When you cross paths with Mr Tamale Henry manning his mobile money business, it is difficult to believe that he is a trained teacher. I first met with Henry at a neighbourhood school I had decided on having my niece registered. He received and I my niece cordially, guiding us on the school registration process early last year. 

When the government of Uganda imposed a lockdown in March 2020 to limit the spread of COVID-19, we all thought that the measures would last a few weeks and we would return to our jobs and have our lives back. Unfortunately for Henry, reality struck and he realised he had to find an alternative income source. I remember bumping into him riding a bicycle laden with books. He intimated to me that he had resorted to selling textbooks in the neighborhood so his family would have food, water and a place to call home. He scoured the Bbiina, Bweyogerere, Kireka, Banda, Nakawa territory, looking for parents who needed material to home school their children. After a while business slowed down because parents sent their children to the villages because everyone was running low on costs. 

Five months of selling textbooks had enabled him keep afloat and save a little. He gathered his savings and opened up a mobile money outlet close to where I live. I naturally was drawn to him partly because I knew his struggles and also because he has amazing customer care and he is generally a good person. He says his mobile money business is more stable and more predictable than vending Textbooks. He hopes to return to the classroom, he says he misses his pupils. He misses school, misses imparting knowledge. "When you've been a teacher for 12 years, you don't just walk away from a vocation that defines you because of the inconvenience covid-19 has been," he says.