Week 6 Storytelling: West African Folktales

It was a normal day for Karen on the morning of June 12, 2015. She woke up, took the dogs out for a walk, and was getting her day started. As the day progressed on, the weather became worse and worse. The wind was blowing and the sky was starting to turn different colors. She had seen this before since living in Oklahoma; a tornado was possible. Karen stayed by the television and listened to updates from the weather newscasts. As the weather became worse, she got ready for the worst. At around four in the afternoon, a tornado had formed south of where she lived. With southern winds, the tornado made its way further north and straight for Karen's town. With the sound of the wind blowing, the tornado siren blaring, and the dogs barking, Karen and her dogs made way to their bunker. What came next was a lot of banging, scratching, and crashing outside of her bunker down that continued to rattle. Moments later when everything was silent and still, Karen opened her door with much struggle. She opened her door to see ruin. Her house was no where to be found, except for pieces scattered throughout her street. 

Tornado (wikipedia)

Instead of breaking down, she immediately ran from house to house to check on neighbors and friends. For hours she relentlessly made sure that everyone else was okay before she even worried about herself. She was accompanied by local volunteers to help pick up the trash and give warmth to those who lost their homes. One of the volunteers, Jack, noticed her generosity and wanted to make sure she was taken care of as well. Jack, not being able to do much, called his buddy, Ron, who owned a department store to fetch Karen some blankets for the night. When Ron came to visit Karen, he himself realized that she deserved more. Ron called his wife's friend, Lorena, who owned a restaurant nearby, and asked if she could make a good care package for Karen. After hearing of Karen's generosity and making a care package, Lorena called up her friend, Harold, who worked at the news station to see if he could help out in any way. Harold, being impressed by Karen, convinced the news team to cover a story of Karen and her selfless deeds for the community during this tragedy. The news team did a cover story on Karen and put it live on the television. 

After Karen's story being aired, for days more and more people came to care for Karen and her work. The video of Karen's story became one of the most played videos of the week, which grabbed more attention. Karen was trending on Facebook and Twitter and made it far enough to the studios. One day, Sofia, who works on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, saw Karen's story and knew that Ellen would want to help. Ellen watched the video and immediately asked to bring Karen to the show. Three days later, Karen was on live television telling her story yet again, but to Ellen and the rest of the nation. Ellen was so moved by Karen's generosity and love for helping others, that she gave her $20,000 to help start up a new home. Since, Ellen knew that Karen would probably use the money to help her community, she also gave the gift of another $30,000 to the community and the people who helped clean it up. 

Ellen (wikimedia)

Karen did not mean for any of this to happen. She did what she knew was right and hoped that people would benefit from her help. It took one person to notice her generosity to get her to this point in life. The world is incredibly connected and word travels fast. Good things happen to good people, and the world likes to see it happen. 

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Author's Note: This week I decided to read the West African Folktales Unit. One of the stories in this unit is called How Mushrooms First Grew. This is the story that I decided to base my story after. In the original story, it was about these two brothers who are trying to make a living but are having very bad luck. A bird noticed their bad luck and wanted to help but ended up with bad luck itself. The silk tree felt bad for the bird and an elephant feeling bad for the silk tree. It continues with a hunter feeling bad for the elephant then a tree stump feeling bad for the hunter. Finally the white ants feel bad for the tree stump but are wise and grow mushrooms for everyone to feed from. It is a waterfall story that leads to good. In my story I wanted a main character who went through a tragedy and made it positive. I wanted to have people notice her positivity and eventually become an event where they can give back to her. I love the Ellen show because she tends to notice the people who don't mean to be noticed. She brings awareness to people of individuals who sacrifice their own time to do something for someone else more in need than themselves. 

Bibliography: How Mushrooms First Grew. West African Folktales. By William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair. 1917.