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Tales of Togo: A Young Woman’s Search for Home in West Africa
Meredith Pike-Baky
A Peace Corps Writers Book
September 16, 2020
280 pages
$14.00 (paperback)
WHAT HAPPENS when an idealistic young woman sets off to live and work in a remote community in sub-Saharan Africa in the early 70’s? Propelled by activism for peace in Vietnam, social justice and racial equality, she requests a position in northern Togo far from the capital city in an attempt to disassociate herself from the US. But once in Africa, her revolutionary zeal is challenged by others who embrace America and its politics. She teaches alongside authoritarian European nuns and amends her opinion of men in uniform when she falls in love with a policeman. She works hard to fit in, hiring “boys” for help, traveling in mammy wagons and learningfour languages to greet, bargain and teach. Her efforts introduce her to prescriptive family roles that do not honor women or offer her female students a promising future. She comes face-to-face with life-threatening illness. Her curiosity and idealism keep her afloat and tell tales that demonstrate determination, reverence and remarkable adaptation.
Fever! and other stories from The Land of Mobutu
Peter Loan (Staff— CDZaire 1976-79; Washington)
Peace Corps Writers
August 2020
100 pages
$9.99 (paperback), $5.99 (Kindle)
Fever! And Other Stories from The Land of Mobutu is a fictional account of the adventures of young volunteers who offer lives of service in a strange land, and of the people who support and guide them. Here is a brief look into the stories in this book:
“The Remedy” – In Lucas’s dream, a Zairian soldier pressed on his chest, pinning him to the bed, and warning him, above the din, to be silent if he wanted to live.
“Madness at Middle Earth” – “We did not see him eat the snake, Monsieur. But the snake’s wound could have been made by human teeth.”
“Fever! ” – Bobby craved fame’s halo but feared he had worn it for the last time.
“The Free Lunch” – The moment was solemn, the atmosphere quasi-religious. And as religious rituals are repeated tirelessly for the benefit of the faithful, Lucas wondered whether this ritual had a history.
“A Thing of Beauty” – It was in this part of the Garden of Eden that Lucas was to meet Valerie wearing her jeans.
Poetry Sketches: A Peace Corps Memoir
Eldon Katter (Ethiopia 1962–1964)
Peace Corps Writers
June 2020
266 pages
$10.48 (paperback)
POETRY SKETCHES: A PEACE CORPS MEMOIR is Eldon Katter’s second book of art and poetry. The first, Nature’s Poetry, was what he called a “senior citizen project” and focused narrowly on encounters with nature. This book has a much broader theme than nature. Poetry Sketches is a life’s journey through art and poetry. To guide the reader on this personal journey, the author introduces a sequence of themes: Beginning, Becoming & Belonging, Connecting Cultures: The Peace Corps Experience (including excerpts from letters written to his parents, poems written during training, teaching in Harar, Ethiopia, the long trip home, and re-entry crisis), Global Pursuits (including poems and sketches from the post Peace Corps years in Uganda, West Africa, and Middle East), and a final theme Retirement & Reflection (an octogenarian’s perspective on then and now.) The author shares excerpts from letters, journal and diary entries, along with copies of sketchbook pages. Through this compilation of ephemera, the author reveals a series of life-changing experiences and a pathway to an expanding world view.
The Warm Heart of Africa: An Outrageous Adventure of Love, Music, and Mishaps in Malawi
Jack Allison (1966–69)
Peace Corps Writers
June 2020
224 pages
$14.95 (paperback), $6.99 (Kindle)
WHEN JACK ALLISON joined the Peace Corps in 1967, he never intended to write the number one hit song in Malawi or be described by Newsweek as more popular than Malawi’s own president. A poor Southern white boy with a deep love of music, Jack only wanted an answer to one burning question: Should he become a minister or a doctor?
In the end, the answer Jack found was that he would choose medicine as a career. And, living in extreme circumstances in the world’s then-poorest country, he would find even more-that he had the inner resources that allowed him to not only thrive but give the best of what he had to those who needed it the most.
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