Acwamu Geofrey Ruzooka’s Testimony. Episode 1

My name is Acwamu Godfrey Ruzooka. My father is Byabakama Geoffrey, I come from Naama Kinoni, Nyabushozi, and my church is Macuncu, Rwobusisi. Kinoni Archdeaconry in North Ankole Diocese. I am the 3^rd child of 9 children. I have a diploma and a degree in Social Work and Social Administration. My father was a headmaster at Rushere Model Primary School and I did my seven years of Primary level in the same school. When I started school, my mother was still alive. After primary my father took me back home, together with my siblings. We stayed home for our vacation and he kept coming back to check on us because that was when our mother passed. I must add that this was when my life turned for the worst. I remember that it was during P7 vacation that I started smoking, the workers on the farm taught me and I started smoking. At that same time, I also started drinking. My father loved us so much, and he tried to keep us close to himself. For example, I used to share his bed but of course, when I started those bad habits I started dodging him and he sensed it. One day he called me and asked me” Ruzooka” what is the matter? How come you no longer come to sleep in my bed? I tried dodging him by telling him that I was not feeling okay. He did not believe me of course and said that something somewhere was not right. You won’t believe that I spent so much time drinking that I never had time to read. I was like 13 years old when I was doing all those things, and I was in Senior One. I was in a boy’s school, and although my father was determined to take us to good schools, I was wasting my life here. Because of alcohol, my performance was not good at all. The following term they told me to try my talent elsewhere. I brought my report to my father. He read the report and realized that I wasn’t studying at all. He also noticed that I had not been studying and suspected that I might have started drinking, he kept suspecting it but not confirmed it. All the same, he took me to a new school- Nyakayojo where I did my senior three.