This story of the poor woman in the neighborhood starts in a village with a poor woman. This woman resided in the village with her daughter. The poor woman makes native soap for a living. The woman requires empty palm bunches and other things for making the native soap.
So, every day the poor woman and her daughter would get all the materials that she needed to make her native soap. After making the soap, several people would come from other villages to buy the soap. The soap was so good that people from different places would come and buy the soap.
One faithful day after the poor woman and her daughter had prepared the native soap, they waited for people to come and buy it. However, nobody came to buy the soap. The poor woman and her daughter waited and waited from in the morning till night and yet nobody came to buy the soap from them.
The poor woman and her daughter had hoped that if they sold the soap for that day, they would make some money and use it to feed themselves. However, they didn’t and the poor woman and her daughter had no food at home.
The daughter of the poor woman eventually became too hungry. She then cried and this made her mother go and meet a rich woman. This rich woman lived in the same neighborhood as them and so the poor woman went to meet her to beg for food.
The wealthy woman and her seven daughters threw the poor mother out of her house after she embarrassed and humiliated her. The poor woman then went to the gate of the house along with her daughter. There, begged the rich woman for food.
The wealthy mom and her daughters didn’t seem to care that they were crying nonstop. Instead, they would go and chase the woman away from their house. The rich woman’s daughter told the poor woman that they didn’t need anything from her.
After they were chased away by the poor woman and her daughter, they went back to their house without any food. The poor woman and her daughter thought that they would stay hungry forever. As they were heading home, both of them saw a figure standing in the road.
This person was obstructing their way. Both the mother and her daughter couldn’t recognize the person at first, then as they got closer, they could see that it was their relative. The woman recognized her sister-in-law.
The sister-in-law came to visit her and she brought with her lots of food items. The poor woman greeted her warmly inside the house and opened the door for her right away. The poor mother also informed her sister-in-law of her daughter’s and her own misfortune.
The sister-in-law showed the poor woman the food items she got her and the poor woman cooked and she and her daughter ate that night and they went to bed.
The rich woman’s daughters visited the herbalist because their mother was sick. They paid him and he also asked the rich woman to bring an empty palm branch. This was quite impossible because the palm branch was scarce. The only place that it could be found was in the house of the poor woman.
Knowing what they did to the poor woman, the rich woman’s daughter couldn’t go to the poor woman’s house. After they summoned courage, they decided to go to the poor woman’s house to get the empty palm branches.
They needed the palm branches to save their mother’s life. So that the herbalist could make a concussion that would heal their mother. When the daughters reached the poor woman’s house, they begged her for the empty palm branches. The poor woman told them that before she could give them the empty palm branches, they needed to give her half of their mother’s wealth.
The poor mom refused to give in to her daughter’s persistent begging. Then the poor woman narrated to the people what the rich woman and her daughter did to her when they had nothing to eat. After hearing the story, the people took the poor woman’s side and blamed the rich woman.
While all this was happening the rich woman’s illness became serious and her daughters were left with no option. They had to give half of their mother’s wealth to the poor woman for them to save their mother’s life. One important lesson from this story is that the good fortune in this life shouldn’t be taken for granted. Sharing what we have with others is a skill that we should all possess. This is the end of the story of the poor woman in the neighborhood.
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