The welcome in Sumbuya began at Salima, at the eastern section of the village. Singing school children, drums, dancers. Everyone paraded through the village to the official welcome at the school hall. The highlight was the G’boi, a raffia covered bush devil. He danced in the street and on the hall stage, at one point […]
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Salone 2014: on returning to Sierra Leone
The novel is out, the reviews are wonderful and I’m moving on to other projects, writing and otherwise. I’ve been meaning to write about the notes I’ve been receiving from readers of My Heart is Not My Own. And I will–next time. The comments, from book club participants and readers from across the country, are […]
Taking the back way through Sierra Leone
I hadn’t counted on National Cleanup Day. A country with no garbage pickup—no recycling. On windy days plastic bags swirl like leaves. But not on National Cleanup Day. The only vehicles on the roads belong to police, or the military or politicians. Everyone else is ordered to remain at home, sweeping one’s compound of trash. […]
A few days among the Mende in Sierra Leone
This is a “live” post from Sumbuya, Sierra Leone. I ask your forgiveness for spelling or grammatical errors—I’m in an NGO office, the lights are blinking and, well—this is going to be one draft only. I’m here to tidy up loose ends. Tomorrow I’ll attend the opening of the school that our family and friends […]
Passion Play in the Serengeti
Two million animals in search of the tall grasses. An endless circle, with no beginning And no end. Languid walks along the plains, The sweet grasses disappearing within days of their coming, The relentless movement of wildebeest The life-force of the Serengeti. A passion play of hunters and hunted, Repeating through the millennia. At the […]
Back to the beginning….
Thanks to my agent, Drea Cohane, My Heart Is Not My Own is finally getting into the hands of acquiring editors. And so my thoughts return to the beginning…. In 2000, during the civil war in Sierra Leone, I visited a refugee camp in Freetown. I remember several images from that trip, but one in […]