Laura Lemunyete Interview Published on: 15, Mar 2024

I was born and raised in Wisconsin USA by a loving family who were very rooted in the area for generations. I grew up loving animals and loving adventure. I always dreamed of traveling and living somewhere else in the world. First with my family, then on my own, I took whatever opportunity that came my way to travel, both around the USA and later, to other countries. Mostly, these opportunities were longer term like studying or Peace Corps so that when I did go somewhere, I would immerse myself in the experiences and culture of a new place. I actually met my Kenyan husband while we were both in Edinburgh Scotland attending a one year Master’s degree course. Before that I had never had interest in going to Africa. That changed, haha.

Other than short trips, mostly with family, my first extended trip outside of USA was to Trinidad and Tobago to do my last semester of my undergrad BSc in Animal Science. That really launched me into wanting to see the world. Next, after working a couple years in USA, I joined Peace Corps and was posted in Nepal for 3 ½ years. That was where I ‘came into my own’ as a person and thought I would spend the rest of my life there. I went to Scotland to get my MSc with the plan to go back and work again in Nepal. I met my Kenyan husband and my life path changed. I went to Kenya in Dec 1994 to visit and see if I liked the country and my husband’s community and still here over 29 years later.

I have always felt connected to all of life, nature and Beings. I grew up within the Methodist church as spiritual container and still follow largely the Christ path. Yet, all Wisdom is connected and flows from one source so my seeking is to follow the ways to increasing Love and Unity in the world on all levels and to follow the Way. This means I am an avid reader and learner of many faith traditions and seek to increase connection and understanding where ever and with whoever I find myself.

My main work in Kenya has always been with women groups. Helping communities envision how they want to improve their lives and then help them on how to get to that place. Water, education, income generation and so much more. One of the most impactful initiatives has been through introduction of camels to the Samburu communities through the women’s groups. I just created a short video with FAO of this over 25 years of work for their 2024 year of the Camelid initiative. The link is here https://youtu.be/M7QYbqbWA2U . Take a look. It also talks of the Basket income generation which is something I started with the women in 2000 and is still going on. It has empowered so many women to improve the livelihoods of themselves and their families.

The main idea of publishing this first children’s story was tied up in an idea that I could also have the women’s groups I work with create beaded animal figures of the characters of the book and sell alongside it. This has not yet materialized for many reasons, but not for lack of trying. I am still working on ways that marketing my book can be tied to helping improve livelihoods of the communities I live and work in. Let’s see what happens….

Also, I have never had what one would call a traditional career. I flow with the seasons and what comes my way. I have always pursued my creativity in different ways. I used writing in my development work in different ways throughout the years. I also raised my children with creativity and being close to nature as core values in our lives. It is all tied up to being spiritual beings have human experiences.

See my last sentence. In question 5…..haha. I have always loved telling stories. I grew up telling my younger cousins bedtime stories that I made up for them and that continued to telling stories to my children – sometimes reading books to them, sometimes creating the story myself as we went along. I decided about 5 or 6 years ago to make an effort to try to publish some of these stories and Why Hyena Limps was the first product of this. I have been writing various blog posts of life for over 15 years on different venues and think that this is something I can use to foster more connection and understanding across the world and cultural boundaries. I am also actively working on other more esoteric sort of fiction writing that might appear at sometime unknown. The world needs dreams and stories to figure out how to go forward in greater love, peace and unity. Otherwise we will destroy ourselves. Maybe something I write can help foster a bit more reflection and kindness…

My first children’s book calls itself an original tale in the African style. This is not from where I was born, certainly. It developed within and around me from my almost 30 years of living in my husband’s Northern Kenyan community and raising my cross-cultural and trilingual children in the Kenya landscape sitting around the fires being told Samburu stories and other African based tales from around the country. I also draw on my experience of living in Trinidad, living in Nepal, living in Scotland. Lately my writing is exploring the Celtic myths both of my heritage and my experiences in Wales and Scotland. I have traveled other places too that grab my attention and imagination. Observation and seeing, really seeing, are key for finding common ground between all peoples, nature and creatures of this world.

See answers above in number 7 and 6. I was telling this story to my children 15 years ago. My son and I would draw pictures of the characters and I’d thought of trying to publish even then, with his 10 years of age drawings. But life gets busy and time moves so fast. So now he is in his mid 20’s and I ended up doing the artwork myself. But it still basically the story I made up for my kids bedtime story adventures based on a style of their father’s culture.

From my writing coach about her 8 year old daughter simply loving the book “It arrived yesterday. What a beautiful accomplishment! My daughter absolutely loves it. She says she feels for the hyena and for vulture! It looks very professional!! I admit I barely have had a chance to look because my daughter has taken full possession of it!”

For the children’s book, I simply want children to think about nature and the world around them. To be wild and free. The pictures and fun facts at the back might spark a child to want to learn more about the natural world. I have ideas for a follow up story about Vulture finding new friends. The facts will be around Symbiotic relationships and how these impact living and community.

As to my works in progress, I hope to encourage greater love, compassion, unity and kindness.

As I said above, I would love to connect some income generating idea like beading animal characters or making charm bracelets to tie into the stories.

Environment and the whole subject of climate change is having a stronger pull on my community activities. I hope to use my writing also to bring more light to these issues.

Interesting so far. I’m hoping that 2024 I will be able to use the resources available in Allauthors more comprehensively. I will be trying to get a stronger online presence in various ways. And still figuring out how to more strongly connect my book marketing to my community work.