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…
I had planned to get mucho done today in the order of computer required work. I even wrote myself a list. Tomorrow, Calvin, Tyler and I are jetting off into the off-the-grid wilds of Maasai Mara National Park, so I was trying to cram a week’s worth of work in a day. It’s 3pm here…
Why To Lend A Hand It wasn’t our original impetus for coming to Kenya, but after we read Calvin’s email, it became our raison d’être for being here. Calvin, had come across three AIDS orphans (Wilfred [17], Samuel [15] and Simon [13]) a half-kilometer from where he and his brothers had been orphaned by the…
On Monday, with Tyler finally here, we left the cray-cray-craziness of busy Nairobi to the countryside to discover the youthful stomping grounds of our brotha-brothers, Calvin and Joash. As if reminding us why we were leaving, Nairobi showed us one of her least attractive qualities and kept us fighting traffic for three hours before we…
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…
Loving The Leave I love leaving Pieces of myself Everywhere There is a man Who is completely content To play checkers Until a forgotten Fanta cap skips Over its overtaken Sprite and Coke Counterparts Becoming the only Moment worth Recounting. Later When the Diligent details Call to mind The moment One possibility In a billion…
Travel To Kenya and Cook Like A Caffinated Maniac Calvin diced tomatoes and peppers with the fervor of carrying out a tyrant’s justice. His cousin, Steve, stripped chicken from bones of the bird his mom had butchered a few hours before. The salt tin in my hands, apparently suicidal, leapt to the floor and became…
Kenya Travel and Diner With The Motikas Finally—and praise be Kenya travel for this—I can eat with my hands, lick my fingers and do the the very “gross” things that led Anna to tattle on me in the third grade for “grossing out the girls” at the lunch table (That’s right Anna, I’m still not…
Yesterday I went with Steven, an American I met on the plane from Cairo to Nairobi, to Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa. At a given time up to 1.5 million people are living in the slum’s 2.5 square kilometers. Rick, a 26 year old man who has lived there for much of his…
