Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali

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Title: Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali
Author: Kris Holloway
Year: 2007
Publisher: Waveland Press
Country: Mali
235 pages

The author, a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in Mali, recounts her experience with an emphasis on her friendship with Monique, the local midwife. The narrative is not as interior as some travel/work memoirs; the trade-off is that Holloway is able to focus on descriptions of the village, her work with Monique, and interpersonal relationships. Holloway is warm but not sentimental; she recounts her conversations with Monique about female genital mutilation as well as Monique's forbidden love for a childhood friend. The realities of hunger, disease, and war are all present, as well as the dilemmas faced by aid workers from more affluent and powerful nations. This is a memoir I hope to teach with in the future.