In the Plantations

I still recall its sweetness when he gave it to us. Uncle Tom found us playing in the banana plantations. We were searching for nsenene, the grasshopper which appeared seasonally when it rained in our village. We searched for them on the ground and in the folds of the banana leaves. The first time we tasted it was when aunt brought it back from Kampala, “Nakato and Kato come and get some sweets,” she’d cried. We were plucking the legs and wings off nsenene in the backyard of our grass-thatched hut. The sweets were different colours. I unwrapped the white vuvera, polythene paper, from one and threw it in my mouth. I felt the sticky honey sweetness fill my mouth and I swallowed. We ran past Joe’s house to reach Katumba’s house so that he could taste the nsenene. Kato was panting. We wanted to tell Katumba the news quickly and run back home. Mummy didn’t want us playing with Katumba. She said he had bad manners; he liked playing with his male part in front of us. “Katumba, our aunt came from Kampala,” Kato told him, from the cool shade where he was seated. He was plucking the wings and the legs of nsenene. The wind was blowing the bananas leaves lightly, swaying them from side to side. “She brought for us some sweet.” Katumba dropped the saucepan he was holding. Kato broke the sweet, which looked like a small stone, into two halves with his teeth and gave one to Katumba, “Eat.” They had been good friends in spite of mummy’s restriction. Katumba threw his half into his mouth. Then he opened his mouth, his lips moulded, formed to look like a hallway. He was missing two lower teeth which left a path for us to see his tongue rotating. It made us laugh. “It’s sweet, like ripe banana,” said Katumba laughing. “Yes, Aunt Janet said it makes children’s teeth grow,” said Kato. When Katumba heard this he started rubbing a small remnant of the sweet on his pink gums which made us laugh more. We ran through the long trail of the banana plantation which connected our home with that of Katumba’s. It was owned by Mr. Mukasa the old man. He planted oranges and pawpaw trees at the side of his plantation. We always stole from his trees when we emptied our fruit trees. Mummy didn’t encourage stealing so we only did it when she was away. When we reached home, we found aunt was telling mummy about the city. She told mummy that Uncle Tom’s business had made him one of the richest men in the city. He had so much money he could buy the whole village and its contents. That morning aunt brought out the metal she brought from the city. It was for piercing ears. Aunt insisted for our ears to be pierced so that we did not fall prey to child sacrifices. But daddy was against the piercing of the boys’ ears, he said it made them look like rouges. So aunt and mummy pierced my ears and not Kato’s. It was painful, but aunt said when it heals, I would put on glittering earrings which would dangle to my shoulders which would make me look beautiful.