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A Time for Weeping?
I hate to write one weeping post after another, mourning the loss of life over and over. But it seems to be a time for weeping. Students killed in Kenya. A Black man (another! over and over and over)...
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Even Janet
When Janet starts talking, you know immediately why everyone loves her. She has this warm laugh that relaxes your heart. She is the kind of person about whom you wish that she lived next door so that...
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All Who Wander
Oh Venice. In the blur of too many projects and deadlines and barely making it on the plane, I suddenly opened my eyes in this labyrinth of stone and pink and glimmering light, all floating/sinking in...
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Stories
Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am a storyteller. My usual response to any disaster or adventure that comes my way is to turn it into the best story I can, ideally one that will make you...
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The Limits
My medical student called me over to look at a little girl named Jacqueline, just like my mother. She was resting in her grandmother’s arms on the bench outside of my clinic room, one of the many...
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When it is Too Much
I ran yesterday, for the first time since I had surgery on my leg four weeks ago. My usual slow-but-steady 5 kilometers. I did it again this morning. It has been years now since I have gone for so many...
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Adventures with my Heroes
I always tell the older kids that I take care of here in Kenya that they are my heroes. And they are! I shouldn’t call them kids. They are young adults — and they are strong and intelligent and...
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Too Many Times
“I have heard this story too many times,” I think, as I listen to the grandmother in front of me. The stories all start with years of sickness and suffering. Rotich is 3 years old. His father died just...
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A Little Ranting About Injustice
Because I have to rant every so often to stay sane… In 2004, when he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK, Gordon Brown gave a speech describing how the world was failing poor families – and...
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Noelle
She walked all this way to collapse in my exam room. Noelle is thirteen, but she bears the weight of two adults. At home, it is only this teenaged girl and her mother. Her mother is bedridden,...
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Celebration in Red: Celebrate Brenda
We will celebrate Brenda. You have to follow a series of bumpy, dusty trails to find Brenda’s home. Brenda, her two young daughters, and her teenaged, orphaned niece live together in a one-room home...
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Celebration in Red: Celebrate Ethan
We will celebrate Ethan. Ethan is 18, and he has been living with HIV since he was born. For the first years of his life, he was sickly and small. Every day, in the silence of her heart, his mother...
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Celebration in Red: Celebrate Faith – and More Birthdays
It is December 1, World AIDS Day, and I am so excited for Celebration in Red. It feels like a big birthday party for me and all of the HIV-infected children I care for in Kenya. In Kenya, our kids are...
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David
It’s deliciously sunny at the Equator today, but David has his navy hoodie snugged up tightly around his face as he slouches in the chair in my exam room. He doesn’t make eye contact with me as I flip...
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Miriam
Miriam is 15-years-old, and she lives at a children’s home for orphans just outside of Eldoret. A few years ago, when I visited the home, her guardians at the home asked me to take a look at her...
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Too Many Times
“I have heard this story too many times,” I think, as I listen to the grandmother in front of me. The stories all start with years of sickness and suffering. Rotich is 3 years old. His father died just...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Little Ranting About Injustice
Because I have to rant every so often to stay sane… In 2004, when he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK, Gordon Brown gave a speech describing how the world was failing poor families – and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Noelle
She walked all this way to collapse in my exam room. Noelle is thirteen, but she bears the weight of two adults. At home, it is only this teenaged girl and her mother. Her mother is bedridden,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
World AIDS Day: Faith
We have reached December 1 again, World AIDS Day. I have left my blogging here for the past year, but my writer’s heart longs to be writing again every day. It has been a year of grant-writing for...
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