A Main Character

Noaj of Wemyss

Noaj of Wemyss (2003-present day) is a Bahamian student of Aerospace studying at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, United States. In his [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_school#:~:text=A%20primary%20school%20(in%20Ireland,to%20thirteen%20years%20of%20age). primary school years] he was home-schooled by his mother which led to his isolation from the larger Bahamian society and his failure to learn the Bahamian dialect or adopt the Bahamian accent. In 2016 Noaj and his family relocated to South Eleuthera where he was enrolled in a local middle school which proved to be challenging for Noaj socially as he found it difficult to communicate with the Bahamian children due to his new found lack of social skills. Noaj's peculiar accent led him to be frequently mistaken for as an American by his Bahamian peers. This made it be that Noaj became viewed as an outsider, which led to Noaj go through an identity crises which would last for most of the latter part of his childhood; he wasn't able to communicate with them effectively which caused him great problems being a member of the Bahamian society.

Early Years In Literacy

In Noaj's early childhood, literacy began for him as a result of homeschooling (beginning around 2005) from his mother where writing was taught as a discipline. Back then there was virtually no influence of the Bahamian dialect in Noaj's life as the dialect did not have a place in the early curriculum nor was it widely spoken in his household. Most forms of literature read during this time, and media consumed, were written and spoken in either British or American English. He, around 2007, developed a great interest in history and the sciences and began to consume books on those subjects as well as pay attention to American made television documentary series such as History Channel's Dogfights. Noaj had very little access to Bahamian literature in his early development, largely due to him receiving handy-down textbooks from his American-residing aunt who was also a home-school teacher for her children. The history the early Noaj read about in his textbooks and online were typically the histories of Western civilizations, empires, and nations such as the British Empire, the United States, and Germany. Germany was a nation that Noaj developed a particular respect for, as he viewed them as a nation with rich history as well as a nation of well disciplined and intelligent people. Around this time Noaj became allured and developed intrigue over other cultures of foreign lands. He received access to Bahamian textbooks on social studies around 2014 when he began to read about the land he was living on, but had hardly gotten to know very well.

Middle School

In 2016, Noaj's family moved to the island of Eleuthera. This decision was made as a result of them being the heirs to a portion of land in Wemyss on the island and it being the location of a middle school that the family believed was best for their children to attend. Noaj was enrolled and immediately it became apparent the awkwardness of his social skills as well as his differences to the Bahamian children since he was unable to speak the dialect nor did he possess the Bahamian accent. This is a particularly noteworthy time in Noaj's life as this marks a period where he attempted to adopt the Bahamian dialect for himself to fit in, however there were more barriers than just linguistic ones that separated himself from them such as the overall cultural barrier that resulted in this attempt to flop. This marked a point where he began to embrace his differences and peruse his own hobbies. Literacy at this point in life was more-less a way to express creativity. He began to produce low quality animations and map-animations on his YouTube channel, TheFrozenBahamas - Hurricane Wisdom. His first moving picture animation was a video titled "The Coyotes Are Swimming" which featured very childish humor mirroring his incredibly young age at that time. He was 13 years old, and the video was uploaded June 25th, 2016.

Literacy Period

In the winter of 2016, Noaj's interest of the social sciences progressed and he began to consume political science literature in an effort to learn and understand the concepts of what should make up a proper government which in turn inspired him to attempt to write his own literature on the topic. During this period (circa 2017) Noaj wrote about theories for political systems that resembled the communes of the Early Church of the semi-independent Roman municipality of Judea, however these writings were never properly saved or published so are currently lost. He now saw himself as an Activist and acted accordingly. This marks the first time where Noaj becomes seriously interested in writing as a form of expressing ideas. As Noaj entered high school in the latter part of 2017 this persona of a student interested in justice and Egalitarianism remained with him, however his beliefs over time are noted to have regularly changed.

The interest in animation never left, and Noaj was contacted by an old classmate named Alisha of Waterford who's families had mutual ties with each other. She requested that they work together on an animation to enter into a contest hosted by Bahamas Water And Sewerage. Noaj agreed and they set up work on a project to answer the question proposed by B.W.S.: "Is nature the solution to water's problems?" The team uploaded their submission to the contest to YouTube on May the 27th, 2018. It was titled "Is Water The Solution To Nature's Problems?" The sketch was a 2 minute 52 second video explaining the science of cloud seeding as a solution to fighting drought and restore water to areas where it was difficult to access. The two each received second place for their efforts in animation. The following year the two entered again in an attempt to receive first place. 2019's theme was "No Water, No Life" so they uploaded a video titled "Without Water Life Ceases" where Noaj and Alisha live in a land stricken with drought and famine called "Cyristia" and they report the consequences. They then explain the repercussions of living in a land where its water resource had been depleted and continue on to explain how much sustainable life is dependent on water. The video was 2 minutes and 59 seconds long and was uploaded on April 30th, 2019. Noaj and Alisha received second place once again for their efforts in animation.

