Rift visit, part 2 (Rachel’s story)

January 17, 2023 by Nicole Owens

 
Home
Home determines so much of who we are, of the people we become.
Some mornings I watch the dawn’s slow light bleed across the valley, its wash of gold brightening the thorn trees, the houses, the spotted goats below. I wonder who I’d be if I had been born into a home here, waking beneath a low sweep of thatch or corrugated tin. What would I hope for? How would the cadence of my days drum out?
Last year we visited a...

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Rift visit, part 1 (Olivia’s story)

September 16, 2022 by Nicole Owens

 
Arrival
 
It’s half past nine in the morning and warmth radiates from the valley floor. We climb from our vehicle onto bright, hot dust, stretching limbs gone stiff from eighty minutes of a jostled negotiation with brush and backroads.
We’ve looked forward to this visit for weeks: two former KKC students, Olivia and Rachel (their names changed to preserve privacy), are both home on their break between school terms, and it’s been a while since Lucy has seen them. Lucy is our...

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Infinitely sweet.

March 16, 2014 by Nicole Owens

 

 
Last week Kenya Kids Can was invited to attend an academic celebration, and PEOPLE. That thing was so much fun.
They sat us front and center, guests of honor at this first-ever Longonot awards ceremony, and with all the stops pulled out: balloons, poetry, song calling, cascades of faux flowers. Hundreds of students packed the courtyard, whooping as their schools were announced and trophies bestowed. Highest performer. Best in the district.
It’s the kind of thing that makes you want to dance.
I’m guessing...

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