THIS IS WHERE THE STORIES LAND
THE WORKSHOP: Short Stories. Unfinished Ideas. Essays.
Writing, for me, is the process of translating several lives lived across multiple continents into something real on the page.
Long before history was documented in textbooks, oral storytelling carried our truths across generations. How can we ignore that? So much of what we call “HIS-story” was written from places of power and privilege. Why should we accept it without question?
I’ve always been drawn to stories that make us think rather than comply, ideas that provoke debate, and questions that challenge the status quo. When an alternative perspective is dismissed as a conspiracy, I want to know why. I’d rather research a claim for myself than inherit someone else’s conclusion, however many titles or credentials they hold. So yes, let me put it out there: I love a good controversy. And I’m curious about conspiracies, too.
Some pieces here are polished and out in the world; others are still arguing with me.
ONE WORKSHEET AT A TIME
Memoir in progress
From arriving in Ottawa in the depths of winter to building a two-location education business, this memoir follows two decades of migration, single motherhood, enterprise, reinvention and the children who made the worksheets the least complicated part.
WHAT’S TAKING SHAPE
FICTION IN PROGRESS
A wedding morning in Mombasa
On the morning of Leena’s wedding, news of Princess Diana’s death enters a household already balancing love, duty and tradition. A story about the public moments that interrupt private lives, and the choices we make while the world is watching.
ESSAYS & OBSERVATIONS
Thoughts that refuse to behave
Pieces about reading, education, migration, family, culture, enterprise, reinvention and the peculiar business of beginning again. Some will arrive polished. Others may still have ink on their sleeves.
A BOOK IN COLLABORATION
A life shaped by enterprise
I am helping a retired Nairobi businessman turn a lifetime of experience into a book; finding its structure, shaping its stories and preserving the lessons he wants to leave behind.
BUSINESS
From jewellery sales in Mombasa to two Kumon centres and a return to travel, I have spent decades building businesses with other people’s systems. How much of the success belonged to the model - and how much belonged to me?