Lenita, Jada et la rivière

retour

Le conte est un excellent outil pédagogique afin de développer l'imaginaire des enfants et de leur donner le goût à la lecture. Notre but est d'avoir un seul conte que l'on pourra jouer sur plusieurs jours auprès des enfants. De plus, c'est aussi autour de l'imaginaire de ce conte que nous allons développer plusieurs jeux et temps forts de la journée dans les villages.
Avec les cambodgiens, nous avons préparé au total une petite dizaine de contes afin d'avoir un large choix. Ensuite nous les avons tous analysé et avons d'identifier les principales étapes ainsi que les valeurs et la morale que nous voulons transmettre.

Permettez-nous maintenant de vous présenter le conte que nous avons retenu (écrit en anglais car imaginé de concert avec les cambodgiens; excusez-nous par avance pour les quelques fautes):

LENITA, JADA AND THE RIVER

CHAPTER 1

Once upon a time there was a village called Kouri, in the middle of a land of wild plains and

where water, sand, animals and people live together in a whirlwind of colors. In the village of Kouri, one of the many villages on the plain, everyone has a role to play, the whole world is busy, busy every day. The ancestral tradition is that everyone has a place thanks to work. Many trades are available to answer the needs of the villagers:

craftsmen work the fabric to make shirts and trousers, the blacksmiths cut the iron to make tools, the farmers cultivate the land to feed the village, the bakers make the bread and the

wafers.

Lenita's village

Every day, everyone put all their energy into working, from sunrise to sunset, doing his or her job for the community. In this hamlet, there is a young girl named Lenita. She is brown haired and tanned, has large, light and bewitching eyes, but they can not see: indeed, she was born blind. Her family educated the best they could so that she could grow up like children of her own age but without her eyes.

Learning is still difficult and others make a lot fun of her. The only person who is listening, and understanding her, is the river of the village. Every day she talks to her and tells her what she hears, smells, and sings her songs to ease her pain. And so, the water vibrates and flows freely, happy with Lenita's company. Sometimes, the little sister of Lenita, Jada, comes with Lenita to acompany and spend time with her near the water.

However, there is an immutable rule in Kouri: as soon as children are of working age, they

must find their place and no longer be mouths to feed. Young people are invited to choose their future job and train with adults for a week. This year, Lenita reached the majority. So she tries like the others to train herself.

On Monday, she goes to the blacksmith's shop. Instead of hitting the red iron of the metal held out to her by the blacksmith, she crushes his hand with the heavy hammer. "Blind girl, you are incapable, your place is not here! » he said angry when he sent her away.

On Tuesday, she goes to the craftsman's house. Instead of mixing the right pigments to obtain beautiful colours, she transforms clothes into dark and sad rags. Sewing also results in, a failure because she sews all the sleeves together.... "Blind girl, you are incapable, your place is not here! "said the disappointed craftsman when he sent her back.

On Wednesday, she goes to the fields with the farmer. Instead of eliminating weeds

with the hoe, it's the rice plants she's pulling out. She even forks into the the peasant's butt by making the boots. "Blind girl, you are incapable, your place is not here! "said the farmer while he gets furious by rubbing his bruised butt.

On Thursdays, she goes to the baker's. Instead of following the recipe, she pours too much water into the mixture and the breads melt and deform in the oven. The smell of burning spreads throughout the village and everyone yeled. "Blind girl, you are incapable, your place is not here! "he said to him ashamed by sending her away.

On Fridays, she is idle and alone. So she goes to the river to tell her everything that happened to her... 

One, two, three days goes by. However, in the village, everyone sees that Lenita is of working age and does not work. An extraordinary village council is held. Elders, intellectuals, shamans and representatives of families and jobs are there. Their observation is irrefutable: "Lenita only does stupid things, she can't work. She will bring misfortune to the village that has always known peace since centuries because everyone had a role. She has to leave. "The terrible decision falls and it's at dawn that Lenita must leave the family home and her village. She leaves alone with her bundle, helped by a stick picked up there, tears run down her cheeks. Her family and the villagers remain marbled, pain and relief are mixing in their hearts. Jada feels really sad and ask herself when she will see her sister again, but she trusts the future to reunited them.

CHAPTER 2

Life in the village is back on track, everyone thinks it was the right decision to take. A few days pass, then a week and little by little, the river begins to flow with less zest, less strength, she gets bored and looks for her missing friend. After a few weeks, she only becomes a very thin stream of water before disappearing completely.

Water disappeared

Very quickly the situation becomes difficult for the village because there is no water.

has difficulty working. A crisis village council is held. Each one offers solutions which are tested in order to return the water : the strongest in the village decide to dig a hole until the center of the earth, the village intellectuals propose to build aqueducts and canals to connect other water sources to bring water back, the village shaman proposes to use his gifts to bring rain and refill the riverbed but nothing does. The sun is burning, men work more and more slowly under the sun that blinds them, people are starving and the situation is getting worse and worse.

