Two weekends ago, I had the opportunity to attend a Kenyan wedding. The bibi harusi “bride” was my host mother’s niece, and I was thus able to enjoy a very involved view of the festivities.

Weddings in Kenya are a huge deal. Everyone’s invited – and that means everyone – even passersby are welcome to walk into festivities. The weddi…

One wonderful thing about my new homestay is that my host mother makes fresh fruit juice regularly, nearly daily. It’s one of the only things contained in the small freezer, which is used as the only source of cold in the household. Throughout the day, I drink fresh and mouthwateringly tart tamarind and passionfruit juice. Passionfruit juice looks amost identica…

Today begins the second half of my study abroad program. I am moving in with a new host family in the port city of Mombasa and will tomorrow start my research internship at the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya. As I write this I’m sitting in my new bedroom in a house quite different from any place I’ve previously lived.

This morning I …

Today a story was regaled to me, a recollection from a man’s childhood. It is a tale of magic, a beautiful African story of the world being more mysterious than one could possibly understand.

I present it here for your enrichment.

As a child, we went through many spells of drought, where the crops would wither an…