 Hello, my name is Ayesha Kater. Welcome to Story Story with Ayesha Kater. Today we'll be focusing on storytelling. I will be telling a story from Mali that is in West Africa. Are you ready to go to Mali? Great. This story is called The Proud Peacock. Cuckoo was a young peacock. He lived in a beautiful garden. He lived with three pea hens, Babae, Cece and Lou. Cuckoo's feathers were beautiful. They were pink and green with gold and long green feathers. He would walk around the garden bold and arrogant. Look at me. Look at me. I am so beautiful. He would chase the cats away. Look at me. Look at me. Stomp at the lizards. Look at me. Look at me and laugh at Babae, Cece and Lou who were a dirty brown color. Look at me. Look at you. I am so much more beautiful than you. As he got older, his feathers only became longer and more beautiful. Look at me. Look at me. He would walk around annoying all the animals in the garden. He thought he was the most beautiful animal in the world. And he would hit Lulu with his tail and chase Babae and laugh at Lulu. He was a big bully. One day the three hens got together, Babae, Cece and Lulu. Come. Come. I am tired of being bullied by Cuckoo. We have to do something. What can we do? He is so mean and arrogant. Babae had an idea. We should go see the wise old peacock. He lives in the garden down the road. He will have advice for us. Good idea. The next morning before the sun rises, Babae, Cece and Lulu go on an adventure to go see old Sambu, the wise old peacock. That morning Cuckoo comes out of his nest, ruffling his feathers, making sure they are beautiful as they were the day before. He looks around. He only sees chickens in the garden. Where is Babae, Cece and Lulu? Girls. He squeaks. Where are you? I want to play with you. Oh, come on. I will not peck at you anymore. No reply. He goes to see the chickens. Hey, you ugly chickens. Where is Babae, Cece and Lulu? They look at him. Hmm. Even if we did know, we wouldn't tell you. Hmm. Cuckoo goes to the cat. Hey, you fat cat. Where is Babae, Cece and Lulu? Why don't you just leave me alone and go play with your beautiful feathers? Cuckoo sits and waits. And waits, mumbling to himself. Meanwhile, Babae, Cece and Lulu are on an adventure to go see old Sambu, the wise old Peacock. Old Sambu, old Sambu, they call. Yes. What can I do for you? Old Sambu, we need your help. We live in the garden, right down the street, and we live with a mean, mean Peacock. He bullies us every day, walking around, saying, I'm so beautiful. Look at me. Look at me. We can't take it anymore. What can we do? Old Sambu looks at them for a while. Hmm. And patience. Patience, said Babae, Cece and Lulu. Time and patience? Lulu says, time and patience won't stop Cuckoo. He has been doing this for a long time. Time and patience, calm down, calm down, says old Sambu. Time and patience. Everything has its time and season. Nothing is permanent. The girls walk away. Time and patience. Old Sambu yells out to them, just go home, wait and listen. You will see. Time and patience, the girls say. What a wasted trip. We wanted Cuckoo to be punished. They go back to the garden. Cuckoo sees them. There you are, girls. I have been waiting for you all day. The hands, Babae, Cece and Lulu, turn away from Cuckoo. Fine. Ignore me, you fools. As time goes by, Cuckoo stays the same. He walks around the garden. Look at me. Look at me. I am so beautiful. Look at me. Look at me. Annoying, annoying. All the animals in the garden till one day. He flies down from his mango tree. Cuckoo shakes his feathers and feather falls to the ground. All the animals look at Cuckoo. One of the chickens runs up and grabs the feather on the ground and picks it up and places it near its feathers. Look at me. Look at me. I'm the most beautiful. Look at me. All the animals laugh and laugh. Cuckoo runs to a bush and hides and stays there for the rest of the day. The next day, another feather falls off Cuckoo. The next day, another feather falls off until all his feathers start to fall off except for one. Now he is just brown and gray with one colorful feather on the top. He looks at that feather hoping it won't fall off too. But the next morning, it does. What is happening to me? Am I dying? Says Cuckoo. What is happening? All the animals look sadly at Cuckoo. What is happening to Cuckoo? What if he is dying? Let's forgive him before he dies. All the animals go and go around Cuckoo to play with him. Cuckoo sits there sad. Doesn't want to play. Doesn't want to eat. Just sad that all his feathers being gone. Babesese and Lulu look at Cuckoo confused. What happened to Cuckoo? Did we do this? Oh, we should go to Old Sumbu and see and get some more advice. We wanted Cuckoo to be nice, but we did not want all his feathers to fall off. Cuckoo with all his feathers off had no time to be mean to the other animals. He just walked around the compound of the garden. Being nicer now, sharing his food, he had no time to be mean for he was so sad about his feathers. Babesese and Lulu go on another adventure to go see Old Sumbu. Old Sumbu! Old Sumbu! Yes? What did you do to Cuckoo? All his feathers have fallen off. We wanted him to be nice, but we did not want all his feathers to fall off. Did you do this to Cuckoo? Did you cast a magic spell on him? Old Sumbu laughs. What did I tell you the last time you were here? Time and patience, said Babesese and Lulu. And we walked away upset because you did not tell us how to change him. Time and patience says Old Sumbu. Yes, time and patience. Every year, once a year, all male peacocks shed all of their feathers. That is why I said time and patience. Why didn't you tell us that? Because Old Sumbu says, I wanted you to learn that patience is important. I wanted you to learn to wait and not rush and do something drastic. Sometimes things fix themselves, said Babesese and Lulu. We have learned a lot from you. You are a wise old man. Thank you Old Sumbu. First, we have learned that everything has a time, a season. Two, we learned that patience is important. Three, we learned that no matter how beautiful you are, if you do not have a good character on the inside, you will look ugly to the world. As for Cuckoo, his feathers grew back even more beautiful than before. But this time, he was humble, loving, caring, and kind to all the animals. All the animals forgave Cuckoo and looked at Cuckoo and thought, wow, he really is the most beautiful bird we ever have seen. Not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. And that is the story for today. What was your favorite part? What was your favorite lesson? Do you know anyone like Cuckoo? That is all we have for today. Thank you so much for joining me, Aishesh, at Story Story. Thank you. See you next time.