Beyond the Road to Sinyea: A Peace Corps Memoir Liberia 1981 - 1983

When a young woman strides into her dream adventure as a Peace Corps Volunteer, she gets more than she bargained for --- the experience transforms her life. As a nursing instructor in Liberia, West Africa, in the early 1980’s, she witnesses gut-wrenching life circumstances of the Liberian people and their systems of education and health care. While living in a traditional village, she discovers that her neighbors believe she has magical powers, encounters the ‘devil’ from the Secret Bush Society, and finds ‘family’ when she least expected to do so.\nThis deeply personal memoir is filled with stories of West African life as seen first hand through the eyes of a person who wanted to make a difference in the world. Through mistakes and confusions --- some funny and some sobering --- she helps readers understand culture clash and the helplessness that can come to anyone who is dropped into an unfamiliar world that is both painful and exotic.\nThe author revisits her younger self with compassion and curiosity, and in the process develops an added self-awareness resulting from this type of immersion experience.