Nansamba O. Karema
13 September 2008
54-year-old Regina Amollo is a mother of two girls and a senior nursing paediatrician. Amollo is also an author. She has had five books published, two of which are used by literature students in two universities in USA. The titles are, A Season of Mirth, When Mother Leaves Home, Those Days in Iganga, The Pain of Borrowing and When Odongo Swallowed A Bone.
This lamp holder did not study to become an author. After her primary seven at Lwala St. Mary's primary School in Kaberamaido District, she joined St. Mary's College Namagunga. She however dropped out in senior two because her parents could not afford the school fees. She applied for nursing on government intake, and lied about her age. "For one to join nursing, they had to be 20 years and above. I was 15 years old," remembers Amollo.
Luckily enough, she passed the interview and was admitted to Lira Nursing School, where she enrolled as a nurse, and was posted to Moyo Hospital and later Iganga Hospital. Throughout her academic life, Amollo's interest had been reading. "I started reading story books in primary six, and throughout my studies and work, I spent my free time reading novels," she says.
Her passion for reading opened the doors to her writing career. While in Iganga, accessing books to read was hard because there were no public libraries. "One evening, the thought of writing crossed my mind and I took it serious. I began planning on my first book; A Season of Mirth," she says. In 1976, while at Mulago School of Nursing and Midwifery, she sought help from Mr Austin Ejiet, the then head of Literature Department at Makerere University.
He directed her to Uganda Literature Bureau, where she met Mr Barnabas Erone. He liked the write-up and approved it. "The comments he gave are the ones I used on the back of the book. I did not change anything," she remembers. It was approved for publication in 1990, but was published in 1999. "I kept it in my suit case for nine years before publication," she narrates.
She took it to Femrite, an organisation for female writers and it was published. This gave her courage to write more. In 2004, Femrite sent her to Zimbabwe to attend the Zimbabwe International Book Fare.
This gave her an opportunity to meet with other writers from all over the world. In 2005, she was invited to attend the 31st African Teachers' Association Conference in Colorado, USA. She presented a topic "With a lamp in her hands; writing and nursing," that was telling the story of her life. She also talked to students and lecturers of Monmouth University, one of the two universities that use her books.
On her return, she expected her friends and fellow medical workers to be happy for her, for being able to hit two birds with one stone. However, she was received in a totally different manner. She was isolated from the rest by her bosses in Soroti Hospital and says she was even threatened. Writing had brought her fame, and she received many opportunities to travel.
"Since then, they never sent me for any seminar or training, I never received any other promotion, while other nurses of my rank and who came after me were being promoted," she narrates. However, she never complained to anyone. "I always want to keep peace with people. I therefore decided to be silent and perform my duties like before," she says. In March this year, she was transferred to Fort Portal Hospital and says that she is working under the supervision of a junior nurse. However, this has not made her give up on her writing career.
"I usually joke with my children that writing has taken all my medical medals away. But I have not given up, although I now do it in my house, with the door locked," she says. She thinks that if her bosses in Fort Portal Hospital learnt that she was an author, they would treat her in the same way. "I read from public libraries which is the only place you can rarely find a medical personnel," she says.
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