Growing Mangos in the Desert: A Memoir of Life in a Mauritanian Village by Katherine Baird (Mauritania 1984–86) Apprentice House Press 2022 380 pages $19.99 (paperback), $32.99 (hard cover), $6.49 (Kindle) Reviewed by Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996-98)   If I were still teaching Creative Nonfiction Writing at the University of New Mexico in Taos, I would assign this book to my students to read and study carefully, because I think it’s an excellent example of contemporary memoir writing done well. Some people confuse memoirs with autobiographies. To clarify: Autobiographies are stories of a life – written by, or ghost-written for, famous people who have a built-in following. Their fans have a deep-seated curiosity: How did she (or he) become so famous? So they’re willing to follow that person’s story from cradle to however close to the grave this celeb might now be — all the ups and downs . . .

  Growing Mangos in the Desert: A Memoir of Life in a Mauritanian Village by Katherine Baird (Mauritania 1984–86) Apprentice House Press 2022 380 pages $19.99 (paperback), $32.99 (hard cover), $6.49 (Kindle) Reviewed by Lucinda Wingard (Nigeria 1966 – 68)  • Among more than two dozen young volunteers trained for agricultural service in Mauritania in 1984, Katherine Baird was one of ten remaining by her second year. She had survived the rigors of wielding her short-handled hoe in blistering heat, had adapted to eating meals from a common bowl with her neighbors, and had successfully threaded through baffling local hierarchies. Mauritania needed Peace Corps to help staff a fledgling initiative funded with foreign money: growing rice along a desolate part of the Senegal River. Baird brought no experience to help her fulfill this work, but her diligent note-taking and detailed records show she pitched into her assignment with a will. “Keyti” . . .

Witness Uganda, currently being performed at Harvard’s American Repertory Theater in Boston, is a musical co-created by composer Matt Gould (Mauritania 2001-03) and Griffin Matthews. It is directed by Diane Paulus, the A.R.T. Artistic Director, and the 2013 Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical (Pippin). And it is a smash hit at the Loeb Drama Center from February 4th to March 16th. A good friend of mine who saw the production and alerted me that an RPCV was one of its co-creaters. She wrote, “The music was very powerful and powerfully performed. The cast gave their all to the story. Matt Gould not only composed the music but also let the band and was singing out a storm as well.” Witness Uganda grew out of Griffin Matthews experiences when he volunteered to go to Uganda to help AID victims. It started this way. Griffin went to Uganda in the . . .