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

3.0

This is a well-written, engaging narrative of a Peace Corps workers time with a midwife in Mali. The ending is particularly moving. It is hard to say how much differently it would have affected me if I hadn't spent time with Peace Corps workers in a similarly third world country and in similarly "depraved" (by developed countries standards) rural communities. No electricity. No running water. No safe drinking water other than bottled. Squat toilets if any at all. And yet these communities have their Moniques, strong, intelligent, resourceful, persistent individuals who would be pillars of the community if they had been born in America, but would only be "welfare scum" if they tried to move to America.