Since for some people there can’t be a celebration without alcohol, it helps to know the dangers and steer clear of trouble or even death.

Dangerous Gin

Throughout the past years, alcohol has claimed more lives in Uganda than it has anywhere else. Apart from those who developed diseases out of too much alcohol consumption, dangerous local gins killed hundreds of people.

The gins packaged mainly in sachets killed a large number of people in Kampala, Mpigi and Entebbe, prompting the ministry then, to ban local gin packed in sachets. In Gulu, some people went blind after they allegedly consumed the waragi.

So, avoid the temptation to drink anything you are not sure is safe. Who knows some unscrupulous people could have hoarded the dangerous gin only to distribute it to unsuspecting people.

Old habits die hard

Over the weekend, people who quit bad habits tend to relapse. Former alcoholics are at the biggest risk. Whether you are sure you can never touch the bottle again, or not, it helps to completely avoid any situation that could tempt you to taste alcohol again. Face it, some people were just not meant to be alcohol consumers.

If you are the type that can’t handle your liquor, stay away from it.

Drink driving

This is an old song to many ears, but many accidents, including fatalities happen, are a result of driving under the influence of alcohol. At the risk of sounding like a traffic police, the call is to everybody to avoid driving when drunk. If you fail to get a sober person to drive you around, drink from home.

Violence

Increased violence levels during the night are usually blamed on alcohol. If you know that one pint works you into a rage, then leave the bottle alone. You don’t want to wake up from your drunken stupor only to realize that you hurt or killed someone.

Calories

For those who want to keep a healthy weight, alcohol is not such a good drink to have. According research, alcohol is mainly just a source of empty calories. Meaning it has no nutritive value other than providing energy. People who are overweight actually gain weight more easily when they drink alcohol. And calories from alcohol tend to be stored in the gut. If you want six-pack abs like Golola’s, you will need to cut down on the booze

Those who pride themselves in consuming only non-alcoholic beer, the drink actually has the same calories as alcoholic beer. The calories in alcohol are metabolized first by the body, ahead of burning fat, which is not desirable if one is on a weight loss diet.

Let’s be honest: when we look good, we feel good (and vice versa). The desire to want to look good every day is by no means shallow. If we don’t feel good about how we look, we may not be able to act as our best selves. Today I’m sharing my top tips for how to always look good – without going over budget.

But before we dive into how to look beautiful everyday, let’s discuss if it’s actually important first!

• Peeping bra straps crash your look. Some women are so busy that they don’t replenish their underwear. It is pathetic for you to wear a bra that has long lost its elasticity.
• When going for low cut outfits, make sure your breasts are not spilling over. If half of the breast is overflowing, look for something that fits, otherwise, you risk stepping out topless.
• Trousers that are so tight that they curve out your precious parts in a triangular shape for the world to see don’t favor your look at all. Leave a little bit of mystery to your dress with the way you dress.
• You will be shocked at what people wear underneath their clothes. A panty with holes has no place in your wardrobe or on your body. Wear clean and neat underwear.
• When choosing a handbag, do not opt for very small ones if you are a plus size lady. You risk looking like the elephant and it’s tail. Choose a handbag that is proportional to your body size.
• Skirts should not fold in layers around your hips. Buy something in an appropriate size that drapes properly against your hips and step out in style.
• Wear blouses that fit. Avoid those that gape and show off your undergarments.

Rose Kyeyune’s tomato plants were a foot tall, healthy, vigorous and ready to go into the ground.

But there was no ground left. Normally she would give them away to grateful friends, but these were greenhouse tomatoes, and at the time it was still way too cold to plant them outdoors.

Tomatoes already occupied much of her greenhouse space, and the extra bed she needed contained a crop of baby leaf cutting lettuce and a crop of radishes.

Rather than throw away the plants, she dug holes down the center of the bed and installed the tomatoes. They towered above the carpet of lettuce and radishes like trees above the forest floor.

Tomatoes are starving, thirsty plants that don’t like competition, but in this case they were too young to mind the radishes’ and lettuce’s small root systems. Furthermore, those crops were soon to be harvested, leaving the tomatoes free to ‘do their thing’.

Rose could also have sown those small, early crops in rows on either side of the tomatoes after they were planted. In fact the previously planted tomatoes had rows of head lettuces on either side, to be picked as soon as they were mature.

This cheek-by-jowl planting is called intercropping or inter-planting, and it’s a great trick to use when you’re short of space. The strategy in this case took advantage of the difference in maturity dates of the crops involved.

In another instance, it might rest on differences in plant structure. Rows of shallow-rooted onions might happily alternate with rows of tap rooted carrots, because they feed at different levels of the soil.

Rose explains that intercropping is like doubling your garden’s size. Next time you transplant brassicas such as Brussels sprouts, cabbages or kale into a bed, note how much extra room there is while the plants are small.

Any quick, leafy salad crop could occupy that empty area until the brassicas reach full size. A tall crop of corn or trellised beans could share ground with early leaf crops, which might even appreciate the shade they cast as days grow hotter.

