Ever danced half naked by a man-made ravine for trash? No? Well I have and my experience was a terrible one.
Growing up, my parents always tried their best to provide every single thing we–my siblings and I– needed. My dad had two sides to him; the loving daddy who could spoil you with lots of gifts and the strict father who always instilled discipline. As you would imagine, we loved the former personality in comparison to the later. However, our actions always determined which side of my dad we would see. If we were good, he would be loving and whenever we turned recalcitrant, he turned strict.
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One day, I went against his "do not collect things from people without my permission" rule and I paid dearly for it. In school during lunch break, I waited patiently for my elder sister who was supposed to bring my lunch but she didn't turn up.
Our lunch break usually lasted for thirty minutes and twenty minutes into the time, my sister still didn't arrive. She was never late and so I got worried. The main reason behind my worry was my hunger. I was extremely famished and my countenance changed drastically. I sat there on my chair, looking weary and tired. Why would my sister do this to me?
A classmate who sat beside me noticed my predicament and offered me part of her lunch. Did I turn down her offer? Definitely not. I didn't even give it a second thought when I grabbed the sausage roll from Victoria's hand.
"Thank you very much," I said with teary eyes.
"You are welcome" she responded with a smirk that was almost invisible.
Paying no heed to her, I munched hurriedly as we had barely five minutes to the end of lunch break. The rest of the day went pretty smooth apart from the fact that I was totally pissed at my sister. After school, I saw my sister. It was time to display my anger.
"Why didn't you bring lunch for me sisi. Do you know how hungry I was" I said in the most respectful manner.
"Please don't tell daddy that I didn't bring your lunch. My class teacher didn't let us out of class during lunch break. I'm sorry."
"Did you tell her that I was the one involved?"
"Yes I did, but she didn't budge. I'm sorry. But did you eat anything?"
"No, I didn't, " I lied.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Let me quickly buy you snacks." My sister got me snacks as we waited for the driver to pick us up.
At home, we followed our normal routine; have your bath, eat and take a nap. I woke up from my afternoon nap and felt so much discomfort around my throat. I had mumps on my throat. I immediately ran to my mom for help.
My mom took me to my dad who was in the middle of a discussion with his friend–my favourite uncle . Both my dad and his friend started interrogating me. After asking a few questions, nothing seemed to add up. They possibly missed the devil in the details. I didn't have any symptoms of goitre or fever, so what exactly was the problem? The next and final question my dad asked was.
"Did you collect anything from someone today?" He glared at me.
My tear gland immediately opened and tears started running down my cheeks. I was in pain, no doubt, but the thought of my dad additionally disciplining me was really terrifying.
"Ye..s. yes I did" I stuttered.
"From who?"
"From my classmate, Victoria."
"Why did you do that? Didn't your sister give you lunch?"
I turned to look in my sister's direction. She was already shaking. 'Please' she mouthed.
"She gave me lunch." I responded to my dad.
"So why did you take lunch from another person?"
I didn't have an answer to that, so I stood still. My uncle told my dad that he had a remedy to my problem but it wasn't going to be fun for me. At that point, I didn't have a choice, I just wanted the pain to go away so I gave my consent.
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My uncle asked for two cubes of sugar and once it arrived, he asked me to put it in my mouth. Next, he ordered for a wooden drum which was brought to him. Once the drum arrived, he taught me a little song in my dialect which I was supposed to sing as the drums rolled.
With the two cubes of sugar in my mouth and no cloth but my panties on, I began singing and dancing by the ravine.
"Sing and dance well so that this thing on your neck would go quickly." These words from my uncle kept re-echoing in my head.
I sang and danced around the ravine in our compound for thirty minutes. This was probably one of the worst days of my life. As I danced around the ravine, I vowed never to collect things from strangers.
After the uncomfortable dancing exercise, I was asked to have my bath and rest. I eventually fell asleep and woke up the next morning without the mumps. Words cannot express how happy I was. The pain and the mumps were gone.
I still do not know how my dancing and singing cured the disease. I also do not know how collecting sausage from a classmate could have caused such but one thing I do know is that a vital lesson was learnt.
Love, Wongi 🤍
