Week 3: Story Telling: The man named Noah

It was a dark and cloudy day. In fact it had been so for as long as I can remember. It was as if the beauty of the sun was taken from the lands of the earth. I am Ada, it means adornment in Hebrew. My parents have always been people of God, but I never understood who God was and why we had to obey him. Others around us did as they pleased. Blood was shed on a daily bases, people relied on themselves and not a supernatural being. Our neighbor for example, Chavakuk he had had an answer for everything without seeking god for anything. He always said to my father “You are a man of God, I on the other hand is my own man. You are a slave to the unseen”.

 

We never quite liked being amongst corruption and deception but my mother would always tell me” this is a trail from the God of Adam and the righteous men after him”. I didn’t really want to go against what she would say although I couldn’t make sense of it at all. “Why would God trail us? Isn’t the evil and deception amongst the people enough of a trail? If God is good and kind why would he put us through this separation of the people?” endless questions flood my head. But I could never question our faith even though it seemed we were amongst the very few that followed the teachings of forefathers that we had never met and an unseen God that we probably will never meet.

My father was very close to a man named Noah he would always come to our place of residence and enjoin having super with us. Occasionally he would bring his wife Naamah and he son’s; Ham, Shem, and Japheth to join us, but we saw them rarely. Noah and his family kept themselves to themselves as there were claims around town that he was deluded claiming to be sent by god as a guide to mankind. Just like his grandfather Methuselah, who claimed he received revelation from Enoch that he, Noah would be amongst those saved when the great destruction befalls the earth and its inhabitants. There was also tales that Lamech who was the father of Noah ran away from him as he was strange looking and spoke at birth praising the lord. He would constantly preach words of wisdom in the markets but he got nothing but heckling from the sinners making mockery of his message. Rarely he would get a very few that would follow his teachings from the Torah.

One evening he had come to my father pale faced and gasping for air. “God is displeased with man, and for that he shall send a punishment which will cause all to perish, man and beast” he explained.         “That can’t be, God made a convenient with Adam in that those who remain in his path will receive salvation” my father replied both in fear and confusion, feeling betrayed by God.

 “My dear brother and neighbor mankind has grown arrogant and insolent against god and through these mischievous action they must pay. God has instructed me to build an ark so that the righteous of men will be saved when the flood is upon us” urged Noah. I stood there by the door, fear filled my heart “what was to come of the world if everything was to be destroyed by the wrath of God”, and from hearing this news I cried and cried for days “What if we were left behind?”.

Day after day my father arose from his sleep at the crack of dawn aiding Noah and his sons to build the ark. Upon completion, people: both good and bad, Animals: big or small flocked towards the ark, whilst a very few abstained out of arrogance in hopes that they would remain untouched by the flood as they would stop it with their power and might. My family entered the ark, it was dark, noisy and cramped. There was no way this could sustain us all. We were going to die in here before the flood came. Noah stood by the door granting entry to everything in pairs (male and female) whilst others were turned away. Amongst them being women and children. Families that I had grown up with seeing them almost every day. By the time the sun had risen the doors of the ark was shut. We waited and waited, Noah paced back and forth hoping that maybe god had changed his mind and would not send the waters. Suddenly we felt a sudden thrust of pressure on the walls of the ark. Everyone went into panic and water had filled the lands…….

 

(Noahs Ark, Noah unit, The king James Bible : The flood,   (1611), Genesis 5-6. Source)

Authors Note: I really enjoyed the story of Noah and the ark. Being around for 950 year and having very few followers most have taken a lot of patients and perseverance. I wanted to tell the story from my own made up character as I thought it would be interesting to try and be an observer of what was going on at the time. Could you imagine what would be going through our minds if we were to go through such an event? What would our reaction be? Would we be amongst the followers or those that think he is deluded?

Bibliography:The King James Bible (1611), Genesis 5-6 and  The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909): Book 1, Chapter 4 Noah

Link: Noahs Ark

 

 

Week 1- Story telling: Klien und Dunken

Jack and Jill went up the hill

To fetch a pail of water;

Jack fell down and broke his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after.

Far in Eastern Europe and a land towered a great break wall. Dividing a country and its people in two.  There lived a young boy by the name Prinz Jack. Prinz Jack resided in a far far away village called 'Klein und Dunkel'. Klein and dunkel meant small and dark in German this is where all the small and less fortunate people would be forced to live. Here they had no water and if they did it will be dirty with bad odor. Young Prinz Jack always wondered why he couldn't go beyond klein und dunken and why they had no water supply.

 

The great wall

Days after day Prinz Jack would wonder and glare at this great big wall. He always wondered what laid on the other side  One day Prinz Jack set out to conquer his thoughts and took his friend Jill with him. Jill was also among the villagers of Klein und dunkel. "Here i'll grab this end of the ladder you take the other" Prinz Jack told Jill.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea we could get in trouble or even worse what if we hurt ourselves" Jill said worriedly. So the two young boys set out to explore this great wall that stood brick upon brick layer upon layer dividing one kingdom from another.

Checking their surrounding the two children made sure to see that there was no one guarding what they were about to do. Jill anchored the ladder and held the bucket for Jack for when he located the water source. Meanwhile Prinz Jack climbed the wall dressed in what was to him royal attire for his debut on the wall, as all the villagers would thank him in great gratitude for bringing clean water.

Whilst Jill stood guard and held the ladder Prinz Jack climbed. Eventually Prinz got the the top " WOOOW...so much land and endless streams of water. I can't believe all those years we lived in the dark yet so much light resides on this side" Prinz said in absolute amazement. "there is enough buckets of water to feed the entire world". Minutes passed, and Prinz Jack had not come down yet " its getting close to the hour, the kings men will be passing soon and you know what happens to our kind if we are caught here". Jill said in a panic.

" Im not going anywhere!" Prinz Jack replied in awe.

Prinz Jack's broken crown. Ilustrated by Corinne Cortinas,July 16 2006. Source google images.

Jill in a hurry climbed the ladder as he had seen the kings men approach on their horses. Prinz Jack and mable both were afraid to be caught and the consequences that will entail. It meant they will be taken away from his family and friends in Klien und Dunken and will be assigned to chimney service. This is where they took all the kids that were caught out of bounds. Prinz Jack and Jill tried to climb down in a hurry but instead took a great big fall and Prinz Jack broke his card board crown after Jill had tumbled over him.

                                                      

                                         

Jack and Jill tumbling ,illustrated by William Wallace Denslow Source Wikipedia.

Authors Note: This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill". My source being The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang (1897). I enjoyed this nursery rhyme growing up as along with twinkle twinkle little star it was on of the first taught in school. I think there is an underlying message to this rhyme as the characters are of the opposite sex. My point being that in pre-k we tend to be friends with members of our own gender but this rhyme actually conveys a playful adventurous relationship between Jack and Jill. This taught me that the we can all be friends no matter what our gender, race, preferences or part of the world we may reside in, hence why i chose the separation of the wall in Germany (the Berlin wall) to be of significance in this story as oppose to the hill jack and Jill go up in the original rhyme.