Claire Diaz-Ortiz New Book Release ‘Hope Runs’

Claire Díaz-Ortiz is an author, speaker, and technology innovator who has been named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Claire was an early employee at Twitter, where she was hired to lead social innovation, and where she still works today. Claire holds an MBA from Oxford University, where she was a Skoll Foundation Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship, and has a BA and an MA in Anthropology from Stanford University.

She is the co-founder of Hope Runs, a non-profit organization operating in AIDS orphanages in Kenya. Claire also owns Saving Money Media, a six-year old network of websites that help families live better on less.

Claire Diaz-Ortiz & her husband Jose at Oxford, where Claire received her MBA

The following is an excerpt from her new book, Hope Runs, An American Tourist, a Kenyan Boy, a Journey of Redemption-

Chapter One:  Sammy

I was born on a red dirt road.

It was a hot December in Limuru, Kenya, and my mother, father, and brother traveled for days to reach my grandmother’s house for Christmas. On December 23, 1992, my mother gave birth.

They call me Sammy.

My mother, father, brother, and I live in Nakuru, a big, mile-high town in the west of Kenya, where there is white dirt as far as the eye can see. My father is a businessman who manages an insurance company. I remember him coming home from work with my mother one day. I am bursting with joy at seeing him, and I run and run and run to hug him. At that moment, I feel I can run forever. This is the best memory I have of my father.

When I am a small boy, our family is very successful. My mother’s sister lives in our house, working as our maid, cooking for us, and taking care of my brother and me. We eat chicken every day. In Kenya, when you eat chicken, you are successful. When I am four or five, my mother tells me it is time for me to start school. I don’t understand what school is, but I am happy for a new checked shirt and a bright red sweater.

That first day my mother takes my hand and walks me along the white dirt road of the Nakuru plains. By the time I get to school, the shoes I had shined sparkling black are now full of dust. At school, I am confused. It doesn’t make sense to me that I am to stay an entire day in a new place, an entire day without my mother.

This I cannot comprehend.

That same year my mother starts getting fat. I don’t know why until she sits my brother and me down to tell us she is expecting a baby. I am happy. “Finally we’re buying another person for the family!” I shout. All that my mother says at first is, “No, Sammy, we are not buying a baby.” She says she is going to give birth.

But that doesn’t make sense to me, and I tell her I have always believed that people are bought, and that the reason I have an older brother is because my parents purchased him somewhere.

My mother tries to make me grasp the truth, explaining that sometimes when people love each other they can make babies. I do not understand one bit, and we leave it at that. It is around this time that my father gets sick and goes to the hospital.

They tell me he has a very bad headache and the doctor needs to take care of him. A few days later something strange happens. My mother says she and my father are getting married that same week, on Saturday. I am small and don’t think about the fact that they were not married before.

“While he’s in hospital?” I ask.

It doesn’t make any sense to me….

Every now and then I see my mother crying for no reason. Even though we are hungry, I am glad we are together.

If you would like to order a copy of Claire’s new book  Hope Runs please visit Amazon

Tell your friends! Sonoma Christian Home will be giving away 5 copies of Claire’s brand new book. Simply sign up for the Free SCH e-Newsletter by April 19th for your chance to win!  Click here for contest rules

Excerpt republished with permission from Hope Runs by Claire Diaz-Ortiz and Samuel Ikua Gachagua © 2014 Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group.