Cloak Of Stars

During the "Literacy Period" saga, Noaj had failed to gain many real friends as a result of the still present cultural barrier between the Bahamian residents of Eleuthera island and himself. However his mother possessed a friend who himself bore a son, and in 2017(or 2016?) Noaj and this son met. His name was "Ai" and they forged a friendship that still lasts to this present day. Ai of Wemyss like Noaj was a Bahamian by nationality but was not Bahamian culture-wise as he himself disowned the Bahamian culture as belonging to him. Noaj, Ai, and Nissho of Greencastle (a Haitian schoolmate of Noaj's who became close friends with Noaj in high school) formed a clique and opened a server on the instant messaging platform Discord called "Cloak Of Stars". In early 2019 Ai admitted to the group that he had secretly created a book called "Rick Productions" with his brothers which featured both Noaj and Nissho in an alternate universe where the Earth is saturated by evil men and the two are sent by The Lord to be used as a punishment for the wicked. The main character Rick was an out of shape homeless man who constantly suffered misfortune sometimes at the hands of Noaj and Nissho. Throughout early 2019 Ai surrendered details about the book from memory, however the book itself was never recovered as it was in possession of his brothers who were outside of Ai's reach. This inspired an interest from both Noaj and Nissho to write creatively within their own clique and share the stories among themselves. Sometimes what they created would be voice narrated and saved as audio files. One such creative essay is recovered of Noaj, which captured his style to always write using Biblical KJV English. The following story is about a man receiving a heart attack. The heart is personified to give greater detail to his body's anguish during the attack.

"And it was in that day when the man took of a leg of pork, and drank and took a bite. And his heart rose its voice in condemnation saying "Thou has eaten and in thine eating abused me neglecting me in your mind, in this hour thou shalt die." And the man was horrified responding in his gasp "Oh no my heart, I knew not what I was doing. Please forgive me and spare me so that we may see another day!" But the heart was angered and said "Thou expresseth no sorrow! Thou hast taken me for granted. How is it that I can supply all your body's blood with no break as my only job yet you can't mind me to not pollute your blood with such filth? It is proven already that thou art ungreatful and filthy scum. For what man neglects the duty of his farm? For if he did he would surely starve. The same but more is expected of thee for thine own body, yet thou carest not." And the man began to sweat and asked "But a second chance give of thee to me? For it is deservant of everyone a second chance." And the heart was angered and replied "Retardation dribbles from thine mouth, thou hast made me physically ill as I have supplied thee with thine strength and in your defense you defile the cool air of this room with this filthy saying said of the men of your land. You deserve thine hot sweat to torture the face of thine forehead from the condemnations of my voice. For thine incompetence you shalt be dragged into the grave and the fools who prospered with you on earth shalt be gathered into Hell." And his heart gave up its ghost, and the man collapsed on his ground no longer able to muster the energy to close his eyelids, or to swallow, or to halt his fluids from escaping his body, or his breath to halt him from inhaling, and his eyes were roasted by the heat of the light in his room, and his lungs burst, and he was without breath to cry in pain, but it was too late to, for in that hour he died."

This story captures the way of writing between the group of friends at that time. They would write about harsh and hard to swallow topics often in a manner often intended to be humorous such as this one which depicts a man receiving a viscous heart attack and dying as a result. The heart is a sentient being which speaks heart-stopping insults to its owner as a result of his poor eating habits. The heart has enough of this mistreatment and kills his owner, along with himself. The absurdity of this situation was intended to be seen as funny.

The three in the Cloak Of Stars became so close with each other that they began to form a dialect among themselves that was not intelligible with the common Bahamian dialect spoken by the Bahamians outside their clique. It consisted of references from the various stories they would write, words from the Bahamian dialect, and phrases they would create on their own which would get recycled into their vocabulary.

