What brings you alive?
God, so listening and reading the word. I spend a lot of time in solitude reading, praying, and listening to the word of God and yoga. I also enjoy listening to gospel music, traveling, and watching a good film, home cooked food, spending time with my family and with people I find genuine and can connect with.
What makes you proud to be a Ugandan?
Basically, Uganda is part of me so I cannot disassociate myself with my country. I also love my name Lunkuse. Uganda is home and it is very beautiful country. Ugandans are hard workers, entrepreneurial and creative people. I love the countryside. The roads are fine. I love the weather and nature in my country.
What things do you enjoy doing in Kampala?
I enjoy hanging out at National Theatre and watch plays
What is your favourite eat-out place, and why?
I like being taken out and spoilt at a Thai or Indian restaurant that’s by the water. I enjoy seafood but I generally enjoy home cooked food. I find cooking therapeutic. I experiment with foods because I am a good cook.
What was your initial or first travel experience? What memories did you carry from it?
I was in August 2015. I went to Ghana to pursue a bachelor’s degree in business administration. I had an extremely good time. I met friends that I can still make a phone call to. My first travel experience gives me nostalgia and I would be happy to return and visit West Africa.
What are your top travel destinations locally and beyond? And why?
I love Fort Portal. Not the town but inside where the craters are found. I like traveling to the Rweteera Safari Park mostly because of the canoeing experience.
I have been Kibale National Park, Kisoro, Queen Elizabeth National Park, to Gulu and Jinja. I am not attracted to fancy places but suitable weather.
Beyond Uganda, I was in the Maldives for a couple of weeks in 2017 and would happily return there. I’ve been to Thailand and Zanzibar which I loved for the oceans. I also loved Gisenyi in Rwanda. With water, I am assured of peace of mind, and I can read a book.
What makes or breaks your travel experience?
Water. Trees. A wild outdoor experience and a tightly knit group of people. I enjoy of company of people who are dear to me.
If I have bad blood and we break into a fight, it breaks my experience. I am a genuine person. I don’t have to try so much to measure up to someone’s experience. I hate racism because I do not appreciate being segregated.
What would you like to see done better in Uganda’s tourism sector?
It should start with us traveling. We have a mindset that it’s expensive to travel yet we can travel on a budget. We can travel through partnerships or as volunteers.
We’ve left tourism to foreigners so there’s need for sensitization. Travel is therapy. It brings new experiences and is fulfilling.
We need to tell people that they can travel to Jinja, pay, and stay in a hotel for a few days and visit the Source of the Nile or waterfalls, go to Queen Elizabeth, Sipi Falls, an island for a weekend and spend ion yourself. We must encourage local inter-country tourism.
We need to be considerate when pricing the foreign tourists because they also travel on budgets. Then it is okay to have mzungu friends and not be taking money from them. The way we treat them will determine if they return or not.
Which travel destinations are on your travel bucket list, and why?
Senegal. I’d like to go back to Maldives, Thailand and Zanzibar, India, Seychelles, Poland, and Hollywood. I would like to experience the culture. I want to experience Francophone countries and find new places to ignite something in me, meditate and bod with people.
What do you love about your culture?
Identity that mg culture gives me. I’ve picked traits that are part of me. Lunkuse as a name given to firstborns like queen mother.
Even if I went anywhere, the Africanness and authentic and Ubuntu remain with me.
