riches and povertyUganda:

Rich in flowers and fruits, fields of rice and tea on green slopes, sweet with sugar cane, bananas and pineapple
Rich in fertile red soil and long bumpy tracks stretching through grassland.

Poor in 12 furrow ploughs, wide boom sprayers and combine harvesters.

Rich in children running and laughing, chatting and chasing, hiding and seeking
Rich in tight beaded hair and babies on backs

Poor in toys and TV, in Xbox and apps. Poor in babies bottles and buggies

Rich in tatters and rags and second hand clothes, in grime and red dust, and going bare foot
Rich in receiving in gratitude-rich in gladness and glee for a new pair of pants

Poor in lace underwear, disposable nappies, in tissues and tampons or cleansers and wipes.

Rich in simple home cooking on charcoal in pans, hand slapped
chapatis and chai, matoke and yams

Poor in haute cuisine, food fads, ready meals, processed foods and over indulgence.

Rich in salesmen and women plying their trade, mobile head high banana vending weaving through traffic, looking in wound down windows for hunger or thirst.
Rich in ramshackle shacks selling just what you need.

Poor in unemployment benefit, income support, and all trappings of the welfare state.

Rich in wandering wildlife, herds of elephants, giraffe, heaving hippos. warthogs squabbling,
Rich in long horned cattle walking the streets, goats tethered and tamed, foraging chickens and turkeys at school.

Poor in pampered pets and veterinary care. Poor in factory farming and mass production.

Rich in welcome and greeting, in hugging and handshakes

Rich in music and singing and drumming and dancing

Rich in faith

Rich in love

Rich in hope.

 

 

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