ONCE upon a time, the stories of Leon Kilat and Maria Cacao were told by word of mouth. The thing with oral stories, you could smell the sour breath of the storyteller.

In the new millennium, Sun.Star Superbalita [Cebu] and Smart took care of the unwanted smell, not by giving mouthwash to the storyteller but by compiling selected Cebuano folklore in one Bisaya storybook.

The storybook “Matod Pa sa Lola ni Noy Kulas” is as Bisdak as it can be. The folklore is about a place in Cebu or a Bisaya character, written in the Bisaya language by a Bisaya and illustrated by a Bisaya.

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WHILE reading Roger Federer’s piece on Tiger Woods in Time in the Sun.Star Cebu library, a man asked for our librarian. I wouldn’t have given him much thought had he not been an American speaking in fluent Bisaya.

We had a brief but pleasant exchange. He said that since he had intended to live in Cebu, he got himself tutored in written and oral Bisaya, the kind that is easily understood and spoken.

I recall that visit as I promote a storybook project being undertaken by Sun.Star [Cebu] Superbalita with Smart Communications, the Central Visayas Studies Center (CVSC) of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas Cebu College and Sun.Star Network Exchange (Sunnex).

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