A letter to Gen Odillo
Sir, it is with great pleasure that I find this opportunity of communicating to you, through some light-hearted stuff. The last time I wrote an open letter to the Army Commander was to your predecessor, about two years ago.
As a kid growing up, I always dreamt of becoming a soldier and probably that is why I was so much into the world of toy guns and war games that would also involve pelting each other with the then popular ziputu. I was so good that my peers called me ‘Rambo’.
Those, sir, were days of real adventure when boys were boys and not the funny world of play station as it is now. I also had my own ‘army’, and I realised how much power I had when my commands would be followed by my subjects—saluting me before they left for their tasks. I felt proud as my charges marched as I barked: ‘Left! Right! Left! Right! About turn!’
Back then it used to be so much fun and when I ‘shot’ my enemies, they would fall head first and ‘die’, but the same did not apply to me as I told them I was bullet-proof. It was, sir, part of the superiority game. Sadly, though, I never realised my dream of becoming a real soldier because of some discouraging tales I heard. Otherwise, our northern part neighbours would not have dared to play some funny games over the Lake Malawi issue.
Some used to say a soldier off to a war is assured of long, cold and lonely nights away from their spouses. This to me was the biggest challenge in life because I could not imagine ‘osagona pa charger’. I also heard that the training is so gruelling that it takes a genuine man to succeed. It was after seriously considering all that, that I found myself in sports journalism.
Sir, the Army has also been the platform for many people to expose their sporting talents and over the years we have cherished the likes of Collins Thewe, Franco Ndawa, Wilfred Nyalugwe and Dave Banda while Mafco’s Callisto Kalinda and boxers Chimwemwe Chiotcha, Wilson Masamba and Osgood Kayuni also look set to earn medals for the Army.
It is such people that I promoted and offered special incentives in my ‘army’. It, therefore, felt so good when I learnt that you promoted Mafco players and officials in recognition of their feat to defy all odds by beating Silver Strikers to win the 2013 Presidential Cup. It is with that in mind, that I salute you my ‘fellow’ General.
Yours trully, Garry. Glory be to God! Uloliwe.. Uloliwe wayidudula hi..Nang’esiza! [The train is pushing!]
