Can you also not give up on anything in your life? I bet you can!
The first time I took the delivery of a Fulani woman, it was breathtakingly mind-blowing and has been that way with every Fulani woman in labor I have had the joy to meet.
Yoruba women wail with each pang of pain; spurting expletives like "Oloriburikuuuuu!!!" "Aye akamara!!!" There is something almost superficial, if not theatrical about this. Those curse words just come out with vitriol and vexation in between "arrrrggggh" and "Mo ti daran o". At some point, the screams are all the labor is about. No sedate interval. No period of quietness. Just noise and even more noise.
Igbo women seem to have the loudest labor voice note ever! It comes with a mournful falsetto--an almost ridiculous,if not laughable, melody. "Chineke" often begins it and it echoes through any standing wall!. Then you hear consonant sounds like "kwa", "odi", "mpa", "mau..."and many short English words bellowed with strong eastern accent each time the uterus tightens.
Fulanis are unspeakably different. I'm told that their girls are taught that crying during labor insults their husband's masculinity, which is forbidden, culturally. So they keep mum, stomach the pain, keep staring at the midwives with piercing mien, while some bend in a doggy position but it is all dead quiet...until the baby shows its moist, hairy head at the genitals.
They call any medic nearby to see what's about exiting from beneath them and once the head leaves the womb, they give one final, but unimaginably quiet gasp!
Only the baby cries; but not the woman!
It is so unbelievable to experience, that if someone had just told me this as an evening banter, I wouldn't believe a shred of it! It feels so exaggerated but yes, that's how they do it!
It was from this strange culture of noiseless child birth that I learned something about preconditioning.
You can only say in a time of distress what you have been thinking in the time of calm.
Those who keep soliloquizing 'Jesus' in the labor room tell us more about what they've been thinking in their bedrooms. Those who call their husbands "evil beast", "wicked soul" leave much to be imagined about their thought life in serene moments.
It's easy to say I'm honest when there is no pressure on you to lie.
It's easy to say I won't give up when there is no compelling reason to.
In truth, I had overt and compelling reasons to give up on steemit but here am I, not making any dramatic labor room splash like my yoruba kinfolks.
I'm back and until I'm whale permanently, I'll keep on ticking.
A massive thanks to those who reached out to me. You have been a crucial part of why I haven't left.
I've been thinking about not giving up and look, I just demonstrated how not to!
Can you also not give up on anything in your life? I bet you can!