UNA, KUSHEO!

That is Sierra Leonean Krio for 'Hello, everybody!'

What are Cotton Tree Tales? They are stories I am writing based on Sierra Leonean proverbs, colorful  truisms with animals as characters.

My Cotton Tree Tales are born of twenty years' living in Sierra Leone--and an enduring love of its people, its culture, its languages, and its geography.  First as a Peace Corps Volunteer and later employed as a local contract teacher, I served as an English  teacher in secondary schools in all four provinces of the country. I married a Sierra Leonean in 1971 and planned to stay in Sierra Leone for the rest of my life.

However,  I returned to the States with my two middle-school aged sons in 1987. But I knew that Sierra Leone would always remain with me.  In the twelve years that followed, I shared with my Texas secondary school students my stories, my adventures, my desire for cultural understanding, my love affair with Africa.  

Along the way  I acquired a passion for the poetry and the patois of the Caribbean...and I introduced my students to wonderful writers who are not part of the mainstream American curriculum.

Today, I am no longer in the classroom, though I will always be a teacher.  I share my passions by giving presentations on my experiences in Africa and the wonderful, vibrant, literature of the Caribbean, reflected in its music, its rhythms, its poetry, and its prose.  My Cotton Tree Tales performances are determined by the type of audiences I have---children of all ages, adults, and teachers at every level. I live in the Dallas area but I travel widely---and often!

Contact me at mslamin@cottontreetales.com