An Academic Paper for The University for Peace in Costa Rica - by Caroline Kennedy The first time I became personally involved with “global initiatives” involving theatre was in 1982 when Peace Child International, a British NGO, was conceived in the living room of a friends’ house in Buntingford, Hertfordshire, some fifty miles north of London. “Wouldn’t … Continue reading CHILDREN OF PEACE & WAR
LIFE AND DEATH IN ZADAR
By Caroline Kennedy 1993 Over the years friends have given up asking me what I am doing. Few of them are ever surprised any more. From journalist to radio producer, from traveller to film researcher, from actress to antique dealer, from jewellery designer to theatre director - at some time or another I have dabbled … Continue reading LIFE AND DEATH IN ZADAR
The Letter
There is a letter, quite a long one, in fact. Since I can't show it to you, I shall describe it. It is handwritten, in ballpoint pen, in a sprawling, unfamiliar script, covering both sides of a sheet of graph paper, probably ripped from a child's exercise book. You can see it was written in … Continue reading The Letter
Nestled into the lush foothills of the massive southern mountain range overlooking Costa Rica’s Central Valley the ramshackle fortress of El Buen Pastor has obviously fallen on hard times. Not so long ago it was deemed unfit for its current use and condemned for demolition. So further down the road a more modern extension is … Continue reading
What If?
What if you made your way home from work one day, or from shopping in your local supermarket or, like 11-year-old Merima, coming home from school? And, just as you do every day, you turn the corner to enter your street… But...what if...where your street used to be there is a huge, gaping crater...and, further up … Continue reading What If?
THE FUGITIVE KIND
Harry Rose was a character. It wouldn’t take long for anyone meeting him for the first time to come to this conclusion. I certainly knew this to be true the minute I met him. I also instinctively knew that we were destined to get along together. From the moment his lips parted revealing a … Continue reading THE FUGITIVE KIND
ADAPTING TO LIFE IN A WAR ZONE
by Caroline Kennedy On a scorching summer’s day in 1992 the television news reported a fierce attack on the town of Split on the Dalmatian Coast, some 100kms from Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Split was a town I knew quite well. My mother was from Dubrovnik just a few miles down the coast. At … Continue reading ADAPTING TO LIFE IN A WAR ZONE
The Railway Children of Saatli
Through the heat haze reflecting off the carriage roofs, through the belching smoke from the nearby asphalt factory, through the dustclouds whipped up by the unrelenting winds, you can catch a fleeting sight of them. Like phantoms, blurred, pallid, vague silhouettes, now here, now there, wafting in and out from behind the ancient … Continue reading The Railway Children of Saatli
A Home Away from Home
A HOME AWAY FROM HOME by Caroline Kennedy You could almost be forgiven for thinking, on your first visit to the simple, single-storeyed wooden structure that is Echo House, that you were slap in the middle of a typical rural setting anywhere in the world - green fields stretching out to the horizon, grazing cows … Continue reading A Home Away from Home
A Small Miracle
A SMALL MIRACLE Today I witnessed a miracle. A small boy running down a corridor, kicking a ball with his left foot. Not much of a miracle, you may think. It happens all the time. But this was a hospital corridor. And two weeks ago this small boy was condemned to die, unseen by a … Continue reading A Small Miracle
Caroline Kennedy: My Travels 