Nalwoga Winnie Kisakye graduated from Kyambogo University in December, not long before she completed writing this diary for TWR. She is twenty-four. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics, an academic program she described as “complex and interesting,” and she pointed out that she was delighted to have graduated without ever retaking a course unit.
Kisakye’s diary is as rich and revealing as a college student’s diary can be expected to be. There is the relationship intrigue to take your breath away, the hostel drama to make you laugh, the spiritual rootedness that compels you to respect her, and so much more. It turns out that Kisakye, as a high-school student, had literary ambitions and even hoped to write a novel one day. There are flickers of brilliance in her voice, so pure and original. Just consider this line: “The only thing I don’t have a hard time doing is saying ‘hey’ or greeting whosoever is next to me.” Or this, when she writes about a man who is pursuing her romantically: “One thing am happy about is that the only thing he puts in is texts and calls.” Or this, about yet another man she politely rejected: “I really like the way he dealt with this and just turned into very good friends to the extent of him wanting me to be good at research.”
Kisakye now works for a pharmacy in Wandegeya and lives in Kasangati, just outside Kampala. Her diary is so good that we can’t wait to publish it. As always, we have tried not to interfere with its rhythm and style. By not heavily editing it, we have kept intact what may seem to be grammatical errors or mistakes. To try to edit Kisakye’s work for grammar is irresponsible: it’s like trying to edit Isaac Babel. A very bad idea. – TWR
31/10/25
Well, I think I should call today the best day of my week. Not a lot of awesome things happened, but I embark on the few to whisper “thank you Mr Universe” because why not? My heart is filled with gratitude. Amidst my daily schedules of each day as a student pursuing what I call a heavy course, like real heavy course to me, because I do always feel its weight right from the beginning of the semester to the end with so many assignments, course works, discussions and timetables for personal reading. Well, I am chasing up for a bachelor’s degree in human nutrition and dietetics and sometimes things get so tough on my side to the extent of me [wanting] to change course but it’s something impossible at such a time because I am already in my 4th year of the course.
A fortnight back, my friend Irene gave me a call and told me about an opportunity where my daily experience writeups can be published. This sounded so ecstatic to me because I had never literally dreamt of such a privilege coming my way. As a young lady [I] always dreamt of having my writeups of poems, daily experiences and a novel getting to reach places. This whole dream being inaugurated through a friend was a privilege I wouldn’t afford to undermine… So I gained back my esteem, consciousness, enthusiasm and confidence.
Then I also recall I have this friend of mine called Douglas that I share with my happiness and sobbings. I text him online about it all, he sends me celebrating stickers as he has always done. I then put my phone to charge, do some laundry and cooking. I do the dishes and boom, it’s finally evening. I then attend online church vespers because am a proud Seventh-day Adventist. Goodnight and happy Sabbath.
02/11/25
Well, I try as much as I can to concentrate and also focus on the happiness and peace from each moment of living because I cannot calculate how much time is left for half and full brimmed vessels of sorrow and problems to occur. Anyways, just like any other previous Sunday, today was calm, with no fixed time table of how the day runs. I woke up at around 8:30 am, greeted my roommate who seemed half asleep in her cozy bed. “Good morning princess.” My voice still had a sleepy tone. “Good morning beautiful.” Well, we always call each other those sweet complimenting titles because why not, we do believe we are what our inner spirits embrace, not necessarily hyping our self-esteem but feeling whole and full.
I sit up on my bed, we have a normal conversation, we laugh about a thing or two until I make up my mind to make us some breakfast of porridge and toast bread. After breakfast, I decide to do a general cleanup of the room… After cleaning, I recall that I haven’t talked to my boyfriend since the previous night. I immediately grab my phone to try and send a text, and smile to the fact that he had texted me a couple of hours back and I was actually offline. I obviously reply him back because am sure he must be wondering what is taking me up.
