Book Review: Falling Seven Times, by Mark Wentling (Honduras 1967-69 & Togo 1970-73)

· Publisher ‏ : ‎ Archway Publishing (August 31, 2024)

· Language ‏ : ‎ English

· Paperback ‏ : ‎ 318 pages

· ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1665763213

· ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1665763 219

· Available on Amazon.com : Falling Seven Times 

I’ve read and reviewed several of the author’s books. We were both Peace Corps Volunteers in Central America and worked in West Africa, although Wentling went on to work and travel in 54 African countries over the years. My favorite book from his “African Trilogy” is “Africa’s Embrace,” which is fiction but reflects his experience working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa in the 1970s.

This book begins in Ethiopia with a young woman’s struggle to be a migrant worker to support her family. It is a fictional story based on her experience with his Ethiopian wife. She became a naturalized citizen in 2019. As the author told me, “If you are looking for a human face to put on labor migrants, this is it.”

Her story is one of tens of thousands of people going abroad searching for jobs that pay a livable wage so they can send money home. Indeed, her sacrifices and the ups and downs of her experience reflect what so many migrant laborers suffer. She’d pursue this goal by working in the glittering city of Dubai and going to Iraq with a harrowing experience on her way to Turkey.

The book highlights the foreign environments, including the different languages and cultures Alya encounters and how they contrast with her customs. In the United Arab Emirates, the Emirati families had several camels and would visit them on special farms when they had a break. Alya also tells of a coffee ceremony that is elevated to an art form. A local herb (t’ ena adam) “increased the intoxicating aroma of coffee fumes.”

The pitfalls of migratory labor are highlighted in the chapter “Tricked or Trafficked?” when she’s on her way to Turkey but is ‘diverted’ to Iraq.” She was “deathly afraid of living the life of a house servant in a strange land. Her head spun, and she wanted to flee, but there was no escape.”

Wentling tells how abuse of women was a common thread to all ethnicities in this region where wife beating was common. Alaya narrowly escaped several confrontations with abusive male family members where she worked.

The book’s many twists and turns kept me guessing what would happen next and whether Ayala would survive. Each of the thirty-six chapters describes Alya’s understanding of bondage in a foreign land and her eventual escape to the impoverished sanctuary of her home in Ethiopia. Fortunately, Wentling has finished a new book and is working on another.

About the Author:

Mark Wentling obtained a degree from Wichita State University and served as a Peace Corps Director in Gabon and Niger. Wentling began working for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Niger, Guinea, Togo, Benin, Angola, Somalia and Tanzania. After retiring from the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, he continued to work with USAID Missions in Zambia, Malawi, Guinea, and Senegal. His book, Dead Cow Road, was recognized by the Peace Corps Writers Group with the Maria Thomas Fiction Award in 2018. He works and lives in Lubbock, Texas, but continues to travel extensively in Africa. He designed a course in International Development for Texas Tech University. He recently joined the Advisory Board of Peace Corps Worldwide Writers.

By Mark Walker, Peace Corps Worldwide Advisory Board