Beth was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zaire — which today is the Democratic Republic of Congo — teaching English, geography and philosophy at a state-run high school. At night, she would write by kerosene lantern about life in Kamponde: the weddings and funerals, the gossip and politics; the joys and frustrations of teaching; the diamonds and pythons and palm wine. And she wrote about the unrelenting kindness shown a young woman so far from home. It was here that Beth found her voice. She was determined to become a journalist and pledged to return and write about them all one day.

 

 

She did. Twice. Her first story was in 1996;  her

second in 2006. She intends to return one last time in 2019 to finish the final chapter of her memoir about her nearly 40-year love affair with this small village.

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