Ongo Bongo Island part 1

Draft of part one of a children's story

Once, not so long ago and not so far away lived a people, who were called, by the people who met them, the Ongo Bongo people. The Ongo Bongo People lived on an island called Ongo Bongo Island. The Ongo Bongo people were very simple people, they did not have cars and they did not have phones. They did not have computers and they did not have television. They lived in huts they built themselves with the wood from the Ongo Bongo Tree. They ate the fruit that grew on the Ongo Bongo tree and they ate eggs laid by the Ongo Bongo Bird. They drank milk from goats that lived on the island but because they were very simple and could not remember words for different things so they called goats, the Ongo Bongo Beast.

Illustration - Ongo Bongo Island

Not many people visited Ongo Bongo Island so the Ongo Bongo people didn't know about cars or phones or computers or television, so they didn't miss them. When people did come to the island they found the Ongo Bongo people very peculiar and did not stay long. Why other people found them so peculiar was because the Ongo Bongo people were very simple and they could not remember many words. When an Ongo Bongo Person wanted to say something that they couldn't remember the word for they would say, “Ongo Bongo” instead. They would say Ongo Bongo in a way that sounded like the thing they were talking about.

If they wanted to say something happy, they would say, “Ongo Bongo!” happily and loudly.

If they wanted to sound serious they would say, “Ongo Bongo” very seriously.

And if they wanted to say something sad they would say, “Ongo Bongo” very sadly.

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The Ongo Bongo people forgot words a lot, especially if they got confused or upset and if they got angry, some times they forgot words forever. This was very confusing for people who did not live on Ongo Bongo island so they preferred to stay away.

Illustration - ship sailing past Ongo Bongo island.

The Ongo Bongo people were very busy and there were lots of jobs for the them to do. They built houses from the Ongo Bongo tree, they collected eggs from the Ongo Bongo bird and they milked the Ongo Bongo beast. These were jobs that all the Ongo Bongo People did but some had other jobs. They had a man whose job it was catch fish and they had a man whose job it was bake bread. The two most important jobs on the island were the Teacher and the Mayor. There were only a few special jobs and lots of people who wanted to do them so when someone new was needed to do a job the Ongo Bongos had to decide who would do it.

The way they decided who would do a job was also very peculiar they would ask the person to talk about the job but because the Ongo Bongos could not remember many words, most of the time they would just say, “Ongo Bongo”.

The fisherman would be be the person who could say, “Ongo Bongo” in a way that made them sound like they could catch more fish.

The baker was the man who could say, “Ongo Bongo” in a way that made them sound like they could bake bread.

The teacher would be the person who could say, “Ongo Bongo” in a way that made them sound very wise.

The Mayor would be the person who could say, “Ongo Bongo” in the way that made him sound very honest.

Illustration - Ongo Bongo jobs

Asking someone to say, “Ongo Bongo” isn't a very good way to decide who does which job. Luckily the baker and the fisherman both worked hard and were good at their jobs so the Ongo Bongos did not get hungry.

No one really knew how good the teacher and the Mayor were at there jobs because it’s not so easy tell. Sometime someone would think the Mayor the or teacher was not doing their job well but they were both very good at saying, “Ongo Bongo” so they kept their jobs.

The Ongo Bongos didn’t need cars or computers and for along time, were quite happy, living in their huts. They ate their eggs and fruit. They ate the fish that the fisherman caught and bread that the baker baked.

Then one day the fisherman, who was called Clive, saw something very strange as he took his boat to the bay to go fishing. It was a dark cloud in the sky over the sea, it meant a storm was coming so Clive went home and told the others about what he saw. They thanked Clive and all went home so they would be safe. None of them knew that the storm would change life on Ongo Bogo Island forever.

Illustration – Clive looking at storm cloud