Well, I slope down and buy some junk food (chips and sausages), and on my return I bump into a friend guy who had earlier texted me but didn’t speak of passing by my hostel. Okay, this guy has always said that he really likes me, but however much I tell him that we can only be friends, it’s some kind of language he never understands. He is also a student pursuing the same course as I do though for his case he is a Makerere University student.
Nalwoga Winnie Kisakye photographed for TWR by Rodney Muhumuza.
04/11/25
With the ear-piercing sharp tone of my alarm ringing, I had to debate so hard with my sleepy head on whether to wake up immediately or to remain asleep. Okay it was just 5:30 am. “Let me sleep a little more for at least five minutes” is the conclusion me and my sleepy head agreed on. The [minutes] finally also elapsed and without any more way of hesitation, I knelt to make a prayer. I organized myself and got ready for the great day ahead. I must also mention that in a world so full of fake friends, am still luckily blessed with some few real ones. Well, I got a call from my friend Aston, he is my peer and a good friend that my previous internship brought me. So he told me of an organisation that was providing final year students with opportunities to learn more and explore their research as a course unit and project in various aspects. My heart bounced with joy … when he told me about it all and I accepted immediately. So the training of research was commencing today and it was to take place in Mulago, that is why I got up that early.
Aston is my guy friend who tried to make moves on me wanting a relationship with me last year after our first internship but I just indirectly rejected him. I really like the way he dealt with this and just turned into very good friends to the extent of him wanting me to be good at research.
So, back to my day, I got ready in one and half hours, sloped down to the boda-boda stage, jumped on to one and headed straight to Mulago. Oh my God, the boda man did not know the place I was going to, we tried using Google maps and asking, but got more confused. With my time checks, it was ten minutes to 8:00 am, the official time which was communicated by our supervisors. With a lot of frustration, I almost gave up on this research training. Eventually a certain lady gave us directions and luckily enough the place was just so near. Ouushhh, I sighed relief when we reached the gate. Aston was standing outdoors and as I got off the boda he came closer, greeted me and congratulated me upon keeping time.
Aston did not come to sit close to me in the training room, which was very fine because this meant me creating more friends, but one of my personal inborn weakness is being antisocial. The only thing I don’t have a hard time doing is saying ‘hey’ or greeting whosoever is next to me… I am not proud of being antisocial and I always try hard to blend into the environment, though I still find myself failing over and over again. It did not take an hour before it started threatening to downpour. My worrying started right from the moment I checked my handbag and realized that I hadn’t carried my inhaler. I then immediately recalled that another friend called Moses had also told me the previous day that he would join in for this research training. I immediately sent him a text and requested him to carry for me a heavy scarf or jacket. At this age and stage of my life I never want to acknowledge that I was born with asthma.
My preschool stages and early childhood education years were tricky, says my mother. Coldness, chalk and soil dust, strong scents of perfumes and body oils [destabilized] my whole breathing system. Fainting and wheezing endlessly used to worry my parents so much.
Well, back to the training, Moses replied to me and promised to carry for me a jacket which he indeed carried. Though by the time he reached some other guy whose name I didn’t even know had already given me one. Just out of a good heart and being a gentleman. This meant me rejecting the one of Moses, and I was quite sure he would grow angry a bit. Yes, I was right because Moses is one friend who directly showed me that he is so interested in me through texts and calls. I still told him too that [we] just be friends, but it seems he has never understood that kind of zone.
One thing am happy about is that the only thing he puts in is texts and calls. I limit the time we spend talking because I do not want him to have false hopes of me ever changing my mind about us. One thing about me is that I cannot double or even triple date. When I [have] made up my mind about dating, it is always one person at a time.
05/11/25
Just like any other past days, I woke up kinda anxious. In my half kneeling posture I asked God to bless my day with joy, love and enthusiasm. I then made up my mind to follow my 3rd alarm and I jumped out of bed, tried to use as few minutes as possible to get ready for my research training. Remember I had to be there before 8 am and with my time check it was 5:48 when I started rushing to make myself get on to a boda at the stage by at least exactly 7 am. On checking my class group WhatsApp chat texts, I realized am really missing out on classes and presentations… Well, I managed to reach the training site at 7:56 am. Today we were taken through practical ways of collecting data [from] schools feeding children in correlation to their nutrition status.
