DON'T FEED THE PIGEONS

"Feral pigeon nuisance is a common problem in many cities around the world. Feral pigeons are not afraid of people. They roost and nest readily in man- made structures and have a diverse diet. The droppings of feral pigeons may help spreading harmful germs"

In Hong Kong, one can get a penalty for feeding the pigeons roughly $1500. 
That is the case for pigeons but translate it into the streets of Kampala and it is the street children. Today, I boiled two eggs and gave them to a hunger stricken little guy on one of the hills of Kampala. I just had to give him those eggs but he didn't eat!!! I knew he wanted money so he was in for a long wait before he could finally eat his eggs. 

Every time, I want to pick money out of my pocket, I remember my friend who always tells me,''stop feeding the pigeons if you want a clean city" turns out the analogy of pigeons is what is suffering the city of Kampala.  
Let me first put out a disclaimer: I am a very compassionate person, I love people and I do charity.

But let us see our reality for a few minutes, the little children that beg on our streets suffer our hearts and our compassion but also are the true definition of what is wrong with Uganda.
If you are going to help a person, do more than give them a coin a day. In our need for validation and a check on our christian or Muslim  values, we give money to the poor and pay zakat respectively. But what if in what we are doing we have nursed out a begging syndrome? We keep on giving the street children money and have created for them a living in that way, they will keep festering our streets and soon enough they will grow old enough to sniff fuel and collect plastic bottles and when the lucrative part of that job is worn out, they will go into organized crime. And lo and behold! we would have been part of the making of the feared Kifeesi and other crime gangs in Uganda.

So don't feed the pigeons if you don't want your city to be dirty, The other day, I saw a mother let her baby do number two by the road side and after she got some papers, pick it up and threw on a growing dump of waste that was made by them. I thought of how dry it would be soon and how the wind will blow the seemingly cleared feaces into the air, then when the wind comes I will come and breath that air or even have the dust on my face. Ewww. 

The downside of  this development is that while we have street children,we do not have the mechanisms and the safe nets to take care of them. And as we all know, "some lady ate their money." We all know that the street children are of karimajong descent.
That aside, while these children go through traumatized childhoods, rape and pregnancies of men that are questionable in character, we continue to keep them on the roads by giving them miniature bites of silver and gold coins just to keep them going on. We have not equipped them with systems to rehabilitate them, empower them and take them off the streets.

What we could do as a society, is build shelters and rehabilitation centers separate from drugs abuser homes. Homes to rehabilitate street children. Most of these children, their greatest problem is a run away syndrome and hunger. They need to be taken off the streets! I dream of a day when I take a taxi, or uber I don't want someone wiping the windows with a dirty rag just for a coin. 

I guess we all need to stop giving the street children money then they will be gone off the streets.

BE YOU. BE FREE. JUST BE

If you ever feel cornered to compromise, remember YOU.

The world has taught us, that people matter, relationships matter, their opinion as well as their silence. We have been taught to live selflessly and to love others, to take compliments and in the world of social media to love the likes and the comments. God how we hate it when they don't like us or even when we don't fit in with the group.

But that suffocates the "You" that you are. It creates mini versions of society's kind of people. It creates undertones and soft treading. Eventually we are afraid to step on each others toes and we can't dish out good criticism and we as well can't help but stay on the offensive. We become judges of this world and we second guess everyone's actions towards us. And then we wonder why we have a generation of depressed, anxiety filled and panic stricken beings.

We are worked up by how people act or how they respond to us. But they are just being themselves, I am an advocate for real. Be you, be the jerk that you are or the princess that you are, be outspoken or gentle in speech, be all that you are maybe you will in the end attract your own tribe. The universe has a way of bringing us to what it is that we are looking for. And in those moments you will find liberty in owning you and in living without pretense.

The problem with neglecting who you really are is in the fact that no one really cares. No one cares that at the end of you being nice and stepped on and abused and being nice and holding back, you actually are miserable. You are dying and no one really cares that you are.
So stay miserable on the account of others. No way.

