Here you are, a nine-year-old sex worker in the walmart parking lot. Here you are, in a sequined red shirt — flimsy, translucent, bare-ly hiding the chest you aren’t old enough to grow. Here you are, nine years old. You are nine years old. Once, in that sheltered place, bumbling through heart and soul onContinueContinue reading “For K”
Tag Archives: work
working hard
Today I was asked if I did anything good with the day or if I ‘just worked’. I work hard here. “Weekends” aren’t a readily available term in my vocabulary. Friday night is not indicative of any certain activity, behavior, or lack of thoughtfulness. I work hard. I work every day. Saturday and Sunday areContinueContinue reading “working hard”
a list to give a glimpse
I was looking through my notebook today and found this list/poem/reflection that I wrote on June 23, about the day of our first GET UP (Girls Empowerment Team of Umoja Project) seminar at Bar Anding’o Primary School. I thought I would share, not because it is high-quality writing or profound, but because it gives aContinueContinue reading “a list to give a glimpse”
i have lived and am living
I’ve discovered that I love to read poetry while in Kenya. Somewhere during my junior year, in AP English, I found the beauty which poetry conveys (although I didn’t dare admit that at the time). During the horrendous ice storm of 2011, when I had recently returned from my semester in Kenya and school wasContinueContinue reading “i have lived and am living”
this business of “being called”
Last week at a meeting the Head Teacher at Mawego Girls Secondary School and a dear friend, Grace Ataro, told the room that it is as if I am “called to be in Kenya.” Just before the meeting, Mariah and I had been talking about the language of “being called” and how, though I don’tContinueContinue reading “this business of “being called””
callie daniels-howell 