Difficult economic times call for extreme measures. A motherly, average-sized woman lovingly cuddling her nine-year old child in her semi-rural compound does not raise anybody’s eyebrows.
Except when the 'child' is a 30-foot python coiling around her, feeling her all over to get the motherly warmth that it has apparently been used to for all of its life.
Her name is Nalongo, which is a title given to a mother of twins in her culture. The brown skinned Nalongo says her husband died when she was heavily pregnant in December 2007 and soon after she delivered twins, the first was a girl who is now in boarding school, but the second one could not be sent to the same school or any school for that matter, having been born in a snake’s body.
And now at nine years, the 'child' is a full grown python, still staying at home with mom.
Nalongo told the government-owned Bukedde TV that she has been getting along relatively well with neighbours at Nakawuka village located somewhere off the Entebbe Kampala road, are supportive and understand her situation, unlike her family who have shunned her.
But as her story became public recently, she lamented her new predicament as she cuddled her python child. Some unsympathetic people had drawn the attention of the wildlife authorities to her baby and they had come to try and take him away.
She got some temporary reprieve when she explained to the zoologists that she is the only one who knows how to feed and care for her 'child'. They saw sense in her argument and also said on camera that they cannot take her 'child' to live with animals and snakes, yet it does not know how to defend and fend for itself out there.
Of course, the issue of taking the human mother with it to the zoo or the national parks to look after it from there is out of the question. So the status quo still has to be maintained as they figure out what to do with the thirty-foot reptilian child.
Of course nobody believes that a human being can give birth to a snake. But sympathizing with the length to which she went to get public attention, neighbours talk strongly in her support.
One lady asked interviewers to imagine how they would feel if their child went missing for even just one hour, so as to understand how Nalongo feels when people want to take away her 'child' to make it live among snakes.
Nalongo also shares another acute problem she is facing. Apparently, no guy wants to remain her lover for long. She has started some affairs, but once the men realise she gives birth to snakes, they abandon her and leave her feeling jilted.
How is the exposure supposed to help Nalongo? Apparently, her 'baby' eats 40 eggs a day and since she has no steady income, well-wishers should come to her aid...