Customer Reviews (13)

Jordan got what he deserved
All in all, this was a somewhat decent book.Jordan Rutldge, in my opinion, was nothing more than a child molester and rapist.I sure hope that other Peace Corps volunteers are not like him!!
In the end, Jordan got what he deserved!

Not worth your time...
As someone who picked this book up with a personal interest in the peace corps, I still found it utterly unreadable. The prose is flat and dull.This was Mr. Carter debut; let's hope that it was also his last book.

insulting to the African people...
As someone who was born in Africa and went on to be educated in the United States, I find his depiction of the African people to be offensive.I also do not think much of his poor writing talent. Thumbs down.

not what I was expecting...
as someone who has been in the peace core, I just couldn't relate to this.I found it trite and poorly written. I don't recommend it.

The Volunteer
As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who worked in Tanzania for 2 years, I was a little disappointed. The book was not what I expected. The explicit portions I felt were unneeded and overshadowed the descriptions of the Tanzania people and their culture. There were some brief descriptions of parts of the Tanzania culture but overall I didn't think the book did it justice. Also, because I was Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I knew that some of the possessions that the character had in the book, were never given to Peace Corps Volunteers! (i.e., the nice flashlight he had). It was a lot more difficult than he made out. I realize that was not the focal point of the story but I felt that it could have been done better. I wonder if he had talked to any volunteers that worked in Tanzania. I had a hard time getting into the book and didn't like the bouncing back and forth from the past to the present. Also, I felt there should have been some explanation of how he came to join the Peace Corps. I thought the flashbacks would eventually lead up to that, but it never came. I'm glad other people found it enjoyable, but looking through my eyes as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I was disappointed. ... Read more

Book Description
Empowered by findings and insights from the wit and wisdom of the indigenous Chaga educational system, Dr. Mosha contends that an authentic educational program in Tanzania and elsewhere should be holistic in its unrelenting quest to educate the entire person: body, mind, and spirit.He provides a comprehensive description of the indigenous schooling process and its underlying fundamental virtues and then proposes that modern education should give equal emphasis to both the spiritual development of students as well as to their intellectual growth in knowledge, science, and technology.Dr. Mosha argues that for its own advantage and survival, education has to prioritize moral consciousness and responsibility in its students in order to attain academic excellence.Without a consistent moral living and moral action by all who teach and learn, education eventually plunges into hopeless mediocrity,It becomes the proverbial salt which loses its saltiness.
This book provides several unique contributions tothe academy.First, it illustrates how the Chaga people of N. Tanzania cherish everyday experience and every here-and-now situation as teachable moments, teaching moments, and learning moments.It is also uniquely rich in its description of stories, riddles, proverbs, and rituals as powerful tools of holistic education.Thirdly, the book breaks ground by comprehensively articulating specific indigenous virtues such as reverence, self-control, silence and thoughtfulness, courage, diligence in work, and communality.This book therefor makes a unique contribution in the areas of Indigenous Knowledge, Spirituality, Education, African American Studies, African Studies, Religious Studies, Anthropology, et cetera.The author's stories, personal experiences, and thick descriptions are so fundamental that every reader will rediscover, in this book, similar experiences in his/her own life. ... Read more

Book Description
Sambach brings together an ethnograhic study of a school and community in East Africa.Stambach focuses on the role school plays in the development of the children's identity and relationships to their parents and community, as well as in the development of the region.At issue here are the competing influences of Western modernity and the cultural traditions of East Africa-ideas about gender roles, sexuality, identity, and family and communal obligations are all at stake.Stambach looks at the controversial practice of female circumcision in the context of school and community teachings about girls' bodies and examines cultural signifiers like music, clothing and food to discuss the tensions in the region. ... Read more

Book Description
On a daily basis remnants, scraps, rubbish, and junk are filtered through both formal and informal salvage operations in urban centers throughout the world. The essays included in this volume--"Muffler Men, Menecos and Other Welded Wonders: Occupational Sculpture from Automotive Debris," "Streetwise: The Mafundi of Dar es Salaam," and "Castoff/Outcast: Living on the Street"--explore the process of recycling within distinct environments. What emerges is a remarkable justaposition of diverse material behaviors informing the "lived experiences" of residents of Los Angeles, Tokyo, So Paulo, and Dar es Salaam. ... Read more

Book Description
Ufipa, a labor reserve for Tanganyika, witnessed minimal colonial development. Instead, evangelization by White Fathers' Catholic missionaries began in the 1870s. By the 1950s, the missionaries had secured varying degrees of political, economic and social authority in the region, witnessed by the fact that the vast majority of Fipa had converted to Catholicism. Fipa Families examines how this happened from the Fipa perspective. Initially, employees of the mission sought to oversee the education and moral upbringing of at least one child from each family, substituting boarding school for the care relatives would otherwise have provided. A few mission parents even opted to forego the multiple benefits of grandchildren so a child could pursue the celibate path of a religious vocation. The opportunities of the Catholic Church complemented and competed with Fipa processes of social and biological reproduction, and Catholicism became part of the fabric of Fipa society because of, and despite, its resonance with Fipa culture. At the heart of both Fipa and missionary concerns were the processes of socialization (social reproduction) and biological reproduction, processes carried out within the context of the family. Written primarily for scholars and students of African colonial history, mission history, and family and childhood history, this study is based on a rich collection of oral and documentary sources. Working with this wealth of information, Smythe breaks new ground in placing African social and moral concerns parallel to those of missionaries, resurrecting the study of the family (rather than kinship, lineage, or clan) within African history, and demonstrating at the level of the family and village the ways in which ideas of socialization, reproduction, and education were challenged and re-created in the colonial context in Ufipa. Fipa Families examines the influence of Catholicism from the Fipa perspective. The opportunities offered by the Catholic Church both complemented and competed with Fipa processes of social and biological reproduction. Yet, at the heart of both Fipa and missionary concerns for cultural and religious perpetuation lay the processes of socialization (social reproduction) and biological reproduction--both processes carried out within the context of the family. It is with that context in mind that Smythe makes an argument based on resurrecting the study of the family within African history. ... Read more