Storytelling Week 7: The water dance

There once was a group of animal friends who all lived out in the forest next to a lake and a river. The animals were a lion, tiger, wolf, jackal, tortoise, and elephant. They had all lived together their entire lives. They did everything together, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, sleep, play, and relax.

The lake and river were on opposite sides of the property. The water was the animals’ favorite part of their habitat. All of the animals enjoyed bath time and loved to go for a swim when it was warm outside.  The animals would always play games in the water like colors and Marco polo. They were just like little kids. The river was their drinking water as well. It was pure, clean, and cold water.

One summer there was a frightful drought. The animals were very frightened because they did not want their lake and river to dry up. They relied on the water for drinking, bathing, and for fun. They were all so sad and did not want to play with each other.

(Drought)

As the summer went on, their river and lake started to become very low. The animals went on an adventure to try to find more water in surrounding areas. They would be gone for a day or two. However, they were very unsuccessfully in finding water.

There was only one month left of summer when the river and the lake dried up. The animals were devastated. How were they supposed to live with no water? They did not know what to do. They all sat around of a couple days doing nothing because they did not have any water.

One night, they all met up and had a meeting. They all brainstormed ideas on how to bring the water back. The lion had the best idea of doing a rain dance. They had all heard about them from friends in other areas and heard that they do work. However, they were skeptical because they did not think that dance could bring water back.

They all danced together; in a circle, in a line, with partners, individually, in every which way. They were determined to dance until they saw water. But after an hour, there was zero water. So, they all took a break to brainstorm some more. They decided to dance again and really believe that the dance was going to work. All of the animals danced and told themselves, the dance will bring back all of the water.

All of the animals danced for about two hours when all of the water appeared back in their lake and river. The animals were all so ecstatic; the dance actually brought back the water!

Author's Note:
The original story, The Dance for Water, was about a drought where the rivers dried up and the springs did not even give water. The animals did not know what to do, but looked to find drinking water. However, they were unsuccessful. One of the animals had the idea to go to the dry river to dance to bring the water back. Most of the animals danced until water was brought to the surface. However, the rabbit did not dance so the other animals believe that she should not have water. One night the rabbit got some water while the other animals were sleeping. They were very unhappy and planned to kill the rabbit. In the end, the rabbit got away free. 

In my story, I kept the original characters, but adding more to the beginning of the story to show the relevance of the water to the animals. I made it where all of the animals participated together in the dancing, and took out the part where they tried to kill one of the animals. I did not want any violence in my story.

Bibliography:
The Dance for Water
This story is part of the South African unit. Story source: South African Folk-Tales by James Honey (1910).

Essay: South African Folktales

South African Folktales

This week I read, South African Folktales. These stories are a lot different than the fables and tales that I have been reading in the past. However, the one connection that I can draw from all of the readings that I have done this year, except week 1, all have animals as their main characters. I think that this really makes the stories interesting and brings the animals to life. In this unit, I liked how many animals were brought into single stories. In all of the stories combined, I bet that there were 15 animals mentioned. This makes the readings more fun because you are not just reading about the same two animals.

In this unit, I was able to connect the stories to the background of Africa. In the past, I was relying on the notes provided to do this for me, but this week some of the connections were made a lot clearer. For example, The dance for water, was very easy to connect back to African culture. I believe that there is no extra background information needed for this unit. Most of the stories were very straight forward and were easy to understand. There was however, one story that I had to read more than once to understand. This does not mean that it needs notes, because it could just be how I read it the first time.

Overall, the readings for this unit are very easy and not boring. This unit is suitable for most people. The information given about this unit is very accurate and helpful in choosing a unit. I do believe that you can decide if you are going to like this unit or not by the information provided on the first page.

Another thing that I noticed in this unit that I enjoyed was the pictures. All of the pictures provided

for each story really did a good job of representing the story overall. They helped in picturing what

was going on. 

(African Animals)

Reading Diary B: South African Folktales

South African Folktales

The Dance for Water
This title is very catching. One I love water, so I was not sure if it was going to be about drinking water, rain water, or lake water. I was really hoping lake water. However, the first line of the story tells you about the setting of the story, a drought. The first paragraph was very powerful in letting the readers know how serious the drought was. I enjoyed the fact that the animals would dance to try to bring water. This is very related to the culture of Africa, which makes this story perfect for this unit. I also really enjoyed the picture provided for this story. It was very fitting for the drought and the animals as the main characters. (Pictured below)

Picture Information

Elephant and Tortoise

This story was very interesting. There were a lot of animals involved which made the story very entertaining. The dialogue helped the flow of the story. I was surprised that the tortoise was able to stand up to so many animals before the lion beat him up. The ending of the story took a complete different turn than I expected. It was kind of weird how the tortoise was able to kill the elephant after the elephant ate the tortoise.

When Lion Could Fly
The title of this story was very catching. I could not wait to read a story about a lion being able to fly. What a picture that put in my mind. This story was interesting because the lion thought that the frog took away his flying powers. Overall, this story was okay.

Reading Diary A: South African Stories

South African Folktales

The Monkey's Fiddle
I really enjoyed this story. It was about a great adventure starting with just the monkey. However, once the story went on and progressed there were more animals introduced. This made the story more interesting and dynamic. I like how the Wolf was trying to get the bow and arrow through the Jackal by lying. This adding some suspense into the story. I am glad that the monkey ended up with what he wanted in the end and all of the animals were scared he would keep playing music.

(Vervet Monkey)

The Lion, The Jackal, and The Man
By just reading the title you can tell that there are going to be three main characters. I believe that by having more than two characters, it makes a story more interesting and more tempting to keep reading to find out what is going to happen next. With all of the dialogue throughout the story, it really made it easy to picture what was happening. This was also good in making it seem more practical.

