,000 to workers for 10 days. We lifted and packed the charcoal and in three weeks, I had 70 bags. So far I've sold 40 bags with each at sh80,000 and half bags between sh45,000-sh40,000," he said.

"I advise my fellow friends to learn to accept that they have no control over some situations so that they start thinking out of the box," Mutumba said.