An average African parent is always right. Well, from their perspective though. They always have this belief that we their children can never see what they see and as such, we should always dance to their tone. Its crazy and frustrating at times but well, they are our parents. Correcting them is the worst mistake a child can ever do. The see us their children as people who knows nothing and need to be guided in all ramifications.
There are times when my parent will be wrong but I can not do anything about it and there are times when they are absolutely right.
A time when my parents were right was when we relocated to the east from Kaduna.
We the children were told not to collect anything from anyone, not even a our cousins, we were told to abstain from people and always be on our own. To be careful with people in general no matter how nice they seem.
Being people who came from the North, we lived a life of being your brothers keeper, a life of love and be loved, care and be cared for, we lived a life of doing things together without any suspicion. Based on this, we could not follow the words of my parents, so we went ahead to do make friends, eat from friends, give friends our money and do many things with our friends not knowing that "no good deed goes unpunished."
Few months after we came back and we were vibing with our friends, my leg started swelling. It started like a pimple on my leg but it had a little pus, so I thought it was just a regular thing that happens and I didn't give it much attention but I popped it. After some days, it became bigger and more painful. I was surprised but still decided to observe it. One week passed and my leg became almost as big as a yam. That was when dear gripped me. My mom knew what happened but she allowed me to feel the pain a little because I did not listen to her words. When the thing began to swell uncontrollably, she called me and scolded me. she had to take me to a native herbalist and I was told that somebody spiritually sent a disease to affect me. This disease is called Acha-ere. I don't really know the English name but i think it's elephantiasis. After 2 weeks of treatment, my leg began to come back to normal and I began to get my self little by little.
This incident made me to greatly reduce the way I row with people in the east, and it also made me stop telling people when I am prospering.
The one time my parents were wrong was few months ago.
My parents and siblings came to umuahia Abia state for something and I was called to come so I could join in the thing. Due to its importance, I had to leave everything I was doing and left immediately for umuahia. We were all happy and the day went as planned.
When we were going inside, my cousin sustained an injury to his leg and was bleeding.
When my mom saw this, she immediately asked my brother to get some leaves so she could place on the wound and apply pressure to it, forgettin that she has a son who is a nurse. I slapped my forehead in disappointment and I reminded her that I'm a nurse. Guess what she said?
She asked me: and so? Who have been taking care of you since you were a child?
I tried to tell her that she was doing the wrong thing and could introduce micro organisms to the wound. She replied and told me that I am speaking too much, this is how she took care of me if I had an injury when I was a kid.
I didn't want to be shouted at and I didn't want anyone to call me "oga i too know," so i decided to leave her do what she think is right. After about 3 hours of her treatment, her patient (my cousin) developed a moderate fever and i called her attention to it. I explained that the fever means that the body is fighting against infection and if proper care is not given, my cousin may be admitted to the hospital. After much explanation, she reluctantly agreed for me to carryout a proper nursing care.
I immediately took my cousin and place the affected area under a running tap to wash away everything, but not the clot that have already started forming. After that, I gave paracetamol and some prophylactic antibiotics to help reduce the inflammatory process and prevent bacteria.
After my nursing action, my cousin became free from fever and was in the process of healing well.
It was not a funny experience but well, I did my best and ever since, she has always confided in me during any health cases.
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