Tink-Tinkje
In this story I learned that tink-tinkje is a type of bird. I liked it because it was birds practically judging each other by what they are capable of and what they looked like. More than half of the story was dialogue which I thought made the story flow very well.

Jackal Fools Lion Again
In most of the first half of the unit, the Jackal is either the main character or a has a big role in the story. In this story it shows how much of a trickster he can be.

Famous Last Words: Week 6

I can say that this week has been ten times better than the last two weeks. Let’s start with Monday; yes I am glad that OU did not open until 10 because my 8am class was cancelled. However, I wish that they either would have closed all day or told us the night before. I live in OKC, so I have to leave early because of morning traffic. Therefore, I was just about to leave my house when I got the call about school. I really needed extra sleep.

I am glad that we are finally getting to comment on each other’s projects. I know that we have all been working hard and using our imaginations, which actually can be tough at times. Being able to see everyone’s progress is wonderful. I am still overly impressed with how talented my classmates are, everyone is so good at using their imagination and writing stories.

Since, we are in week 6, I am feeling a little more confident in my storytelling and writing abilities. Clearly, I am FAR from perfect and can still use a lot more practice.This week, I have done most of my assignments in my office room at my house. I mainly do my assignments after work and while I am eating dinner. I think that food really does fuel my brain and makes writing a little easier.

Overall, I am enjoying this class. I am working on my project for this week still and also on some of the project comments. I am hoping to get ahead in this class this weekend, so I can focus on my other classes. I am really looking forward to adding to my storybook each week. I like my topic that I picked, and I hope that I can make my stories interesting, so that you (my classmates) will enjoy reading them.

Snowflake Picture

Essay: Western African Folktales

This unit was a little different than the past couple of units that I have read. I enjoyed this unit however. I believe that the notes provided were really helpful. The notes left a good background for the stories. In the story, How the Tortoise got its shell, the notes were extremely helpful. I would have never know that chief Mauri was God, Fida was Friday, Mr. Klo was the tortoise, or Koklovi was the chicken. Therefore, the notes played a big role in being able to understand the story.

I believe that everything that we needed to know about this unit was provided. The story length was accurate, as well as the language was easy to read. (The notes helped on certain characters).  If you enjoy titles that make you want to keep reading to find out what the story is really about, then this is the unit for you. All of the stories do use a big imagination, which I believe is what makes them interesting.

My favorite story has to be either how wisdom became property of the human race or How the Tortoise got its shell. Both of the stories, I wanted to read right away after reading the title. The title kind of left a big door open. I was impressed with both stories and how they turned out.

My least favorite story in this unit was the leopard and the ram. I feel like the first paragraph makes you think the story is going to be completely different than it was. I think that this story could have had a more exciting story line that made readers want to keep reading.

Overall, I enjoyed this unit, but it was not my favorite unit of the semester. The untextbook for this unit was easy to follow and everything was very well organized. The notes were not too much throughout the unit, they were very helpful. 

Western African Folktales

Western Africa

Storytelling Week 6: How the tortoise got its shell

Cute Baby Tortoise Eating a Strawberry

Once upon a time, there was a very special king. He wanted to have the biggest party with the most elaborate food, drinks, and decorations. He wanted to invite anyone and everyone. The messengers would go out and invite everyone off the streets and even send out invitations to everyone that they knew. His servants and pets were in charge of the food, drink, and decorations.

The king owned a chicken and a tortoise. The chicken was short, skinny, but very fast. Since, the chicken was so fragile, the king only asked the chicken to go around town and to gather food. The king told the chicken that he was not allowed to get anything heavy. If he needed help carrying something, the chicken should ask the tortoise for help.

The tortoise was very tall and muscular. Since, the tortoise was able to handle more weight in what he was returning to the king. The king asked the tortoise to go all the way across town to get the most expensive wine in the kingdom. The king wanted gallons and gallons of it. It was very special and the king thought that everyone would be sure to talk about the party if they had the wine.

The tortoise was more than happy to travel all the way across the town to get the wine. However, on his way back from getting the wine, the chicken called for his help. The chicken needed helped carrying some of the food. The tortoise stopped to help the chicken on the way back to the king’s castle.

Since, the chicken did not have a lot in his hands; he hurried back to the castle. The tortoise, however, was stuck walking super slow because he had such a heavy load of wine and food. The tortoise then heard thunder. He picked up his pace; however, he did not make it back in time for the party. He was across the street when it started to rain really hard. The tortoise then took shelter under the wine and the food. The moon was shining bright and the tortoise was extra tired from traveling across the town. The tortoise fell asleep.

The next morning when he woke up he had a shell on his back! All of the wine and food magically turned into a shell and the tortoise was stuck walking on all fours. He walked across the street to the castle. However, the king did not realize who he was at first. The chicken recognized his voice and they let him back in and loved him even more than before. The king had to let the tortoise know, that even without the wine, the party was a success!

The End!

Author's Note:
In the original story, the tortoise does not make it back in time because he drank too much of the wine. He then gets locked out of the party because it began to rain. The tortoise gets buried by the palm trees and the wine and the tortoise dies. However, the earthenware pot and dust caked together to make his shell. Medicines were used to bring the tortoise back to life. 

I tried to keep the main story line, but changed up a few minor details. I kept the chicken and the tortoise, but changed the god to a king. I changed up the tortoise's journey for the wine and a little bit how he got his shell. I also, did not want him to die so I changed how the story ended.


Bibliography:
How the tortoise got its shell
This story is part of the West African Folktales unit. Story source: West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (1917).