This is a particularly long walk down memory lane - patience is a virtue and let's take a long walk down that road - to P7 results - sorry forgive my english "kantab" results...the cut off point was like 6 so if you had 4, 5 or 6 - you were in! The excitement of going to Namagunga - packing a tin box - for some of us it was the first time we'd be away from family and friends and everything we held dear for the next 3 months.
Remember the list that came with the admission letter 
i vaguely remember the following items
1. Flat iron
2. Oxford geometry set
3. 5 dresses
4. 1 hoe
5. 1 Jerrycan
6. 1 broom
7. 1 tin box
8. excercise books, FULLSCAPS, pen and pencils
9. A list of textbooks - not sure whether we bought an Abbot in S1 or S3 but there was a physics book, Good News Bible?, Introduction to Biology, ....can't remember the rest
my mind can't seem to get through that list - but i remember it clearly because my first reaction at reading 5 dresses was how in the world does anyone survive with 5 dresses in 3 months! Then came the tips from friends, relatives and inlaws on how to get past the five dresses. Then there was the mad rush - don't forget the small jerrycan, pair of slippers and everything else that wasn't on the list - hardcorn, popcorn, biscuits, crisps, QUENCHER, and i must say whoever invented quencher hit a jackpot when it came to boarding school. It was the must have item on every list. In S1 I think there was only orange quencher then by S3 there was strawberry quencher
Then we came into the "pearly gates" of boarding school - i was late - i never did come early for anything - and there were the S.2s to pick us up and guide the way. "What class?" 1A? ok -then the introduction to your teacher....then the "long inspection" - pay slips - remember Sr. May ? Bless her - she can't possibly be alive ...then you were off to "the tailor" for the red skirt and white shirt and then to the dorms. One white shirt to last us 3 months!!! never mind 3 months - to last a year. Then there was the whole mad rush next visiting Sunday - everyone wrote home asking for an extra white shirt unless you had a sister or cousin who had filled you in on bringing one before. After the first week of being in boarding school all you wanted to do was go home and pick up the hundred and one practical things you really needed but didn't think to get like a torch, candles, matchstiks for the lovely days when "kara fired"
We took off our shoes put on our bright new slippers and went to fetch water and walk around with the s.2s and our parents. I think that's the first time in my life i got money to actually keep with no long list of things to do and change to bring home and didn't realize the true meaning of "easy come easy go" until it was time to head to the canteen one week later.
It would be pure genius if i could remember who the S.2 was that picked me up - i think they did it in pairs and for the life of me i can't remember who that was.
The box room was a novelty - my suitcase was next to Judy Bazzex and that's really how we met....i remember that and Penniah (banange how is she?)
And who remembers how vitally important it was to have a KNIFE!!! the number of times we screamed in the boxroom - who has a knife - especially on Tuesday evening after canteen and why did we always feel the need to eat bread right after supper/ "dinning?" "who has a tin opener" was another favorite and if you were the lucky person with the knife or the tin opener you just might get a share in whatever the contents of the tin or knife was needed for....
FIRST ASSEMBLY
Assembly was almost bearable with the red skirt but we did have our memories for one week without the red skirt - it was bad enough that everywhere you went everyone knew you were in S1 - and we all or at least i couldn't wait to get A RED SKIRT. And we had one tailor to do 100 or so skirts - talk about cost savings and when the year began it was one tailor for however many we were - but for all the six years i was in Namagunga we had one tailor and it was the same tailor who did our skirts - and the same carpenter who did those beautiful boards/gifts we came up with later - beautifully painted love hearts or paintings on a piece of wood that he would carve and shine and we would quickly send by "speedy" home - or to whatever the destination was....whoever thought of those momentos - hats off to you - remember they cost about 1000 or 500 shillings depending on "vanish" - to have or not to have vanish on your wood carving that was a serious issue when trying to determine whether or not you could afford kuku guys chicken that evening as well... i think kuku guy was pure torture when one was broke... then the test of friendship was the firend who'd share kuku with you that saturday. And why didn't kuku guy ever come after visiting sunday? God knows i was always broke the saturday before vingy and that seems to be to me the day the came the most!!!
Right...back to S1 after getting the red skirt was the social graces lecture - i loved Monday nights when we'd have improptu meetings in the MAIN HALL and Asse explain definition of "tuck in your shirt" - or Sleep Minister explain why we have supervisors and a lights off bell...the bell keeper mass - readings .and dorm lockers ...our very first meeting in the Hall where the Head Girl introduced everyone and somehow - everything in my life - every person every authority seemed so minute when put up against the HEAD GIRL of Mt. St. Mary's Namagunga - Ms. Barbara Natabi - was she our first headgirl? can't remember. She was the HEAD GIRL - and everything else paled in comparison - until she stood next to Capui and then i realized well maybe not everything....
the evening walks - those were truly truly a Namagunga thing - and i haven't had as much fun or laughter as i did as we walked around the school - made a stop at the chapel - and those stops at the chapel increased closer to the the exam time - suddenly we had a lot more to tell God - this was always after the dining - the must stop by "pits" unless of course it was a canteen day....and there are very few sunsets like the Namagunga sunset....right before the bell for prep went or on visiting Sunday when there was no prep unless you were in S4 and had mocks the next day....
Ok enough for one day - write some more and let me know what i missed out on that list
Muteesi