KIU, Western Campus – Chinua Achebe famously remarked in his popular book Things Fall Apart that “when hunters learn to shoot without missing, birds learn to fly without perching.”

The theme that this saying highlights is adaptation – that when new challenges suddenly spring up, nature is capable of finding new ways of survival.

Similarly, KIU Western Campus staff have found new ways of spending their time in the ongoing 21-day lockdown extension, defiantly looking the COVID-19 pandemic in the face.

University staff members in the staff quarters in “Lagos and Abuja,” in Bushenyi town and “white house” have developed daily work-out sessions to keep themselves fit while also spending their time in a healthy way.

Staff members do drills in the confines of their residences and hostels, like squatting exercises, jogging, short sprints, pushups, sit-ups, while the older ones do less energy-sapping ones like playing badminton.

Bernard Chuma Masese, a lecturer in the ICT department takes staff members in Lagos Hostel through a set of drills, while maintaining the mandatory social distancing, every evening from 6:00 P.M. to 6:55 P.M.

“Previously, we did not have enough time since most people were complaining of tiredness after a long day at work. But because of the lockdown, we now have enough time to improve our fitness,” Masese said. 

The university staff are following in President Yoweri Museveni’s footsteps, as he made a video demonstration on television on how to exercise within a small space. The President’s video went viral, and probably inspired many Ugandans, including KIU staff to follow his lead.