Are Boys From A Different World ?

When I was at primary school I told my mates I would never do things like fetch water, cook, wash clothes or fetch firewood because that is for girls. My grandmother heard me boasting so she waited for the right moment to teach me a lesson.She kept on saying that, 'I will teach you a lesson one day that boys are not from a different world as you think.' I challenged her, ' Never ! I can never be doing house chores, firewwood is for ladies but us boys our job is to hunt and bring meat home. We are different you see? ' I dipped my hands into my pockets of short trouser with two patches at the back gigling . Weeks passed, months passed and nothing happened and I was very sure the arguement whether boys can fetch water or firewood was won and I was sure my grandmother lost that arguement . But day when about nine years old my cheeks were swollen as a result of the toothache. My grandmother told me she was convinced this was not toothache but a rare condition that only targeted boys called, 'katukutuku'. She said, ' for you to be better, go and fetch firewood, run with a bundle of firewood on your head singing katukutu kora basungwana banyamata vinthu vyawaka / tell the condition to target girls because boys are useless.' I went to fetch firewood in the mountain as instructed and ran with a bundle of fire wood on my head , girls laughing their lungs out thinking i had gone crazy but because the instructions said when am singing this song i should never look back or stare at anyone , I couldn’t bother to look at who was watching me. I ran fast towards the junction singing and I dropped the bundle of firewood at the cross roads as instructed. When I reached home the fever was gone but I didn’t remember that in the morning before going to the mountain I swallowed pain killers to ease pain . All I thought was the running and fetching of firewood is great medicine for toothache. I totally believed that there was some medicine in the song and the dropping of firewood at the cross roads until one day my grandma laughed at me and said, ' All that was to make you exercise, a little bit because you were making yourself worse just sleeping on a mat and I wanted you to do some work for your mother like fetching firewood and the moment you dropped that bundle of firewood, your mum was waiting nearby and she picked it. So from now on don’t say because you are a boy you cannot do this and that , just fetch water and firewood for your mother.’