Reading Diary Week 7: Congo

The Antelope and the Leopard: In a very twisted and grotesque way, the antelope used the leopards emotions to intellectually out due him. The antelope knew that she was inferior to the leopard in a test against strength, but that she would win a the test against wits.

The Turtle and the Man: When kindness is met with greed, the one who uses trickery to fulfill his greed will fail. This story is an excellent representation of karma.

The Gazelle and the Leopard: This story is starting to give me the impression that the Congo isn't exactly the safest place. It seems like many of their stories involve murder as the main form of revenge.

The Fight between Two Fetishes: It was interesting to discover how the people of the Congo explain how something came to be. A wish from one man made a physical being disappear forever from one place purely because it caused him a moment of irritation.

Essay for Week 6: The Tricksters

(The Tricky Tortoise: Web Source: Wikipedia)

The week I read The Filipino Popular Tales and found a very common theme of trickery. In the tale of The Iguana and the Turtle, the iguana was continuously envious of the position that the turtle was in purely because the turtle made each position seem valuable. The turtle used the Iguana's quickness to greed to remove himself from bad situations. Another story that included a form of trickery was The Hummingbird and the Caraboa. In this story the hummingbird exploited and testing the caraboas pride by challenging him to a water drinking contest. The hummingbird knew when the tided would rise and fall and used that knowledge to trick the caraboa into thinking that he could drink more water than a giant water-buffalo! The third story that included trickery was the Hawk and the Coiling. This was very similar to the story of the humming bird and the caraboa in that a challenge was involved. The coiling knew that when the hawk challenged him to a flying contest, that his best chance of winning was to carry something on his back. The hawk fell for this and chose cotton to carry thinking that it would be light and easy, whereas, the coiling chose salt knowing that it would rain. When it did rain, the cotton became very heavy and the salt dissolved allowing the coiling to fly higher than the hawk and be victorious. I thought that this weeks reading was the most enjoyable because of the short mini stories that got straight to the point about their plots. It was also fun to see the physical underdog utilize their brain to be the intellectual victor by tricking their competitors. I think that the stories would have been even better if these underdogs had more of a reason for their trickery though. It seemed like many of them only did it because they knew that they could.

Storytelling for Week 6: The Unbeatable Hummingbird

(The Hummingbird: Photo by Daniel Borman)

Little Hum flew off with a smug grin as he left the very bewildered caraboa behind him.

***

Word began to spread to those who frequented the watering hole of Little Hum's victory. The tortoise and the hawk gasped in disbelieve when the fox told them of this curious feat.

"I do not understand how someone so small could drink more water than the water-buffalo himself!" the hawk said while shaking his head.

"I saaaaaay weeee maaaake Littttttle Huuuum doooo it agaaaaaain, sooooo thaaaaat I caaaaan seeee thiiiis wiiiiith myyyy owwwwwn eyyyyyes," the tortoise mumbled.

"Yes! Great idea! But, who should do it?" the fox questioned?

"I will," said the hippopotamus proudly. "Who could ever drink more water than someone who lives most of his life in the water and has a belly far larger than even the water buffalo. There is no possible way Little Hum could beat me!"

When Hippo's challenge reached the ears of Little Hum, he immediately accepted. Little Hum waited until just before the tide would rise and then made his grand arrival at the watering hole.

"So, my Dear Hippo, I hear that you would like to challenge me to a water drinking contest! Even with your enormous belly, I will still be the winner here," Little Hum said boastfully. "Go on. You first!"

Hippo wattled over to the water and stuck in his snout and then started draining the water at an alarming rate! The water level was actually really going down! Little Hum started to get nervous.

"Come on high tide. Come on high tide," Little Hum thoughtfully pleaded.

"Yes!" He thought! The tide started coming in and the water started to rise!

"Dear Hippo, I thought that the challenge was to drink as much water as you could! Not drink and then spit it out!" Little Hum laughed at him!

"My turn!" Little Hum said. He once more stuck his bill into the water just in time for the low tide. The water began to recede and his audience was astounded!

Authors Note: This is a story of what happened after The Humming Bird and the Caraboa. In the original story, the hummingbird used the high and low tide of the watering hole to trick the caraboa into thinking that he can drink more water than him. I wanted to tell the story of this happening again, only this time with an audience to watch!

Google Timer Tech Tip

To manage my time efficiently, I like to set aside certain blocks of my day where I will only focus on one particular subject during that time. If I finish before that time is up and I use the remainder of that block to relax or find something entertaining to do. If I  do not finish in time, I either reschedule a new time to finish it, or see if I can push into my next block concerning another activity. To know what I need to get done each day, I always make a list of what subjects I need to hit on the night before so that it's all planned out for me in the morning and I can't make up excuses in my sleepy non-morning person phase.

Week 6 Reading Diary: Filipino Popular Tales

Filipino Tales

The Iguana and the Turtle: The iguana was so envious of what the turtle had or was going through that he feel prey to the turtles simple trickery.

The Greedy Crow: You should be happy with what you have and not lust after what you do not. For if you do, you risk losing what you had. I could tell this tale in the form of toddlers playing with toys.

The Hummingbird and the Carabao: I love the trickery that can be played on those who hold too much pride. The hummingbird was clever and attacked the carabao's pride in such a perfect way.