After the sit-in class session, different cars were brought to pick us in a way of transport mobilisation and we headed to our allocated schools in Wakiso. Just to take you back a little, as we were about to board, some guy whose name I didn’t even recall [commented] on “my antisocial character” and came and gave me a flower which he had plucked from one of the flowering trees in the compound. He wrapped this with compliments about my dress code, smile and looks. I briskly smiled and just said thank you. He then handed me his phone in a way of asking for my contact. I had no reasons of hesitating to give it to him, because in my own perception am to only keep him as a friend, because I have my Douglas.
So back to our journey, we had the longest, compared to what the rest shared on the group [chat] since most groups even reached before we were halfway our journey. Anyway, we finally reached, carried out the data collection assessments and then boarded back, all so tired and exhausted. On arrival, we had a takeaway meal that finalized and wrapped our day. So here I am, all tired and nervous and also sad a bit because my boyfriend has been giving me plain replies in our texts today, and even he last texted me five hours back. I miss him, but just not to be seen as a simp let me sleep and wait for what tomorrow holds.
07/11/25
The morning drizzle breeze with a low toned thunder woke me up. I thought twice and made up my mind about diving back in my bed after realizing that my time check on the phone read 7:20 am. Being a Friday I really didn’t have a serious fixed schedule for the day, my research training sessions had ended yesterday and the lecture fixed today is in the afternoon so all these were good reasons enough for me to sleep up to around 8.30 am. When I slept again, the drizzle became a serious downpour that sweetly slumbered me down to 10:00 am. When I woke up, it was rush hour because I always take some time getting ready for classes. By the way, am one person who respects lectures right from my outlook presentation, which drives me to making sure that I always clad up elegantly.
By 11:30 am I was ready for class and rushed downstairs from my hostel so that I reach on time (12:00) noon. Students of my class are always serious with keeping time and besides, the fact that sometimes I reach a couple minutes earlier, I always get the class almost full. I always gather confidence and self-esteem by staring up as I enter from the front door of the class. Douglas is my classmate and this also is one of the reasons why I just can’t look into people’s faces while entering class. I be asking myself questions like, What if our eyes meet and get stuck at each other while am entering, won’t my heart skip a beat? I feel like I might even lose focus and concertation, miss a step and fall in front of the class. So I gathered my confidence as usual and entered class…
I was so happy this lecture was very brief… With the mixed tones of voices (noise) as some people were leaving and others interacting, Douglas approached my seat and said hello to me. I replied him, though with this look of, “Dude, didn’t we talk about this, didn’t we agree not to talk or get near each other in class?” But he just brushed it off and immediately went on to greet one of the classmates called Cynthia Rose, who was seated right next to me. To my astonishment [and] disbelief, I clearly heard Douglas ask Cynthia for a hug. Oh my God, this made me grow goose pimples, I got so pissed but of course I had to remain composed and calm. They hugged right in front of me. Okay, Douglas wasn’t after me getting angry or something of that sort, because this is his character and he has always flirted with girls. I always see him hugging as many girls as possible but him asking this girl for the hug just right next to me was beyond. I swallowed it up, but of course started phrasing the words I was going to text him in my head. Okay, Douglas is a social person and am antisocial, but I wouldn’t use this just to make myself understand why he did that.
Hardly had I reached hostel than I texted my boyfriend, asked him about the hugging crap I had seen. He first blue ticked me as he always does for my long paragraphs that I send him. Then after something like five minutes, he apologized and [asked] for genuine forgiveness for hurting my feelings. The love and affection I have towards him outweighed my fury and I obviously forgave and pardoned my guy.
