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Praise for Kris Holloways
MONIQUE AND THE MANGO RAINS
a tenuous hold on life and health is made achingly real
Boston Globe
Monique and the Mango Rains bypasses our calloused views and leads us to love and laugh with the amazing individuals who live and work in such dire circumstances.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Despite Holloways anger over wrongs seemingly imbedded in the culture she avoids the trap of cultural superiority. Instead, she simply seeks to help those she has come to love
Minneapolis Star Tribune
A poignant and powerful book.
Kirkus, Starred Review
Holloways moving account will interest all those concerned about the realities of womens lives outside the industrialized world.
Publishers Weekly
the rhythm of life and death in Mali shines through all the pages.
Library Journal
There have been many accounts, mostly by sociologists and anthropologists, of studying people from other cultures. But there have been few accounts of actually being friends with them. Anyone who is curious about what such a friendship feels like from the inside should read this respectful but intimate account of the bond between Kris Holloway and Monique Dembele.
Anne Fadiman, Author, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
This funny, poignant book connects us immediately with women in a far-off land; their triumphs become ours, their struggles become ours. It is a tale of the potential of crosscultural friendship and the power of intercultural exchange.
Carol Bellamy, Former Director, UNICEF and U.S. Peace Corps
Monique and the Mango Rains is beautifully and frankly written, both an ethnography of Malian health care and a coming-of-age memoir of Peace Corps participation. I entered this book curious about childbirth in rural West Africa, and learned a great deal about gender relations as they shape the meaning of children, development resources, and the many routes to Malian modernity. Like the short, sweet mango rains that punctuate Kris Holloways story, this text brings inspiration to its readers.
Rayna Rapp, Professor of Anthropology, New York University
Delicious like mangoes in season, you will not be able to put this incredible book down. We witness the stark reality of lives in a third-world country: the fate of babies and young children, of women dying in childbirth. But we are also there for breathtaking descriptions of beauty, generosity, and intimacy.
Brigitte Jordan, Author, Birth in Four Cultures, Fourth Edition, winner of the Margaret Mead Award
Monique and the Mango Rains is an astounding book. In her brief narrative, Holloway tells an exquisite story of crosscultural friendship, of womens commitment through their work to bettering the lives of other women, and of the contribution that can be made to a third-world society by citizens of the industrialized world when hubris is not part of the equation.
Marnie Mueller, Author, Green Fires, The Climate of the Country, and My Mothers Island
Kris Holloways Monique and the Mango Rains is one of the few personal accounts that describes the pleasures and frustrations of Peace Corps life, while simultaneously informing the reader of the realities of rural African life with its own particular joys and tragedies.
Elliot Fratkin, Professor of Anthropology, Smith College
The story of Monique is the saga of a woman caught in the web of tradition. I hope the book will reach the homes of many in the West so they may know about the lives of their fellow humans battling poverty, underdevelopment, and diseases in parts of Africa. I also hope the book will find its way back to Mali where Moniques contemporaries and fellow Malians would begin to take heart that loving souls exist abroad and their condition is being communicated faithfully and passionately.
Sulayman S. Nyang, Professor of African Studies, Howard University
I enthusiastically recommend this book, for it allows the reader to learn about midwifery and womens issues through the lenses of two very different cultures. It is full of warmth and insight, and having it end was like losing a friend.
Rahima Baldwin Dancy, midwife, author, and childbirth activist
The acceptance of what comes with being a woman and at the same time how to push for reform in an environment where women, even as victims, are less than equal is captured in the singular sagesse of Monique in Kris Holloways remarkable memoir.
Grace Reading Series, Book Club Pick
This is a truly inspiring story of a friendship between women from different cultures
Midwifery Today
Readers will find this memoir emotionally moving, beautifully written, and highly informative.
Journal of Community Health
The multiple themes and issues voiced in this narrative provide a useful point of dialogue and reflection for many audiences. Although the subtitle and a great deal of the story focus on midwifery, and infant and maternal morbidity and mortality, the narrative goes further. For students or teachers of African studies or anthropology, Holloway incorporates information about kinship systems, religion and witchcraft, familial and traditional power relationships, and decision-making processes that affect marriages, jobs, womens status, childbearing, and community self-help projects.
African Studies Review
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For information about this book, contact:
Waveland Press, Inc.
4180 IL Route 83, Suite 101
Long Grove, IL 60047-9580
(847) 634-0081
info@waveland.com
www.waveland.com
![Copyright 2007 by Kris Holloway 10-digit ISBN 1-57766-435-3 13-digit ISBN - photo 4](/uploads/posts/book/99168/images/00004.jpg)
Copyright 2007 by Kris Holloway
10-digit ISBN 1-57766-435-3
13-digit ISBN 978-1-57766-435-2
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3
For Aidan, Liam, Genevive, Basil, and Christini
Kle di shi kan ma mu
May God give you long life
CONTENTS
There are many people who had a hand in the making of this book, and I want to thank them.
Bill and Jane Holloway, my parents, who encouraged me to go into the Peace Corps, championed my work while I was there, and believed in the ideas of this book long before I put them to paper. My fathers photographs appear in the book, and my mothers keen eye for narrative flow, though less noticeable, is distinctly present.
My sister Pam Sheldon, who was there when I most needed her to be, and continues to show unflappable patience for my incessant need to talk even more than I write.
My late uncle Bob Holloway, who was slated to go to Sierra Leone as a volunteer, but went to Vietnam instead. He made the journey to West Africa feel like it was a Holloway destiny.
Those Peace Corps folk, volunteers and staff, who made our experience what it waschallenging and fulfillingespecially Sire Diallo, for logistical as well as moral support; Dawn Camara and Veronica Coulibaly, for their smiles and MIF kits; Julia Earl and Bill Moseley, for connections during our service and during our return trip; Tanya Sisler and Chip Smith, for friendship.
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