Essays and Articles
Amina Ali: An Essay
So there I was, with my bottled water and organic dried fruits under the seat of the Land Rover, already dusty but expecting to get a shower at the hotel at day's end. And there she was under the unforgiving sun, prayer beads dangling around her neck, a flamboyant red dress hanging from her thin body, describing what it was like to go four days without food or water.
"Amina Ali," she said, pointing at herself.
Sometimes I think we don't understand a thing until it stares us straight in the face, until we can reach out and touch it. Before traveling to the isolated North East Province of Kenya, I'd read about this drought and famine. I'd read 3.5 million people affected in the northern reaches of sub-Saharan Kenya. "The world has not appreciated in last 60 days how serious this situation is. We are now in a crisis. We are in a life saving mode," World Food Program chief James Morris said this month.
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So there I was, with my bottled water and organic dried fruits under the seat of the Land Rover, already dusty but expecting to get a shower at the hotel at day's end. And there she was under the unforgiving sun, prayer beads dangling around her neck, a flamboyant red dress hanging from her thin body, describing what it was like to go four days without food or water.
Sometimes I think we don't understand a thing until it stares us straight in the face, until we can reach out and touch it. Before traveling to the isolated North East Province of Kenya, I'd read about this drought and famine. I'd read 3.5 million people affected in the northern reaches of sub-Saharan Kenya. "The world has not appreciated in last 60 days how serious this situation is. We are now in a crisis. We are in a life saving mode," World Food Program chief James Morris said this month.
Read more