“I shake my head.
I say, This America is hard work.” – Kek
Kek is a Sudanese boy adrift in the world. He witnesses the murder of his father and brother. His mother’s whereabouts are unknown. A bewildering stint at a refugee camp is followed by an even more unsettling relocation by “flying boat” to America. Burdened by his losses, Kek learns to keep his hope alive as he adjusts to life in America.
Home of the Brave is Kek’s story. Continue reading
B: Are you going to write about The Boy in the Dress on the blog?
M: Do you think it’s bloggable?
B: Yeah, it’s good.
M: Ok then. It was fun reading this together, wasn’t it? Actually, I read this with your sister four years ago, and it was pretty good then too.
B: So you’ve read this two times now? You must really like it.
Continue reading
“There is always something to miss, no matter where you are.” – Sarah
Anna and Caleb live in a lonesome house in the prairies back in the days before electricity and piped water and telephones. They pine for their Mama, who died a day after Caleb was born, and their Papa silently longs for a wife. So Anna and Caleb’s father, Mr. Jacob Witting, decides to put an advertisement in the newspapers for such a companion. And Ms. Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton responds.
“To the pond and back – to the pond and back – nearly a full day of walking altogether. This was Nya’s daily routine seven months of the year. Daily. Every single day.”
In A Long Walk to Water, not one, but two Sudanese children fearfully and desperately endure the worse conditions conspired by humans and nature. Nya lives where water is scarce and seasonal, and access to this life-giving elixir is dictated by the vagaries of an ancient tribal war. Twenty years earlier when Salva was Nya’s age, he fights for survival in his war-racked country. Sudanese of one faith are aggressors, using violence to oppress, extinguish even, the lives of the non-believers and the less powerful.
Based on true events, these are stories that attest to the strength and resilience of the human spirit. These are stories about our common humanity. Continue reading
Stories That Stay With Us 