Kampala — EVEN a blind man can tell when he is in the triangle of Maga Maga, Wabilungu and Wandago B. The naughty village carelessly sits astride the Jinja - Iganga highway at the Jinja-Mayuge border. Here, the nguli (local potent gin) stench hits your nose hard like a Kassim Ouma punch.

If your taxi stops at Wandago for a few minutes, you might leave the place drunk on the fumes alone.

To take a casual walk around, one has to hop like a kangaroo in flight. The paths are murky with puddles of dregs of sugar molasses that are disposed of everywhere. Any environmentalist worth his salt would go into a coma without pausing to make a will. And after helping themselves to these deposits and biting drunkards - did I see the flies and mosquitoes stagger in flight?

The grass is stunted and withered where the nguli is poured. And every home here is a brewery.

For sh200 to sh500, patrons here can shop for instant nguli happiness.

The compounds are strewn with raw materials, brewing regalia and the residents have lots of nguli-related tales to tell.

"If it was not for Nguli this village would have no graduates," says Wandago LC1 chairman Zirimenya, who graduated as a grade three teacher from Kyambogo Teacher Training College from nguli proceeds.

"At first, brewing was a part time occupation. But when salaries were not coming in time - I begun brewing full time to make ends meet," he recounts.

Asked who the funders of the booming business were, locals named Police officers, URA officials, teachers, doctors and soldiers.

And asked why Wandago is the biggest Nguli brewery in the country, Zirimenya said it dated back to the Idi Amin economic war of the 1970s.

"Sugar molasses was the business. It was used as sugar for tea and a raw material for brewing. And Wandago had a ready market for the brew in the Magamaga barracks. The soldiers even used to raid breweries that were in the forest to secretly drink the brew at night." He says that is how it became a domestic business.

In a community of an estimated 2,500 people, many a widow are able to singly manage their families with proceeds from nguli.

"I have nine children. Six are my biological ones and the other three are extended family. The oldest is 17. They all help in the family business of brewing nguli," narrates Merab Kasubo.

"Some kids fetch firewood others ferry the water. I used to be just a house wife. But friends advised me not to over depend on my husband. That it breaks marriages because the man becomes financially burdened," she says.

Today, with the brewery in place they share costs. When the husbands buys books for the children, she buys the uniforms. Speaking with confidence, Kasubo says she has learned how to make gin that can make an elephant stagger.

"It takes mature canes. For an investment of sh300,000 (gotten through microfinance projects) I can reap a profit of sh50,000 to sh100, 000. It's through Micro finance projects that we survive," says Kakubo.

In a related circumstance a majority of the women talked to have been widowed. Asked the cause of the death many said they were bewitched by a business rival in the nguli trade. Others give symptoms that reveal HIV/AIDS related circumstances like: lip cancer and weight loss having led to the deaths of their spouses.

A polygamist, Salongo Dumba, enjoys celebrity status in Wandago. Aside from having many wives and children, his home is filled with drums for beer brewing, raw materials and tools. He is a dealer in copper tubes, jerry cans and drums that are used for distilling.

He also employs a huge labour force to boost that provided by his numerous wives, relatives, in-laws and children.

Dumba says: "Nguli is the hoe in our village. I have educated my children up to Primary four, five and seven!" he boasts. "At least they are better than me who was not educated at all."

Dumba says the nguli is popular in Kenya, the DR of Congo and in Moroto district.

Come nightfall, the moonlight dances begin. Busoga FM plays lots of lingala, local and religious hits. Patrons sit under tree shade pubs as they watch drunken dancers shaking to the music. All this as suitors order kicomando (chapatti stuffed with beans) for the village belles. After guzzling ample portions of nguli brothers/friends end up sharing spouses. They quote the local proverb muka muganda wo otwala mutwale (if it is your brother's spouse you have a right to take her.)

One boda boda rider, John Mukabya says after drinking one glass of nguli, his dance strokes improve and no girls can resist his sweet words.