They will tell you, be selfless and think about others. The truth is no one is thinking about others in the long run, they are thinking about themselves. That is the irony of life and that by far makes living worthwhile if we can do it for ourselves. Until you meet someone, willing to really live for  you.
When that time comes, you will not second guess the need to be selfless, kind and all in. You will see it in their lives, in their continuous struggle to stand with you. And you will try and you will reciprocate their concern for you.

In the mean while, Do you. Be you. Embrace the opportunity to flourish and to laugh, laugh hard(they will stare and judge) laugh anyway. Love hard( they will underscore your care) love anyway. Go to bed happy, you deserve a dry pillow. Call who you want to call, they will get used to hearing your voice in  the end. Go where you want to go, try to challenge your status quo. Do you girl, do you big guy. Eat what you want to. We already have enough judges for the world, don't be one of them. Don't be grumpy, be comfortable in finding  peace in the You that you are.
So I am here, typing and someone will read this and roll their eyes. Roll them if you want to. I am good. Some one once said, "I is a very selfish letter"

BE YOU. BE FREE. JUST BE

AS WE LIVE ON

It is of great joy when we learn to live in calm, in hope and in expectation of what this life has to offer us in due time.
Between the chaos of life and the peace our hearts desire, we find oursleves in the onset of strife and we try so hard to make this life work.

We look around and it seems like we are stuck in moments, sometimes we have no hope of getting beyond where we are.
Do you ever sit and feel like everyone has managed to make it across life apart from you? Ever wonder where your dreams went or why they look to be on hold?
Between such moments we forget to see the hope in front of us.We miss the love, the joy set in our bosoms, the laughter that eases the ache and the people set on our journey to make it lighter and easier. It is in those many moments that I want to stand with you and tell you that life should not get in the way of you living.

Live and enjoy the moments, laugh, cry and then pick yourself up and live. Life is many things, yes the storms come and for that they will be many of them but so does the sunshine, so does the rainbow. Give yourself permission to be happy and to take the joy set before you in this life. You have that choice, I pray you choose that.

Many times, we are so busy comparing our journey with others that we fail to enjoy our own.We look into the things happening for others that are not happening for us and we miss the details of events that would have changed our lives.
It is your journey  and it is to your benefit that you live a life that you would be happy to remember. Live large and live fully. You don't have to have it all figured out, you just have to know where the road leads, and where the joy comes from.

Remember this life is all you've got and it is much better to walk through it with your head held up than with your head down,missing the beauty that life  often is. It is beautiful when you start to live, to laugh, to dance, to love and to be alive in the moments of life.

See the beauty that life is, and in the end the load will be lighter and much more bearable. It will ease the ache in the heart and the churn in the stomach.It will make life a better place.
So don't stop fighting for joy, don't stop finding peace in the storm.

Find a way of living and letting life go on.

Of poems that make me calm: Lemn Sissay

INVISIBLE KISSES

written by Lemn Sissay

If there was ever one
Whom when you were sleeping
Would wipe your tears
When in dreams you were weeping;
Who would offer you time
When others demand;
Whose love lay more infinite
Than grains of sand.

If there was ever one
To whom you could cry;
Who would gather each tear
And blow it dry;
Who would offer help
On the mountains of time;
Who would stop to let each sunset
Soothe the jaded mind.

If there was ever one
To whom when you run
Will push back the clouds
So you are bathed in sun;
Who would open arms
If you would fall;
Who would show you everything
If you lost it all.

If there was ever one
Who when you achieve
Was there before the dream
And even then believed;
Who would clear the air
When it’s full of loss;
Who would count love
Before the cost.

If there was ever one
Who when you are cold
Will summon warm air
For your hands to hold;
Who would make peace
In pouring pain,
Make laughter fall
In falling rain.

If there was ever one
Who can offer you this and more;
Who in key less rooms
Can open doors;
Who in open doors
Can see open fields
And in open fields
See harvests yield.

Then see only my face
In the reflection of these tides
Trough the clear water
Beyond the river side.
All I can send is love
In all that this is
A poem and a necklace
Of invisible kisses.