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From the New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, loss and redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chakrabardi.

Imagine a map of the world.

Now zoom in on the horn of Africa.

In between Ethiopia and Somalia lies the country of Djibouti.

This small country has become the center of Rachel Pai Jones' world,

one that looks nothing like her Minnesota roots.

Mirei Inos, you may recognize her from shows like Big Love,

The Catch and the Killing, reads us Rachel Pai Jones' essay,

A Child of Two Worlds.

A Somali proverb says that a woman should be either married or in her grave.

And in the horn of Africa, the proverb might as well go on to say that if she is married,

she had better be pregnant, nursing or post-menopausal.

My husband Tom and I moved to Somali land nine years ago

with our two-year-old twins to work for a non-governmental organization

that aimed to serve the local population.

But within a year, the escalating violence there forced us to evacuate

as in grab what we could and run,

and resettle across the border in Djibouti.

A couple of years later, when our twins Magdalene and Henry were five,

...