Story Squad tellers Sarah Beth Nelson and Brian Sturm shared tales from the various countries where SILS has international exchange programs to highlight these cultural opportunities for students. We told the stories:
- How Pig and Bear went into Business Together (they buy each other’s food and find they’ve sold everything and have no money to show for it) from the Czech Republic
- What the Old Man Does is Always Right (he trades down from a cow to a bag of rotten apples, but his wife is thrilled as she then had apples to trade with a neighbor) from Denmark
- The Cat’s Tail (how the Singapore cat got its stumpy tail) from Singapore
- The Origin of Fire (how an earthquake rattles flint stones into sparking the first fire) from Chile
- Boudica’s Final Speech (about a queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying Roman forces from England
- The Pheasants and the Bell (about a woodcutter who saves the life of some birds, who in turn save his life) from Korea
Well, we opened up the 6th annual Storytelling Under the Stars event to the public for the first time this year (it used to be for members only), and the response was wonderful. More than 85 people joined us for celestial stories. They heard a Yoruba story about the Coming of Night, a Native American (Shoshone) tale of the origin of the Milky Way, as Grizzly Bear shook snow from his fur, a West Coast Salish tale about the origin of the constellation Auriga as women tried to protect their dinner from a hungry and lazy skunk, and a West African wisdom tale about a Wise Man and the Butterfly.