Mombasa is blue surf and white sands where a few dollars will allow one of the many visiting tourists a camel ride on the beach. Ashleigh Bell originally came to Kenya as a tourist, during a break in Hong Kong where she was studying international law. Having spent time volunteering at orphanages in Asia, she…
Photos taken from Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya. All the animals signed release form (except for the Hyena who refused and for that reason does not appear in this photo gallery). Previous Page 1 of 4 Next
Thomas is an orphan from a village west of Kisumu, Kenya. He was born a few hours from where my adopted Kenyan brothers were orphaned. From an early age, he saw education as his ticket to a better life. He studied hard and in college he was awarded a scholarship to study in Iceland. When…
Tumaini –– (Swahili Verb) Hope, to want something to happen. Here, where hope is tumaini are animals everywhere, everywhere animals. Horses on the cigarettes. Rhinos on the matches. Water buffalo nickels jingling around in your lizard stamped coin purse. Do you have a rhino to light my horse? Animals as currency. You never forget the elephants…
The following is a bit of prose I wrote in March on an overnight bus ride from Kenya to Uganda. Sometimes it’s the means of transportation that connects, as my thoughts jumped to three years earlier, when I was on an overnight bus on the other side of the continent, Morocco and them meandered from this to…
My brother and I were in Kenya walking back from the Lake Victoria to the town of Kisumu having a blast saying, “What’s up,” to people who crossed our path in their tribal tongue of Luo. Titus was a boy who had started walking with us as an impromptu guide and he taught us how to say…
Today we danced the mud dance. With the energy of puppies locked in a meat locker, we covered ourselves in mud cakes dug from the ground. Mud flew everywhere, it lodged in our fingernails—red soil of the earth, the mythical kind wreaking of life—and probably containing some stuff we’re glad we didn’t know was in…
I not sure how to tell you this story. If I introspect, I’m uncertain of either side of an extreme—worried that the medium of writing won’t throw the curtain separating a happening and it’s recounting far enough for you to peer behind, and also fearful it will swing too far, leaving me exposed. I’ll do…
Our rail car tumbled through lands now hidden by the set sun. To my right, a baby fondled his sleeping mother; two snack venders sat across from each other, pulling at their pant legs to examine their knees; a boy in a tie walked past selling soft drinks, eager to profit from our thirst. The…
You know how the morning after a night of unkempt raging you cradle your hangover in your hands and swear to yourself and anyone unfortunate enough to be around you that “I’m never drinking again!”? That’s how I felt in the immediacy following the publishing of both my poetry collections. After each was finally ready…
