Geotechnical Engineering in Uganda Series (004)_Tame Your Ego

Tame your EGO!!!! Easier said than done.

 

Class Incidence

I started off as a teaching assistant in Makerere University http://www.mak.ac.ug in August 2010. It must have been in 2011 or 2012 in Year 3 class for BSc. Civil and Environmental Engineering. I was teaching course unit of Foundation Engineering.  This lady must not have been happy for sometime with the way I was conducting the lectures. This day she stands up in the middle of the lecture and confronts me with a lot of anger. She was in the second row from the front of the class. The whole class was quiet. The silence was loud. This went on for like two to three minutes. Then the lady sat down quietly.

 

Either the lady must have studied outside Africa for sometime. Or she had relatives who were studying outside the country and kept comparing with what they were studying. Her complaint was that I was overloading them with unnecessary information, setting hard tests and examinations. I had also failed to explain in simple terms some of the theories in Foundation Engineering. This was in comparison to those outside universities she was in touch with.

 

My Reaction

I know everyone is waiting for my reaction after the incident. By the way the lady passed the course unit. When she sat down, I composed myself in a few seconds and continued with the lecture up to the end. I never invited her to my office to discuss the issues any further. And that is where it ended for her and the other students. But to me it never ended there. Up to now it is still going on. How I tamed my EGO at that time, ONLY GOD KNOWS. 

 

After the lecture, I went to my office and sat down. Put my head on the desk and started thinking. How could she humiliate me like this in front of the class? Punish her. Fail her. She has to come back next year. But what about the content of her statements? Was she right or wrong? I chose to learn from the incident rather than punishing the lady. Since that day, I have always compared my lecture notes to international universities. As I practice Geotechnical Engineering, I always compare the outputs like reports and designs to international standards. This has helped me greatly in improving myself.

 

To My Fellow Geotechnical Engineers

My fellow Geotechnical Engineers in Uganda, let go of the “I know it all” mindset and embark on the journey of lifelong learning. Ego puts you on the defensive mechanism which is not a good environment for learning. Prof. Denis Kalumba http://www.civil.uct.ac.za/denis-kalumba at the University of Cape Town and Prof. Umaru Bagampadde https://cedat.mak.ac.ug/staff-profiles/umaru-bagampadde/  at Makerere University have been very helpful.

 

On Sunday morning, I was listening to Robert Kabushenga https://twitter.com/rkabushenga being interviewed on Business Garage organized by Worship Harvest https://www.worshipharvest.org/ Ministries under Apostle Moses Mukisa. He emphasized the need to tame your ego if you are to succeed at anything in life. And it reminded me of that class incidence. How it put me on the journey of lifelong learning instead of punishing the lady.

 

So who is this lady? Where is she now? Unfortunately I do not remember her name. And can not even recognize her face now. If you were part of this class, and remember the incidence and lady, please contact me on +256 701166086 0r through sjjuuko1@gmail.com. I would like to get in touch with her and say THANK YOU for the lesson learnt early on in my life.