Emphasis on The Struggle With Language

Out of sheer interest, and belief that it would in the future become important, young Noaj began to participate on the American language learning website Duolingo in December of 2018. This is the beginning of his journey to learn the German language. Since the early days of Noaj's life, Noaj held an interest for the people of Germany. He viewed them as a hard working people who's work led to many technological innovations over the course of human history such as the jet engine and a people of fine discipline which allowed them to pursue with ease whatever they set their minds to. Noaj loved learning the language and began to consume television cartoons dubbed into German as well as read stories and text messages in German as a way to improve his skill of the language. As one who also possessed an interest in Aerospace, Noaj began to greatly admire German engineers and pilots for their role in paving the way for modern aviation such as fighter ace Manfred Von Richtoven (the Red Baron). Note, Noaj still remained socially awkward from his Bahamian peers who he still found difficult to relate to. He didn't share much interests with them neither did he admire his local Bahamian leaders nor did he participate in Bahamian cultural festivals such as Junkanoo, which he held a religious objection to practicing. Nevertheless he still longed for some form of acceptance from the wider community and began to pick up the mantle for certain issues which concerned the society. In mid 2018, Noaj created a 30 minute long documentary documenting Bahamian foreign affairs which was published to YouTube. In it he recorded the results of United Nations resolution ES-10/L.22 and ES-10/L.23 where the Bahamas voted to abstain and voted in favor of respectively. Some of Noaj's peers ended up seeing the video and sharing it to Bahamian government ministers. The documentary is currently lost as he later decided to delete it due to its controversial nature and Noaj coming to disagree with much of what he stated in it, however Noaj felt that this proved himself worthy of producing documentaries and he would make plans to create new ones. Despite his efforts in trying to seek a form of belonging in the society through getting involved in his country socially, Noaj of Wemyss was never able to overcome the cultural barrier and he never found the acceptance he was searching for. He was unable to make sense of the way Bahamians communicated, and likewise they were unable to decipher how Noaj communicated. Around mid-2019 Noaj became frustrated with the situation and became a more introverted person as a response to himself being ostracized from many Bahamian circles. His family would be robbed several times of the possessions which were housed their semi constructed house which contributed to his sense of unease living on Eleuthera.

This song in that era was drafted by him as an expression of his feelings during that time. The song is meant to be played with the tune of Hatikvah.

"My neighbours all despise me;

often they attack.

Luckily I have the strength to fight them back!

I've lived here now [on Eleuthera] for 3 years...

gradually I grew...

Life's never easy -

the morning shan't bring dew.

That shan't deter me from my dream and plan!

The plan written in archaic stone!

To take a wise stand, guided by my God's Hand -

Defender of Zion, my mark upon the land.

That shan't deter me from my dream and plan!

The plan written in archaic stone!

To take a wise stand, guided by my God's Hand -

Defender of Zion, my mark upon the land."

Theology Out of his previously mentioned interests in the social sciences, Noaj of Wemyss took an interest into studying the religious beliefs of other cultures starting in December of 2019. This, it should be noted, was something he found particularly important, since he himself was a religious person. He began to seriously study Judaism and poured very much thought into the Jewish arguments against Jesus being the messiah of Israel. This led to the consumption of Jewish thought such as from that of Moses Maimonides and Rashi as well as the study of the Jewish Holy Book the Tanakh. In March of 2020, COVID-19 was declared a worldwide pandemic which led to the closing down of schools all over the Bahamas by Bahamian prime minister Hubert Minnis. Noaj was in his final year of secondary school during this time, however due to the pandemic the workload greatly slowed down which left him much time to study religion at home. Jewish culture greatly intrigued him, more so than German culture, and he desired to meet with Jewish religious leaders to learn more about their religion. The Bahamas being a majority Christian nation, however, that was almost an impossibility to find. Noaj wrote a research paper on the study of Monotheistic religions in comparison with Polytheistic beliefs titled "A History Of The Gods" and submitted it to be graded by his religious knowledge teacher for his grade in that class. It documented the creation of ancient Polytheistic beliefs and then the emergence of early Monotheism with the birth of Abraham in Ur of Chaldees using some Judeo-Christian apocrypha as sources, such as the Book of Jasher. The grade he received was "A" which he received after producing edits suggested by his professor. Noaj went on to become the valedictorian of his school after receiving the title of "head boy." The entire year of 2020 saw Noaj study the religions of foreign cultures as well as his own local Christian religion, and in the latter half of it Islam joined the list of religions that intrigued him. By the start of the year 2021, a Muslim Egyptian friend he gained working as an intern at an international school in South Eleuthera, gifted him with the Islamic holy book the Quran, which he began reading with enthusiasm. Studying Theology placed Noaj in an environment where he was in constant need to understand the art of logical consistency, as Theology required the understanding of various logical principles needed to decipher and classify beliefs. For example, Early Christianity was a breeding ground for early Theological debates which spawned the study of Christology as a science. As a result Noaj made an effort to understand the art of logic which he frequently used in discussions with peers or in debates. It aided his conversation skills greatly and helped him better to communicate with people making life a little easier for him. Noaj, however, no longer had a desire to remain in the Bahamas. His negative experiences there, as well as his cultural and now religious differences, made him come to the decision that life there was not worth living.

Today

Today Noaj is a student studying Aerospace Technology in the United States, using much of the lessons learned in the Bahamas to communicate with his peers. Though he is studying an applied science, he still values the art of literacy greatly. He still plans to create documentaries on his YouTube channel. One of which will tell the history of military aviation from the era of Chinese man-carrying-kites to modern 20th century fighter combat. He still also values learning about foreign cultures and their languages, which he is now making an effort to study Arabic and Mandarin. He is thankful for the events of the past because it made him into who he is today and looks forward to the future.