"Mama! Look what I've found!"
The child's mother straightens, glad for a moment's reprieve from her backbreaking work. She is too far away to see what the child is holding, but she is certain it will be worthless. Everything to the child is treasure: a paper bag, an empty tin, a coil of wire.
"Bring it here," she shouts.
Her child hop-skips down the rubbish heap, like some dark-skinned mountain goat.
He shows her his prize: a bag of rice, intact, enough to feed the whole family for at least three days.
For a starving family, it is treasure indeed.
