This is the first of a three part post on my recent trip to Sierra Leone. This story, about a car breakdown, is eerily similar to a scene in My Heart is Not My Own. I’ve returned to Sierra Leone. Cartons of solar lights for girls and their teachers. Reading kits for primary to middle […]
Sierra Leone
Launched…
Well that was something! People lining up, outside the doors. Fire regulations put the limit at 96. I can’t say how many attended…. some were turned away and many had to stand. Music by the fabulous The Eerie Green. A table with copies of My Heart is Not My Own—lots of copies. Friends I haven’t […]
The Next Big Thing
Recently, Helen McClory of Shietree tagged me in The Next Big Thing that is going around the blogs. Helen’s prose and photos are so consistently lovely I read every one of her posts. My answers pertain to my upcoming novel, My Heart is Not My Own. Where did the idea come from for the book? […]
2012–a book deal, a new school, and dancing with the Mende
2012 was quite a year. We spent February in one of my favourite places—the island of Kauai. Four weeks of family visits and homemade ahi poke, countless waterfalls and all-day double rainbows. I had started pitching to agents and it was from Kauai that I began a conversation, via email, with Drea Cohane of The […]
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 […]