Chadian Diary A Peace Corps Experience

An American couple exchanges US farm life for Peace Corps adventure near Lake Chad in Chad, Africa, in 1978-1979 during civil post independence turmoil in the African Sahel. A journal of the thirteen months in the Peace Corps preparing for and living in Chad. A description of the habits and the traditions of the Islamic Kanembous of Matafo.

The book is a collection of excerpts from a diary written while serving as a Peace Corps Physician with the United States Peace Corps in Ouagadougou, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso).

Having achieved its independence from France in 1960, Chad has run into a serious crises of national building, which have continued to haunt it to the present day, making it one of the poorest and most politically unstable countries on the globe. Chad is a country with sharp geographic and climatic contrasts that puzzle and fascinate the visitor, displaying first a monotonous but majestic portion of the Saharan Desert in the north, punctuated by plains and high altitudes displayed by the Tibesti mountains, where the highest point, Emi Koussi, reaches 11,204 ft.; the middle Central Sahelian zone, where pastoral transhumance lifestyle predominates but where and nut cultivation and harvesting is possible; and an endowed southern tropical zone where the forest and the savanna meet, blessed by several long-running rivers, most notably, the Logone and the Chari that empty their waters into centuries-old Lake Chad. Even though things in Chad seem to have improved during the past 10 years, most observers agree that the path to peace, reconstruction, and economic progress is still long and arduous. This fourth edition of Historical Dictionary of Chad contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1300 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Chad.

"The author worked and vacationed in Liberia and West Africa from 1962-1964. The author kept a diary of most of his stay. This book reveals the day-to-day life of a Peace Corps volunteer as well as the experiences of students and villiagers. The experiences are both diverse and unexpected. Reading these diaries results in a fair perspective on the volunteer's life and times. Furthermore, it provides many insights into Liberia, Americo-Liberian culture, life up-country, or life in the interior. This book carries the reader from experience to experience. You'll have a hard time setting it down."--Back cover.

The author worked as a teacher and had a variety of experiences in Liberia and traveling in West Africa from 1962-1964. The author kept a diary for most of his tour of duty. The book reveals the day-to-day life of a Peace Corps Volunteer as well as that of students and villagers. The experiences are both diverse as well as unexpected. Reading this book results in a good perspective on the volunteer's life and the culture he lived in. Furthermore, it provides many insights into Liberian culture Americo-Liberian culture, life in the hinterland, and how life contrasted with life in the United States. This book carries the reader from experience to experience. You'll have a hard time setting it down.

Shows how important learning is in a country where only a few children are able to go to school.

The life of a humanitarian aid worker in stories and verse from around the world--inspired by war-affected populations rebuilding their lives with unbreakable spirit. From Rwanda to Cote d'Ivoire, Congo to Serbia, Morocco to South Sudan "Pit Stop in the Paris of Africa" depicts one woman's journey living and working in the face of adversity. On single engine aircraft over dense forests. Through arid deserts on makeshift roads. Experience the reality of living and working in some of the most dangerous and insecure countries in the world.The story of an independent woman afoot in a world of adventure, danger and romance. --Brian Lambert, MINNPOSTJulie Dargis brings to vivid life the dangers, challenges, and rewards of providing aid on the front lines. I highly recommend "Pit Stop in the Paris of Africa" to anyone seeking insight into humanitarian work in the 21st century. --Michael Kocher, Vice President, International Rescue CommitteeJulie's writing is brave, true and moving. There is nothing false or self-conscious about this journey of self-discovery. --Chris Hennemeyer, Specialist in African AffairsIn this memoir that blends poetry and prose, a humanitarian worker finds unlikely friendships and fleeting romances in some of the most violent, impoverished places on Earth. This is an unconventional memoir, but Dargis (Seven Sonnets, 2012) hasn't lived a conventional life. In a loosely stitched collection of reveries, she reflects on her years working for humanitarian causes, hopping from one war-torn nation to another seemingly as fast as a Land Rover can traverse a jungle road. Her adventures began in 1984 when she joined the Peace Corps and taught English in Morocco. Later, she traveled to Rwanda to oversee an international response organization following the 1994 genocide. What she encountered—primitive living conditions, ethnic brutality, staff members succumbing to AIDS—was in stark contrast to her Minnesota upbringing. A haunting sonnet entitled “Thy Neighbor's Heart” captures the work of humanitarian groups in a strife-ridden land: “Truckloads of rightful wares to ease the plight / Of a million plus souls, with prayers, were sent.” While disease, conflict and death loom over the narrative, Dargis also shares insights into local customs and cuisines. In this way, the book is a travelogue born of nose-in-the-dirt experiences that wouldn't be out of place in a Hemingway novel. Dargis witnessed tanks rolling across the Chadian desert, contracted malaria in Congo and ate gelato with a fortuneteller in Italy. One overarching truth emerges from a lifetime of travel: despite cultural differences, people are the same everywhere. Occasionally, a shortage of info, such as the names of organizations for which Dargis worked, makes it difficult to follow the timeline as she embarks on one perilous assignment after another. Ironically, it is the United States where the author struggles to fit in most. Always pulled toward the horizon, Dargis sees national borders as “invisible barriers” in a journey of self-discovery. In her story, the landscape changes quickly, but the human connections leave a lasting impression.Poignant recollections of a restless soul whose wanderings taught her that the desire for security, dignity and love transcend the lines on a map. --Kirkus Reviews