A review by erinmp
Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali by Kris Holloway

5.0

Monique Dembele is a midwife in a tiny village in Mali. Kris Holloway is a young Peace Corps volunteer from Ohio who is placed in said village. The two almost immediately develop an intense bond of friendship and sisterhood, which Holloway recounts in her memoir. The two years that Holloway spends in Mali are sometimes difficult, with sickness and village traditions interfering with progress. But the book is really about Monique and the women's friendship. Monique is an amaing woman--with a sixth grade education and nine months of medical training, she is the village's sole healthcare worker. "Worker" is an adequate term, as all she does is work. She labors tirelessly at the clinic, then returns to the family compound for daily chores, and often she gets called in the middle of the night for a birth. Through it all she is uncomplaining and accepts her life for what it is.

I loved this book. Really, really loved it. Monique was such an amzazing woman--a legacy that I hope her children can continue and thankfully Holloway tells the world about. It was not really what I expected--it was much better. I assumed that it would be more of an academic/western look at miwifery practices in Africa, but it was really about the unlikely friendship between the two women. Amazing and highly recommended.