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Folk Tale: The Monkey & the Turtle

This my telling of a folk tale I remember reading in my childhood. There are many variations of this tale that include how the Monkey and the Turtle find the banana tree (sometimes just there, sometimes blown in a storm, sometimes floating in the ocean etc); how the Turtle punishes the Monkey (sometimes sharp sticks, other times sharp snails attached to the trunk. Regardess, this folk tale has remained in my brain and as I retold the story, with each revision it was fun to discover the different voices and characters of the two. Music Credit: my remix courtesy of Siddhartha Corsus - Epiphany from freemusicarchive.org

A storytelling journey begins

I am not a storyteller. I am a story listener. When I was little, I would listen to the radio where every night, at the appointed hour, I would listen to this radio show called "Dagiti Sarsarita ni Uncle Pete." Here I would hear Uncle Pete recount all sorts of stories. This was the mid-seventies, in the Philippines, and I was entranced by his voice, the sound effects, and by the new language that I was learning. Having only spoken English up to this point, I was in love with hearing Ilocano and listening to its cadence, only half understanding at first, until one day I realized I understood the whole story. Sometimes they were adventure stories with an unlikely young hero, sometimes they were traditional fairytales, sometimes they were folk tales from an unknown (to me) indigenous group. Uncle Pete regaled me with tales and worlds new to me. I don't remember the details anymore but I remember the anticipation of the story and the excitement of being in the story, wha...

Lessons from the heart

W hen Addie was born, she had a congenital heart disease that caused her heart to age much faster than the rest of her body. By the time she was five, it was time for a heart transplant. Addie didn’t really think much of this. She would run around, though quickly winded, and run again, her long, dark curls a tangled mass around her head. She would laugh and laugh and say, don’t worry mommy, I will be fine. Just watch. Addie got a new heart when she was ten and then, a new lease in life. But still her mother worried. Don’t worry mommy, I will be fine. Just watch. I will graduate from high school and then you won’t worry. Soon enough Addie was in high school. Her bubbly personality drew friends, and the smile she flashed everyone was always warm and friendly. She always wore a bright colored sweatshirt and her dark curls were now tamed in a single thick braid down her back. Everyone liked Addie and no one reme...

Reyes Writes and Tells

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