Kora Musician Baba the Storyteller

We are definitely living in an age of “lost innocence.” I was with a group of 3rd graders, 8 and 9 years olds, during a classroom session earlier today. I was telling a tale which equated the building of muscle with the building of a powerful mind. I usually exaggerate the size of the muscles of my story’s protaganist in order to illustrate my point of building the power of one’s mind.

As I always include the children in the telling of the tale, through question/answer and discussion, I punctuated this moment with a question, asking if they understand what it took to get such huge muscles?

Each child had his/her own take on the issue: working out, eating vegetables, running on the treadmill, etc.

One young man, very eager to answer, stood up from his seat and shouted: “Steroids! No one gets that big unless they’re taking steroids!”

I love being a storyteller. Welcome to my world.

“Dooni dooni kononi be nyaga da.”