Ndiwulira: The Procrastinating Corn Earworm

Ndiwulira is a delightful Ugandan folktale that warns about the danger of procrastination. Ndiwulira can be loosely translated as “I will hear.” This is a procrastinating corn-eating worm that is warned to leave the cornfield but keeps making excuses that it will surely hear and escape in the nick of time. In this story, Ndiwulira narrowly escapes death. In my classroom, I have a poster hanging on the wall that reads “Due dates are closer than they appear.” Ndiwulira is a great reminder that we should refrain from procrastinating.