Long time ago, there was a village located far away from water bodies. Not even a single borehole was fixed in the entire village. The inhabitants used to get enough water during the rainy season, where rainwater used to be collected in pools.
During the dry season, the inhabitants used to dig wells too deep to get the underground water. However, some wells could not keep water during the dry season. There were only a few wells which used to keep water, but they were totally congested, making it hard for people to get enough water. So, life was hard in the village.
But one good thing was that, crops used to yield well. Food was available all the time. The major challenge was the scarcity of water. Because of lack of enough water, people used to eat once a day and take shower once a week. Women could only take showers halfway, but not on a daily basis.
This taught the whole village how to economise food and water. Of course, food is prepared using water and water is drunk after food is eaten. So, the economization of the two move together. So, the inhabitants adopted a mechanism of offering either food or water, but not both.
Visitors were given two choices to choose from. When a visitor arrived, the owner of the house could come closer and ask the visitor, would you like to eat or drink? If a visitor chose to drink, he would not eat. If he chose to eat, no drinking at the end. Remember there was no “all of the above”. It was up to the visitor to choose wisely. This was to balance life.
With the unending economic crisis in South Sudan, where food and water are scarce, I can see life is as hard as life in that village. As visitors pour in day in, day out, from the periphery of the city, it continues shrinking the economy of the city dwellers, making them almost adopt a mechanism of asking visitors a question, would you like to drink water or eat food? This is not stinginess but economization.
In Africa, I have been told there is a certain community in which, if a visitor arrives at lunchtime, he would take lunch with the members of the household, but his tomorrow’s lunch will be on his own neck. Such a community is much wealthier than other communities, I’m also told so.
I’m not telling South Sudanese, in any way, to adopt such a culture. But the way I see the economic crisis complicating lives forces me to cite such a scenario. Sincerely speaking, since the recent skyrocketing of prices, so many people have moved from one meal per day to zero meal per day.
Some families have relocated to where they would get leftovers, while others have become mobile as they search for places where funeral rites and thanksgiving ceremonies are being conducted just to break their starvation. They hope for an improvement, but it seems to take longer time. The dollar rate has de-escalated but the prices remained high, making it hard for a common man to put food on the table.
The government should talk to the prices to climb down on the palm tree or whatever tall tree the prices have climbed on. If the prices refuse to climb down, then they should be shelled with an RBG to fall down. The government should do all it takes to improve the people’s lives.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.