I remember I met the first Croatian Priest in 1995 in Uganda called Ivica Peric. By then I was 11 years of age in Primary five with no mother and no father. As an African girl with African mentality life was not easy, I thought there was no any more life for me to live. Imagine what happened with me after meeting this Croat. He pushed me to go to school, to dig, to bring water, etc. I was a stubborn girl but what he emphasized most was education. He pushed me to do many things which I thought were impossible having been less exposed. He pushed me to play Table Tennis which I had never seen before and he emphasized I should come out the best in our village but to my surprised I reached on the National level in Uganda and this year on 5th to 21st August 2007, I represented my University in Thailand-Bangkok for World University Games.

He pushed me to learn about computer more so typing which was also a new thing to me but I did it well and now am a good typist, he pushed me to read books of which I did and I excelled and finished my University this year on 16th November 2007 with a good degree in Bachelors of Arts in Ethics and Development Studies from Uganda Martyrs University. Staying with this Croat gave me an opportunity to see things differently, to hope for the good future, to visit many places, to develop my morals and most of it was an opportunity to meet more Croats (Dobra grupa) who made me believe that all Croats are good people with golden hearts, fun guys and stress free guys. Some of these are Ana Markovic, Nikola, Tomo and Katarina (Ivica’s brother and sister in low), Alojz (Ivica’s Father), Ana and Mladenka (Ivica’s sisters) Mateja, Ana-Maria, Gabrijela, Miro, Mario, Sebastian, Josip and many more.

The most interesting was when I met my Guardian’s father who made me know that even whites can dig with their hands tirelessly. Through meeting these Croats I leant many things more so Croatian Language and I leant many words like Dobro Jutro, Sto ces jest, Kopaj Cvijece, Sta ima, Pasi travu, Kako si, Cokolada je dobra, Udari ga, Vinca rumena, Dobro spavaj, sretna nova Godna, Dobro dosao, Pomuzi Kozu, Ovuda, Pomuzi kravu, Ribo, nemuzi kozu, Nema para, Laku noc, U stadionu, Ima Boga, Imas snage, Fala; and many more.

In all this my guardian ever talked on my education and did all he could to make sure that I finish University. He gave me every thing I needed for school both Material and good moral advise. It is very interesting staying with Croats but really tough if you cannot work hard to prepare your future. My thanks goes to both Croats and non Croats who helped in all my struggles to finish my first level of education and more so I thank Father Ivica so much. Thank you for being a good tough parent.