10/11/25
Just like any other Monday morning, I woke up with enthusiasm today, stretched my mind and had a brief meditation [on] how the day was to commence. I had my new week routine preparation schedules and got ready for lectures. My final look into the mirror made me lose confidence and self-esteem. My [two-week-old] plaited hair was looking so horribly old, its curls at the back had deformingly lost shape and texture. I decided to first untie it and requested Mable (my roomie) to rehold it for me, hoping that after reholding, oiling and spraying at least it would change, but little did I know that I was wrong. Nothing much changed after all this. I then quickly made up my mind to pass via the saloon after my one scheduled lecture that was starting in the next 40 minutes according to my time check.
My friend Flavia approached my seat and told me how she was dozing almost throughout the lecture time. We laughed hard about this and some other jokes we kept adding as we exited the central learning building where the lecture had taken place. I pleaded with Flavia to escort me to the saloon where I was to unplait, wash and plait my hair. She refused with understandable reasons of being hungry and so sleepy since she had spent most of the previous night doing her coursework. We hugged and separated at a junction to her hostel where I sloped from and went to the saloon. I greeted the lady I found there, explained to her the style of hair I wanted to plait and she honestly told me she wasn’t skilful enough to do that exact style but offered to call for me her colleague who she trusted in doing it for me as exactly as I wanted. I really wanted neat and uniform cornrows. I sat comfortably and even felt so sleepy as my hair was being unplaited, which took a shorter time than I expected, then its washing and blow drying was also done, and in no long time this other lady was already called and she started making the cornrow styles in my hair. I made sure that I emphasized the exact way I wanted them to the extent of even showing her photos of back then when I ever plaited them. She nodded in a way showing that she understood me well and was going to do it the way I told her. I did all this in fear of saloon disappointment since I ever fell a culprit one time.
I kept on arguing with this lady plaiting me because she was still doing un-uniform cornrows till she just gave up on me and left with a lot of anger. The one who had called her apologized to me and did my hair how I wanted it. My head was now aching so much but I thank God I finally got done with plaiting hair. As I left the saloon, some gentle guy who had come to trim his hair complimented me on how smart and beautiful I looked. I blushed a bit and smiled goodnight to his words. I walked back to my hostel, made myself some quick supper since I found my roomies half asleep and that’s how today went. It’s really been quite a long day.
14/11/25
I literally [could not sleep] the whole of yesterday night because of the two course unit tests I have done today. I had advised myself to give the biotechnology course unit more time of reading for its test since it’s more complex, with a lot of biological processes and mechanisms to understand. The other test being project management, I thought of it as being more logical and I decided to read for it within just the time prior to doing it today. My own alarm [clock] kept on frustrating me by its sharp ringing but I can applaud it now, for it at least helped me wake up thrice and all what I read was the lecturer’s center of focus when setting our test. I liked the fact that the room was also conducively quiet the whole morning. My roommates too had courseworks and tests they were preparing for.
It was not long before the test papers were brought in. We were then told to space ourselves and we started off at exactly 9:00 am. I didn’t have many episodes of stopping to brainstorm and recall what to write. What I read the previous night really paid off well. I was so happy that this first test paper I was scared of was a walkover to me. The second test too didn’t give me any hard time because it just required more of thinking outside of the box, general knowledge and understanding. I can happily say today gave me academic enthusiasm.
21/11/25
The snoozing and weird ring of my alarm woke me up today, with the time check of having another 30 minutes to my preparation time. I quickly dismissed it and rolled back into my cozy bed. Little did I know that am going to sleep like a baby.
As I turned and checked my phone, I realized that I was already late to prepare myself for the first lecture. I roughly had 20 minutes to get ready and be in the lecture room by 8:00 am. I decided to just clad into any nearby cloth, which was my black dress that didn’t need any ironing. I slopped down the hostel staircase and jumped on a boda, though I very well knew that it would stop at the gate since they don’t allow bodas inside campus. I paid the boda man, jumped off as soon as we reached the gate. I took big footsteps as I checked the time on my phone, which indicated that I was already 30 minutes late… I will admit that I didn’t understand anything [about] what was taught in the lecture. When the lecture finally ended, we gesture greeted each other with Douglas, though he sent me texts of “Good morning baby.” This was enough to push me through the day.
