Don’t Meddle with the Kettle

The following is a read aloud story for August 2004. This is one in a series of stories especially for Awana Clubs, homeschoolers, Sunday school classes, DVBS, mission conferences, or just reading them for fun. Print them out. Collect them. E-mail them to others. Use them. God bless! The Culina Madirra people, one of many great Amazon Rain Forest indigenous tribal nations, have often had to deal with tragedy and death. This is a story based on an actual little Indian girl who lost her life because she “meddled with the kettle”. But, in our story the little girl survives and we wish we could write “good endings” to all of the terrible accidents that happen deep in the forest where our world never sees.

The old story teller, Douemi (Dough-way-MEE)
Missionary/ culture observer among the Culina Madirra for many years
Serving with New Tribes Mission, Sanford, FL

The cows were laying all around the village center. They were a noisy lot and yet the People had grown used to their nightly visits and their bad odors and manners. A few years ago no one worried about cows sleeping in your yard, but when the Madirra were told by river traders that they no longer would buy their wild pig and alligator skins the People had to find a way to get money for salt, fishhooks, ammunition for their guns and other necessities. Cows and pigs were introduced to them as something they could grow and sell. But, oh what a mess they made in the village!!
“Sobida! (Sow-bee-DAH) Wake up! Wake up! The sun is rising and the sky is getting clear and you must chase the cows out of the village! It’s your turn this morning…remember? Go! Wake up!” her mother shouted from the hammock just above where Sobida lay sleeping on the shelter floor. Then when she didn’t respond…a hand hit her hard and brought her wide awake. “Let me sleep, Ami (Ah-ME mother)! Just let me sleep a little longer!” “SOBIDA! NOW! It is your turn to chase them off and clean up their mess! Do it or I will put a smoldering stick from the fire in your bed!”
A little wisp of a girl with long black uncombed hair and a dress that had not been washed in many weeks and had since turned grey. This was the dwarfed figure walking among the cattle with a stick from the fire and shouting, Hooway! Hooway! as the cows got to their feet and began to lazily move off towards the forest. They had very little pasture, as the ones who brought the people the cows had not mentioned that they need fields and pastures. The cattle roamed at will eating wherever they could. Hooway! Hooway! One enormous bull looked at the little apparition with the smoking stick and gave some thoughts of challenging her before he turned and followed the cows out away from the awakening village.
And so began Sobida’s day. Other mothers from other shelters sent their children out to help clean the village center from the assortment of smelly deposits that the cows had left. And soon the whole village was alive and the cooking fires were blazing and good smells were coming from the pots and kettles hanging black and hot over the flames.
Sobida yawned and began the climb up the five rung ladder to get in her shelter. She was just a bit too small for that last step and her hand went out as always to find something to get a hold of and pull herself up. There was always a kettle of water from the spring there, so she reached up and grabbed it as her support. “Sobida!” her big sister shouted from the cooking fire, “Don’t pull yourself up by grabbing the water kettle!! We have told you so many times, Sobida, that it might be a hot kettle and you would pull it down on you!’ Sobida had been scolded and warned many times about this habit she had. But, it was always just cold water when she put her fingers in it to get a grip and pull herself up. “OH, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” she retorted with a loudness that even half startled her. “Just leave me alone! I won’t put my hand in a hot kettle! What do you think I am.. a dumb toucan bird?!” “I only wish,” her sister answered, “at least the toucan has a long beak and keeps it shut!”
Habits are hard to overcome. Sometimes we think our habits don’t hurt anyone so why worry about them? Sobida was not used to pondering any thing that complex, but she was growing weary of her family constantly warning her to be careful and not to grab any kettle without thinking.
She was carrying her baby brother on her hip when she heard a great fuss coming from the shelter of her aunt. A new baby had been born!! Sliding the little brother off her hip and forcing him on another girl, she raced to her aunt’s house and shouted, “Is it a boy or a girl? Is it a boy or a girl?” and up the ladder she went. Her hand went out automatically to grab the water kettle, but this time it was a kettle of boiling hot fish and potatoes in fish broth!! In her excitement she had forgotten the danger and also had forgotten that she was going up a different ladder and into a different shelter. AAIIEEEE! The kettle slopped over and scalding hot fish broth splashed down her chest and stomach. Poor Sobida! She tumbled down the ladder in agony and rolled on the ground crying bitterly at the terrible hurt. “Sobida! I warned you! Your ears are stopped up! See, now you have burned yourself!! Why don’t you listen and be careful of what you grab??” the big sister kept scolding as she ran to her side and lifted Sobida up. Others came running. People were shouting on all sides, but Sobida just knew that she was burning up with a terrible pain down her front. She was carried to the medicine house and laid on a bed. Soon they were putting cold strips of cloth on her chest and stomach. And some soothing medicine. She cried and cried, but she also promised herself that never again would she thoughtlessly grab at a kettle to pull herself up the ladder!! Sobida had finally learned to not meddle with the kettle!!
Do you have a “bad habit”? Is there something that you continually do without thinking that will someday get you in trouble? Try to think of what bad habits you have. Can you think of any? Lying can become a really bad habit. Sassing your mother. Arguing with your brothers and sisters. Hitting your playmates when you get frustrated and angry with them. Stealing little things and toys that belong to someone else. When kids get bigger they get in a bad habit of smoking cigarets…just to be cool!! Bad habits are like hot kettles…and you will get burned if you don’t learn to not meddle with the kettle!!