Natives worked out intercropping long ago with the common “Three Sisters” system. A sturdy corn variety went in first, followed in a week or two by a circle of beans — a branching, shade-tolerant variety that used the cornstalks as beanpoles but did not drag them down.

A blanket of vining squash was allowed to cover the ground beneath, their big leaves suppressing weeds and helping the soil to stay moist.

The beans, thanks to the nodules on their roots that extract nitrogen from the air, contributed extra fertility for the other two crops, thus minimizing competition.

Together the sacred threesome yielded a diet rich in protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and oil.

Such skilled agronomy inspires great respect from this farmer, whose goal was merely to find a home for leftover plants and have more tomatoes for canning.

Walking out of a popular night club in Kampala, my friends and I could not help but notice a young lady on top of a car, clearly drunk, dancing away with a beer bottle in her hand. She was having the time of her life shouting and screaming without a care in the world as a group of girls cheered her on.

As we headed to our next destination we wondered, could we Ugandan women be turning into wild party animals? But we were just out having a few drinks, nothing wild. It is all just a bit of fun, going out and having a good time but what happens when the fun gets out of hand?

Over the years we have heard numerous stories about Hollywood party girls like Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Baines, Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson constantly checking in and out of rehab as a result of their extremely wild party lifestyles. The stars of Hollywood are a world apart from us, but are our very own Ugandan women on this destructive trail?

Many women have confessed to being taken up by the party lifestyle to the extent where they feel that their lives have literally passed them by. Their peers of the same age are now married, have families, built careers and stable businesses, yet they are still at square all in the name of having fun.

“In any nightspot in Uganda, the ratio of women going out is higher than men. When we organize events, we are guaranteed that there are going to be some familiar female faces that seem to have access and information about almost every single party or event taking place,” said an events manager with Silk Events.

But what does it really mean to be addicted to this lifestyle and simply going out once in a while. Denis Karungi, a psychology lecturer says, “The party lifestyle takes one up slowly and they feel that they want to be noticed and have a bit of fun. But the truth is that there is a big difference between being addicted to partying and going out once in a awhile or on weekends,”

Karungi emphasizes that nobody wakes up one morning and decides that they are going to become an addict. The energy rush that one gets from going out and enjoying themselves becomes like a drug, without it, she feels unable to function, if they miss a party, they feel it is the end of the world.

But, when do the alarm bells start ringing? James Onen aka Fat Boy, a radio presenter at Sanyu FM noted that the addiction to partying in women might be caused by a search for purpose that comes from a lack of self-esteem while others feel the need to remain relevant.

With every party, there is the alcohol, drugs and big spending. Nightlife in Uganda costs money and anyone wanting to have a good time needs to have quite a bit of it. The realities and dangers of binge drinking haunt Ugandan women. As many have confessed to drinking absurd amounts of alcohol with high alcoholic content. But that is not their only worry, drink driving, date rape and reckless behavior are all common with the party life.

Catherine (not real name) who was once a hard party girl recalls that she would drink large amounts of alcohol. She says that there were times when she even tried drugs with friends and she became a heavy smoker. Because of her lifestyle, her spending spiraled out of control and she was always often left with little or no money to live off.
Karungi explains that to fuel any addiction, one needs money and time. “This lifestyle needs a lot of money. There is always going to be a point when the money runs out and desperation sets in. the need to get money will lead one on a path that can be very destructive.”

Maintaining a steady job when one is out until the wee hours of the morning every night is virtually impossible. The vibrant night life in our society gives women options whether it is a cocktail party or an album launch for a popular artist, the parties are constantly flowing.

But the dangers that this life has on the health and well-being of women are more than devastating. According to Yedidah Biribonwa, the principal of Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing, Uganda has a serious problem with substance abuse whether it is alcohol or drugs. “The problem is affecting the mental health of many young people. There is need to warn people about the dangers of drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. It is important to young people especially to know the dangers of alcohol and substance abuse as the risk of addiction is very high. Anyone who feels that they have a problem should seek help before the problem spirals out of control,” she said.

A book Binge Britain written by Moira Plant, says that many young women drink because it gives them a sense of power, and they will often see drinking and even hangovers as a ‘badge of honour’. The risks of sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies are increased when women are drunk, people become very vulnerable when under the influence of alcohol and safe sex is not discussed.
Sophie, 26 years old recalls, “I was out all the time, there was no party that I was never at. For six years, I was trapped but my reality check came when I became pregnant and went to the hospital, only to be told I was HIV positive. At that point, all the partying and fun seemed to mean nothing. I had taken my life for granted and now I was losing it. My family had warned me, but, I never listened.”

Fat Boy believes that as time goes by there are some things that make one leave the party scene such as marriage, child-birth or family pressure. But not everyone is so lucky to just walk away without a scratch. This lifestyle has it’s dangers and once sucked in, it is very difficult to just walk away.