I'm on my way to meet my heroes: In 2007, the Glass Woman Prize (a writing prize for women which I ran from 2007 to 2014 and plan to resume at some point) published the story of a 19 year young Kenyan woman, Mercy Adhiambo. Mercy lived in a hut in the city of Kisumu and wrote her stories on a computer at the library, provided there was electricity. A reader, Kim Robinson, was so impressed with Mercy's story, that she became penpals with Mercy and eventually got the school where she teaches involved in sponsoring Mercy's journalism studies in Nairobi. Mercy graduated with a degree in journalism in 2012. At this writing Mercy is on a 6 months internship at the Oklahoma Times in Oklahoma City, and I will drive there to visit and meet Mercy over this weekend. I will also get to meet Kim who is driving down from Minnesota. I am so stoked!

Here is a link to Mercy Adhiambo's 2007 story, The Untold Story.

And here is a link to her current work at the Oklahoma Times.

I may not have internet access until approximately June 29th, and will resume blogging then, if not before.