Hang in there; there is a reason for it 

Someone born to great wealth and privilege once told me how she and her siblings would drive past the slums in their father’s big, flashy car, and look with great envy at the ghetto children happily playing in spite of all the filth around.

“I honestly wished I were them. They seemingly had nothing, but at least they looked happy and they were allowed to be children,” she said then.

On the contrary, her gilded childhood had every material thing a child could want, but no happiness. It was a family that often put on a united show for the public, but once the electric gate rolled back into place and they were in their mansion, it was horror after horror; trauma after trauma… the details of which are not my story to tell.

Bottom line, do not feel bad about your less-than-perfect circumstances; sometimes, they are exactly what the Lord knew you needed to thrive.

Even the friend above? Her quite successful, happy life now has been majorly defined by what she went through as a child.
That came back to me when I tearfully was watching The Ghetto Kids performing at Britain’s Got Talent. For orphans or vulnerable children with questionable backgrounds, these children would tell the average more privileged children in Uganda stories about the world that they have seen!

I don’t know how many talented Ugandan children watched The Ghetto Kids perform before Simon Cowell and their little jaws dropped with envy.

Yet, the only way those children could access the platform that they did, was by going through their current reality; their ‘unfortunate’ circumstances that made them end up in an orphanage and ironically, on some of the world’s biggest stages.

These children, who have said they are happy and well-looked-after, have been all over the world, met so many notable people and represented Uganda more solidly than anyone else. To think that their path to realizing their dreams had to be that way…!

Truth is, there are many children in Uganda that would be better off in foster situations than with their biological parents.

Even you as an adult could be lament- ing about your less-than-ideal circum- stances, but one day it will all make sense.

A pastor once said during a lunch hour fellowship: “The road to Canaan had to run through the wilderness; there could be no shortcuts.”

Similarly, for each of us, there is a de- fined path leading to our destinies. There are no two ways about that; so, make the best of the journey.

malita@observer.ug