When George Mulindwa left Uganda 20 years ago, he did not travel to America to become a caregiver. He was a musician chasing a performance opportunity. He was travelling with the late music legend Elly Wamala, booked to perform at three universities in Washington, D.C.
‘Reggae got me onto the plane,’ Mulindwa recalls.
Two decades later, the stage is only one part of his American story.
Leaving home
Mulindwa says leaving Uganda was one of the hardest decisions he had ever made.
At the time, he felt Uganda was becoming a place where opportunities seemed increasingly out of reach. ‘I was thirsty for opportunity,’ he says.
But leaving was not simply a matter of buying a ticket and boarding a plane. He was leaving behind family, friends, culture and everything familiar for a country he knew largely through stories and images.
As his departure drew closer, one question persisted: ‘You are leaving, but will you ever return?’
He knew America offered opportunity, but not an easy life. He would have to work, learn and prove himself. His first opportunity came through music.
Before America, Mulindwa had performed with the New Generation Africa Band and later worked with Elly Wamala. When Wamala secured performances at three American universities, Mulindwa became part of the journey. Music opened the door. Life, however, had other plans.
America beyond the movies
The America was not what Mulindwa had imagined.
‘The America you see in movies is very different from the America you meet when your feet finally touch the ground,’ he shares.
He describes America as a demanding teacher. It talks, he says, and you had better listen.
Every person, regardless of their social standing, has something to teach you if you pay attention.
‘America is a country of opportunity and caution in equal measure. It can transform your life only if you bring discipline, wisdom, and emotional strength to the experience.’
The unexpected calling
Healthcare was never part of Mulindwa’s original plan. It entered his life almost accidentally. Some friends took him to the American Red Cross in Back Bay, Boston, where he began a healthcare course focused largely on geriatric care.
What started as professional training gradually became something deeper.
Mulindwa had lost his father at 12 years and was raised by five people, including his grandparents.
Growing up around them had taught him that care was not simply an emotion. It was an action.
That lesson would become central to his work.
‘Caregiving is simply love put on public display,’ he says.
His understanding of caregiving deepened when friends referred him to Travis Roy.
Roy, a former Boston University ice hockey player, had been paralysed from the neck down following a devastating accident just 11 seconds into his first university hockey game.
Mulindwa became his caregiver and driver, helping him with daily activities and accompanying him as he travelled across America sharing his motivational message. The experience etched a mark.
Roy introduced Mulindwa to people and opportunities, but most importantly changed how he understood time.
Time, Mulindwa learnt, is a currency. Once spent, it cannot be recovered.
His work with Roy also established his reputation. People began noticing the quality of his work and recommending him to others. One referral led to another.
His name began travelling ahead of him.
For Mulindwa, professional success in healthcare was built through trust. Trust begins with genuine care.
More than a job
Years in caregiving have taught Mulindwa about dignity, listening and making someone feel seen.
Sometimes, he says, patients cannot explain what they need. But their silence and body language still communicates volumes.
That is why he believes personalised care matters.
‘Care should fit someone like a custom-made suit,’ he says.
The job has demanded discipline and responsibility, but it has also exposed Mulindwa to the fragility of life.
And those experiences have inevitably found their way into his music.
The reggae never died
For all the years he spent building a career in healthcare, Mulindwa never left his music career. Reggae remained his refuge.
When work became demanding, and life complicated, music gave him solace.
His experiences as a caregiver, witnessing vulnerability, courage, memory, love and loss became raw material for his songwriting.
‘I don’t have to manufacture emotion because life places it in front of me every day,’ he says.
‘Healthcare is my profession, but reggae is the soul within me. George is the man; reggae is the soul within.’
His music draws from lovers’ rock and roots reggae and explores familiar but deeply human themes: love, relationships, family, pain and healing.
For Mulindwa, reggae is not simply entertainment.
‘Reggae is love, love is my religion, and music is my prayer,’ he says.
His philosophy has produced tangible milestones. In 2023, he won the Uganda Diaspora Music Artist Awards (UDMAA) Song of the Year award for Sophia, an achievement he says reassured him that music made sincerely can cross borders and connect with people.
He has also performed with the Conscious Reggae Band in New England and continued developing Lovers ReggaeFest.
The festival has become more than another event on the calendar.
For Mulindwa, it is a gathering around music, culture, love and community.
Its fifth Reggae Edition, themed Love Unites, is scheduled for February 13, 2027.
Carrying Uganda with him
Despite spending two decades in America, Mulindwa has never considered abandoning Uganda. He says Uganda gave him community, respect, resilience, and understanding that people belong to one another.
He carried the spirit of Ubuntu into his new life.
‘I am because we are,’ he says.
Those values, he believes, have been key in his caregiving career.
America gave him professional systems and opportunities while Uganda gave him the heart with which he entered those systems.
His connection to the Ugandan community has also grown through his role as President of the Ugandan American Association.
The position has reinforced his belief that leadership is not about titles.
It is about listening. It is about bringing people together. And it is about accepting responsibility.
Mulindwa wants whatever success he builds to create room for others.
The price of starting again
Beneath achievements lies a reality many immigrants understand intimately: success abroad can be emotionally expensive.
There have been moments when Mulindwa questioned whether leaving Uganda was the right decision.
Loneliness, pressure, and responsibility sometimes became overwhelming.
Thousands of miles from home, even ordinary problems can feel heavier because the familiar support system is no longer within reach.
There is also the danger of becoming consumed by survival.
‘America rewards hard work, but it can also consume your time,’ he says. ‘You may become so busy surviving and providing that you forget to live.’
For Mulindwa, one of the greatest challenges has therefore been building a life without losing himself in the process.
He also learned that the people who receive you when you arrive in a foreign country can influence your entire journey.
The right people can open doors, introduce you to opportunities and help you navigate unfamiliar territory, while the wrong environment can delay you or pull you away from your purpose.
What comes next?
In healthcare, Mulindwa wants to continue advocating for personalised care built around dignity, comfort, listening, and family rather than a ticked off list of duties.
In music, he plans to continue recording, performing and expanding Lovers ReggaeFest.
But, his biggest message may be for the generation of Ugandans dreaming of leaving home.
‘Travelling abroad does not remove struggle. It simply introduces you to a different kind of struggle.’
His advice
Work, learn, adjust and be prepared to begin again. And never abandon your gift simply because survival becomes demanding.
A job may pay the bills, Mulindwa says, but a calling reminds you who you are.
Music brought him to America but caregiving gave him purpose.
Bottom-line, Uganda, he insists, remains the place from which his story began.