Lenita's younger sister Jada is also very hot, but her heart is all wet. Her sister's departure has impacted her more than she thought and she misses her very much.

One night, after that the freshness has returned and that everyone is asleep, she decides to leave the village in search of Lenita. She chose to follow the riverbed and go up its course. She walks for many days until she reaches the mountainous area where the men of the

Plains villages do not go. This is where the river comes from, where trees and plants grow that villagers do not know, and where they are afraid of animals they do not hunt, that they have never seen before. A bridge symbolize the limit between the human and this wild territory. She decides to cross it. She begins to walk on this wood structure but she doesn't see the snake hidden in it. She comes closer and closer, almost step on, the snake is ready to attack her…. " Careful snaaaaaake !!' she hears suddenly, a bankouille appears and bite the snake tail. Jada runs until the end of the bridge and is joined by the bankouille.

Bankouille means cameleon in khmer

"Thank you Bankouille for your precious help"

"You're welcome, where are you going ? It's not a welcomed place for human !"

"I know but I'm looking for my sister, I miss her…"

"Oh the blind girl, I saw her, I'm the guardian of the bridge, i know where she is. She was very sad.. I can lead to you to her." Jada accepts and they starts to cross the forest.

Together, they escape from the carnivorous plants: they pass quietly between the giant plants sleeping, and stop moving when they wake up.

At night, they sleep under the stars, around a fire, talking about life and sharing. Suddendly, wolves arrives and forced them to climb in a tree to escape the danger, after they laugh and mock the wolves. 

When they wake up in the tree, bankouille said :

"Look Jada, we can see the highest mountain from here, it's where is your sister ! "

Suddendly, they hear a big noise in the trees around and hide in the trunk. An enormous gorilla jumps from brunches to another very fastly. Bankouille : " oh it's my friend Bambou, he can bring us there." Bankouille asks to the monkey and together, they reach the mountain flying from trees to trees. They look to the top and begin the ascension, after thanks Bambou.I t's very hard and the rock is slipy, but they continue with bravery. Unfortunately, the rock breaks under Jada foot and they fell. " Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah". Luckily, an eagle was around hunting and recognize his bankouille friend, he catches them and bring them to the top.

They find a cave and hear a sound, a noise, like a crash, a continuous thunderclap. Bankouille says : " It's the end of my travel with you, thank you Jada, you're the first human I met and you are a good girl. My friends are my family in this jungle, but thanks to you, I understood what is a real family." "Thank you bankouille for your free help, I will never forget you".

Entry of the cave

CHAPTER 3

She slowly enters, it is cold and cool and the noise echoes. She walks for a while in this corridor where the light diminishes more and more, she finally sees a point of light in the distance that she joins in tripping. It leads into a huge alcove where she finally discovers the origin of the noise she hears: a waterfall flows, rolls, smashes into the cave with incredible force. All this water accumulates and forms a large lake. "So that's where the water stays! But why?... "asks the little girl to herself, before she sees an island in the middle of the water. And a shape she recognizes.

Lenita is there, in the middle of the swirling body of the water, sitting in front of the waterfall. "Lenitaaaa! Lenitaaaaaa". Jada screams to call her sister, but she can't hear her. The island is not far from the shore where she is but she can't swim very well. Too bad, she's going into the water. First of all, the water hits and shakes her. First frightened and defensive towards this stranger, she ends up leaving her in peace, and offers he current to brings her to the island. "Lenitaaaaaa!"! She takes her sister in her arms. Lenita, first surprised, recognize her sister and hug her. The two girls cry and kiss. In response to Jada's questions, Lenita says that it was the river that guided her here, where men would no longer be cruel to her.

Jada then gradually understands her sister's role with the river. She then explains her the situation in the village of Kouri "They deserved it, they chased me out of because I didn't fit into their habits, I can't bring them anything, they want! " Lénita replied, her eyes shining with sadness and anger. "But I need you Lenita, you are my sister and I love you," replied Jada, opening her heart for the first time, since he was born. The river hears and the river also has a heart, she explodes into droplets and thinks maybe men aren't so bad. Lenita hears what her sister says and feels the rain of the river, she felt love for the first time, a love which is destined to her, the love of his sister.

So Lenita knows what she has to do. She takes her sister's hand: "Jada, do you

trust? "Yes, Lenita." The two girls jump into the lake and the water starts to grow up in the cave before gushing out of the mountain with the two sisters with her. She takes her place again in the forest, finds her bed, she then goes to the plain, feels that the heat and dust

Have replaced her and the distress of men.

She flows, flows, flows, flows until she reaches Kouri. The inhabitants come out of their huts, run along the riverside all happy to discover the two young girls.  "The water's back"! "Look, it's Lenita and Jada! They bring the water» "Hooray, hooray." It is their parents who jump into the water first and take their children in their arms before being joined by the whole village and their cries of joy.

Come back of the river

 THE END

Conceived and written by the MPC team 2019