BOOKS: Life’s a journey, enjoy the views along the way
Friday November 01 2019
'The Expatriate Wife' by Rosette Mugidde Wamambe. The book explaining her struggle with identity as a career woman, mother and wife. PHOTO | TEA
When Rosette Mugidde Wamambe was faced with either pursuing a corporate legal career at a top oil company or becoming a stay-at-home mother, she chose the latter. That was over 10 years ago.
This year, she published an autobiography titled The Expatriate Wife explaining her struggle with identity as a career woman, mother and wife.
She takes the reader on a personal journey of self-discovery, identity creation and life abroad as she supported her husband’s career.
She dreamt of becoming a lawyer, like her father. She, however, got a rude awakening when her A-level results did not meet the threshold for a scholarship for a law degree at Makerere University.
Her father enrolled her under the private scheme at the Makerere University Law School.
In 2004 she met and married Benjamin Wamambe. She later joined Total Uganda Ltd and also attained a Master of Science in Human Resource Management and Development.
In 2007, Benjamin took up an appointment with the African Development Bank in Tunis, Tunisia, and she was then forced to make tough decisions.
She quit her job and accompanied her husband. But it did not take long for her frustrations to emerge.
She started a on a self-discovery journey by reading Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life and took several temperament and personality tests.
Soon again the family had to move to Abidjan, Ivory Coast and later to South Africa.
She occupied herself by writing about human resource management topics in the Uganda Law Society Newsletter.
“I realised I had never really given thought to what stay-at-home mums do in order to stay mentally active.”
In 2016, she launched her Fulfilled Life blog in which she encourages other women on life.
“The blog helped me to tap into the things I love doing; Reading and sharing what I have learnt.’’
Johannesburg has opened doors for her and has met several women who are expatriate wives too.
Her book tackles their challenges, and reflects the cycle of life.
For long, I was so fixated on getting to the mountaintop that I did not enjoy the views along the way. Once I was at the peak, I wanted to stay there, permanently. I have since learnt that life is a series of ridges. Every peak is vastly different, but not any less enjoyable.”