The Hawk and the Coiling: This story was very similar to the Hummingbird and the Carabao in that trickery was used for the underdog to be victorious in a challenge by being the one who was more clever. However, in this particular story, the underdog also faced a little harm showing that once should be be too prideful after a win.

The Lost Necklace: This was just a story that I found to be a very cute and creative way of explaining why hens and chicks are always scratching at the ground. 

The Story of Our Fingers: This story was also quite fun to read. I think that it's funny that the thumb is what helps us hold on the items, which makes it easier to steal. I also think that it's funny that the pointer finger was the first to object and "point" out the immorality of the thumbs suggestions since it is our pointer finger that we use to place blame on others.

Week 5 Essay: Recurirng Motifs Turkish Fairy Tales

The two stories that shared a common motif were The Fish-Peri and The Crow-Peri. As you can already tell, both stories involve some sort of Turkish peri - meaning fairy. In both narratives, a beautiful animal is captured by some human who is ignorant of the animals true form. In the Fish-Peri, the animal is a lovely fish that the young man can neither eat nor sell because of the joy he finds in gazing upon this beautiful fish. The fish helped the young man during the day by transforming into a maiden and cleaning his house while he was out. In The Crow-Peri, the crow is caught in a trap by a boy. The crow tells the boy that if he releases it, it will help the boy catch an even better bird. The fish and the crow continue to help the young man and the boy through their various tasks throughout the stories by having the males make very strange requests. I'm not sure how the authors decided that things like "forty wagons of wine" or a "bolster" would transform into ivory or feasts, but in the stories that is what happened! Another thing that the two stories had in common was that they both ended with a happily ever after via the marriage of the youth to the fish-peri and the boy to the crow-peri. A final and more broad motif that I have noticed throughout a majority of the Turkish fairy tales is the very common time frame of forty days and forty nights. Either the subject is given only forty days to complete some task or the subject celebrates for forty days and nice - how nice would that be? I'm not positive on the origin of this idea, but I think that it would be an interesting thing for Professor Gibbs to add to the introductory notes of the unit. Overall, I thought that this unit was one of the more enjoyable and easy flowing units I have read thus far.

(Yellow-edged Lyretail: My idea of the fish-peri: Image by: Derek Keats)

Storytelling for Week 5: You Do What You Can For the Ones You Love

(William Randolph Hearst Castle: photo by Matthew Hodges)

"Mark, darling!" Julie called to her husband. "I got invited to go to the country club with Marie this afternoon, so I'll be back in a few hours!"

"Alright sounds good," Mark said as he gave his wife a kiss goodbye.

Mark and Julie have been happily married and lived a somewhat comfortable life for the past twenty years. Julie was a secretary at a company down the road and Mark worked at a small industry the next town over. They made just enough money each month to keep up with their rent and buy groceries. Although Julie tried her best to be content with her lifestyle, she couldn't help but always be jealous of her best friend, Marie's, life.

Marie's husband was the CEO of his industry, so they lived the life of endless luxury with gourmet dinners each night and frequent trips to the country club.

This was Julie's first time going to a fancy country club and what she experienced finally made the envy she held concerning her friend's life surface.

When Julie got home that evening she confronted Mark and said,"darling, you know that I love you, but I cannot live this way anymore. This may seem harsh, but I cannot stay with a man who is unwilling or incapable of climbing up the work ladder and securing a more respectable position with a much larger paycheck. If you cannot obtain this than I'll have no choice but to leave you."

Mark was heartbroken. He had never missed a day of work and has always been the employee his boss could count on. He had no idea how to climb up the work ladder, but he had to try. He loved his beautiful wife and had no intentions on letting her go. Mark needed some time to think, so he walked to the local coffee shop to sip on a cortada.

As Mark was sitting at the table becoming more and more depressed as nothing was coming to mind on how to appease his wife,  Mark's best friend, Jeff walked into the coffee shop.

Upon seeing Mark unsettled, Jeff questioned him as to why he was in despair. Mark told Jeff what had occurred between Julie and himself.

"Man...I'm so sorry! That is an awful predicament to be in, but hey I tell you what. I know Marie and her husband, and maybe I can talk her into giving you some pointers," Jeff said soothingly.

The next day, Marie called with a list of instructions for Mark to do at work that would insure his promotion. Within the next two months, Mark was working as the industry's floor manager. Six months after that, Mark was the supervisor and was finally making enough money to apply for a membership for he and Julie at the country club.

(Rooftop Pool: photo by Charlie Anzman)

Author's Note: I based this story off of The Soothsayer from the Turkish Fairy Tales. In the story, a nameless married woman falls prey to envy when she visits the bath and discovers a soothsayer's wife is there being gazed upon by all of the other women. The married woman returns home and threatens to leave her husband if he too does not become a soothsayer. I decided to make this story more modern and have the bath be a country club and the desired job be a high position at an industry. I made the rich bath woman be the rich country club woman, Marie, and the poor envious woman a low paid secretary, Julie.Luckily for the poor husband (Mark in my story) ends up succeeding at obtaining the higher paid job and keeping his now happy wife.

Bibliography: "The Soothsayer" from Turkish Fairy tales by Ignacz Kunos. Web Source: Un-Textbook