NYALOKA

Nyaloka is my story. In the early 1990s, I left Australia to marry Okeyo, a Kenyan national. Along my 3 year journey, I learnt about the Luo culture and the art of surviving on a remote farm in Western Kenya and how to navigate the cultural divides. Okeyo's family welcomed me with open arms, despite my inability to carry jerry cans of river water on my head. My husband was a sound technician and video photographer. We made a living managing a video lending library and producing documentaries for organisations to raise funds from US or Europe for their relief and development projects. The highlight being a trip to a Tanzanian refugee camp after the Rwandan genocide. Nyaloka, my African name, had many misadventures and met many colourful characters along the way, and experienced first-hand the joys and sorrows of everyday life in rural Kenya. Desley Allen writes about her experiences and the people she encountered in Kenya over a 10 year period during the 1980s/90s. Recently she published her first book, TIA: This is Africa. It follows the life of an ordinary Australian mother caught up in the drama of an African civil war. Now retired, Desley lives on the Sunshine Coast with her husband after travelling the Grey Nomad trail around Australia for 3 years in a caravan. She enjoys swimming, walking, and pottering about in her Australian native garden.

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