 | | On the introduction day Sola had taught Year 2 the Fulani song and so Day 3 of the project started in the hall with the children remembering the song.
Sola had brought in her own African hats and garments and the school had many percussive instruments of its own to play. The children learnt dances for men, women and both with an emphasis on nature with the West African gourd shaker being compared to the sound of crickets at night.
Sola then told the story of The Magic Fish. It is about a man and a woman who were extremely poor and lived under a tree which provided shelter from the sun and rain. The leaves from the tree made a lovely bed for them to sleep on. They lived near a river and the man caught fish from it for a living (which meant that they didn't eat if he didn't catch any fish). However, they were contented even though they didn't have very much in terms of material wealth because they were very close to nature.
One day he caught a very, very, very big fish that spoke to him.... it said "please don't eat me and I will grant you anything that you want". So the man and woman thought and then asked for a big house and when this wish was granted they were happy....
... for a while but then they thought that they should have a bigger house and so they went and asked the fish to grant them another wish.
This went on and on until they had an enormous house with lots of servants and they became really important - summoning music and dancing whenever they wanted.
But the more wealthy one becomes ...
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