23/11/25
I woke up with this bad headache today. I pray it doesn’t turn into a migraine. Tomorrow is a Monday and we are starting examinations.
The room felt super empty with a graveyard silence since all my roommates were reading for papers. I greeted them, made my bed, had a shower and then breakfast. I debated with my mind on whether to go read from the library, our campus association church, or from hostel. I first tried reading from the hostel as my roommates were doing, but I found myself dozing over and over again and I decided to pack my summaries and go read from church.
18/12/25
Inside me, I was dying to comment on the social topic that was ongoing during breakfast, but the guilt of having woken up late outweighed the outspoken me. I then had a cold shower that ushered me to kitchen chores. I was to cook one of my favorite dishes today, the child in me bounced with joy as l sliced the ingredients, fried fresh fish and prepared it with rice and deep-fried Irish potatoes. The aroma of the food wrapped the whole house and this kept on hyping my cooking skills confidence with the comments everyone made. They all wouldn’t wait to have such a yummy meal.
My baby sister (Essie) danced to my phone’s ringtone as she brought for me the phone. It was one of my close friends Racheal calling. I knew now it’s time to laugh out loud and have funny talks because she is one friend whose character I have known for four years. We laughed our lungs out as she kept on adding jokes just like I did and it was not long before my mum came, saying I should start serving food [because] Essie was already asking for more snacks and this was not good for her health.
21/12/25
The loud thunderous drops of rain pulled me from my slumber land, the ventilators let in a cold air breeze that made me reroll back in bed and cover myself. I lazily moved my hands and traced for my phone which was right beside the pillow. The time of the day seemed too early for me to start off its activities, [so] I decided to just chat with Douglas as I smiled to his sweet little empty promise vessels that he kept on highlighting in our chat. Yes, I do love him but since we are human, I carry a fact of life at the back of my mind that anyone can wake up someday, turn backs to loved ones and break all the cherished and made promises. Therefore, this is one reason why I don’t [put] so much focus in the life of ending up with him, though I remain positive.
24/12/25
I managed to wake up so early today, cooked breakfast, served it to the two of my brothers who were awake, and then called the rest of the family members to come and we dine together since it is our family norm and custom. Everyone seemed a little more quiet and thoughtful today. No one brought up a serious topic to talk and laugh about, we all just concentrated on commenting about whichsoever thing Essie did as we had breakfast. I think because we had similar thoughts of when Dad was to come back for the past years, he always came back around the 23rd. But since it was the dawn of the 24th, we were wondering what could be the cause of his delay and of course his presence meant having all our favourite snacks in plenty for the festive season. This didn’t stop the rest of the day’s activities and as usual I got busy in the kitchen in preparation of lunch and supper as the day grew older.
As we were having supper, we had a loud knock at the gate, and when Enock (one of my young brothers) went to open he shouted “Daddy.” We were all filled with excitement and anxiety of whether he was really the one. He was the one. We all smiled as Essie jumped and hugged the tired-looking head of our family.
25/12/25
Everyone woke up with excitement today. Though we are Seventh-day Adventists, we can’t hide away from the fact that this season is worth peacefully living since it brings us all together as a family.
28/12/25
The worship and praise songs of a nearby church woke me up today and this also reminded me that this is the last Sunday of the year. Well, I took some moment and reflected on how the whole year had been and this made me say a thankful prayer to God for having kept us all alive, something I never take for granted.
In the next few minutes, I received Douglas’s call and he was telling me how badly he misses me, and can’t wait for the semester to resume. We laughed about our usual flatter jokes and I started off the day with a peaceful heart. I refreshed and proceeded to the kitchen to do my daily routine chores.
Unlike other December days of holiday, today was quite different, for it was a cold one and most of the family members kept indoors, the rest of the day was a normal one though Dad came and gave me company for most of the time I spent in the kitchen. We laughed and had both childish and mature conversations. Well, am thankful today also went on well. I wouldn’t ask God for a better family than the one I have. ▪