41 Reasons for Leaving Home
A Maine Woman's Journeys to East & West Africa
I place the mask of the woman with the chair on her head in my room, no other power above her own, the first thing I see each morning, the last before sleep.
About 41 Reasons for Leaving Home
This travel memoir centers on a three-week trek through Mali's Dogon region with guide Sory Baba. Memories of Kenya, Mauritania, and the Sahara intersect the journey, revealing how decades of connection formed a lived bridge between Africa and my life in Maine.
....a story is not just a story... especially when writing about a culture not your own.
Where the Journeys Took Place
US Peace Corps teacher in Lelboinet village.
Villagers & experiences during Peace Corps in the Kenyan highlands feature prominently in several books for children.
Two-month stay in former Peace Corps villages with firstborn child at five months old & pregnant with second child.
Six-month stay with four children, ages 6-12, in former Peace Corps villages; Lamu on the coast of Kenya.
Solo two-month stay in Lelboinet, teaching.
The Katam grandchildren became the inspiration for CHIRCHIR IS SINGING, a book for children.
Solo year teaching English at the English Language Center of Nouakchott.
A year in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the Atlantic Sahara, West Africa, inspired DEEP IN THE SAHARA, a children's book that shows the many reasons why the Muslim women in this country wear the Islamic veil that covers them from head to toe.
Wedding on the eastern escarpment of the Great Rift Valley.
Family stay in Lamu on the coast of Kenya in December.
Hike with Sory Baba along the Falaise de Bandiagara Escarpment, homeland of the Dogon people.
About the Author
Kelly Cunnane's journeys through Africa have found expression in 41 Reasons for Leaving Home, as well as in five children's books and personal essays.