Good day to you all my tutors and learners here on Hive.

I remain this humble soul who is always ready to appreciate my existence on the surface, once we realize that staying alive is never by our power or might then we know that all we have to do in life is to thank God for his mercy and grace over us.

I remember days when we were kids. Only if I could be chanced to go back to those times again. But it's a pain and I can't go back anymore. All that's left for me now is to plan how to raise my kids and give them the best.

I remembered the days when we were still kids. Oh my God. What a bunch of lies we must have received from people, even our parents. But since we are kids and not exposed to the reality of life. So we are always left with no option but to believe all they told us. Even down to our teachers.

I remember some poems we were taught while we were still in nursery school. The way our teachers made us cram those songs is the way we accepted them and formed a meaning around them. It wasn’t their fault too because I am sure they taught us the way they were taught too. These days while growing up we get to see the true meaning of those rhymes and poems.

So if I should remember some of the lies I got while I was younger and never knew much but later found out they were all to prevent us from some kind of harm or just to teach us some life morals.

Don’t pick food that has fallen. The devil has eaten it.

This is a common lie we get from our parents, friends, and even teachers. A typical African especially from this part of the country will be able to testify to this. Many of my biscuits on the street are wasted and chickens will be the ones to benefit from them 😂.

Back then I believed so much in this and even I was part of those who spread the word to other kids who might have not heard about it. In the classroom, once a food falls from any student I will become the advisor telling them how the devil must have played along with such a person. The devil must be smiling somewhere. 😂.

Since no one knew how the devil looks or even where the devil lives. All we know is that the devil is an evil creature that promotes bad deeds. So these lies were easily impactful with the devil tag.

There was a day when I bought a biscuit. I was struggling with cutting the pack, then I decided to use my teeth to cut it. While dragging it with my teeth the pack toured with force and all the biscuits fell on the floor.
My belief came in. “All that falls on the floor, the devil has eaten it”. I stared at my biscuit and felt like picking it up. What if I ate the devil's remains and now started with bad behaviors? I dropped it on the floor again. And left it there. Only God knows the insect or chicken that ate them that day. They must have prayed a lot for me.

Since that very day, I make sure I am always so careful not to let my food fall on the ground again. 😂

My eye opener

There was a day Mum sent me on an errand. While I was going a woman was trying to pack her market because of the rain. She was rushing. She almost packed everything finished then it was left with the last basket of pepper. The baker slipped off her hands and all the pepper in it poured on the floor. I had to wait and see what she would do to the pepper on the floor. That should have been a waste on her side.

The next thing she did was to pack the pepper back into the basket. 😂. So who is going to buy these peppers that the devil has eaten? I went home and told Mum about it. She smiled and told me that there is a reason for them saying it was not good to pick up the food that already fell on the floor. And the reason behind it is personal hygiene.

The floor you wanted to pick something you eat from might be contaminated and healthwise might cause some disease in the body. So for that pepper, the reason she picked it was that even though it is raw food, and still has to be washed and cooked before eating compared to the biscuit that is already ready-to-eat food.

In conclusion

There are a lot of these lies we heard all around, some of which are just superstitions and some are there to teach us a lesson. I remembered back then when we were told Never to let a lizard see your teeth. It will never grow again. And count stones of your age, add your teeth, and throw them to the ceiling so they can grow.

_{This is my response to the prompt for week 60 edition 1 on the hive learners community and the topic to be discussed is CHILDHOOD LIES}.