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Jul 28, 2008

Jessica rated it:

Two years in the Peace Corps. A poor African village. Another memoir. Another culture story. Nope, this book was anything but warn.

Kris Holloway spent her two years in the Peace Corps in the Malian village of Nampossela. She spent two years by the side of Monique Dembele, a midwife for hundreds of women. The author’s love for the African village, and especially Monique, transcended the pages. Holloway found a true friend in Monique and became part of the village rather than be More...

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Oct 29, 2007

Karin rated it:

This book was hands-down the best Peace Corps memoir I have yet to read. Holloway's story wasn't a glorified quarterly report, listing all the projects she initiated or completed; neither was it an enumeration of the hardships, challenges, substandard living conditions, and poverty she faced. Rather, she described the development of her friendship with her local counterpart (Monique) in terms that were accessible. Although the story took place in West Africa, it wasn't about West Africa.

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Jul 11, 2010

Kristin rated it:

Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway was a book club selection. One, that in all honesty, I probably would have never chosen on my own. Kris Holloway served in the Peace Corps for two years. She was assigned to a remote village in Mali to assist midwife, Monique Dembele.

At twenty-four, Monique was quite young to be a midwife. She was the only medical personnel for the village of Nampossela. Mali has one of the highest fertility rates in sub-Saharan Africa - 6.8 chi More...

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Jun 14, 2010

Stacy rated it:

This is a beautiful true story of a friendship that forms between two woman who are different in every way. Monique is an African woman who lives in a country where she has no rights as a woman. She does not let this get her down by complaining about her situation. She instead works to improve lives of the woman in her village. Kris is a white American that joins the peace core and is assigned to work with Monique at the birthing house in a village in West Africa for two years. After she discove More...

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Jan 30, 2010

Lisa rated it:

Monique and Mango Rains is a true story told from the perspective of a Peace Corps worker. The author, Kris Holloway, spent two years in Mali with the Peace Corps. There, she worked in a village with a local midwife and healthcare worker, Monique Dembele.

Together the two worked to better the lives of poor women and children through prenatal examinations, educating about the harms of female circumcision, well baby checks, refurbishing the women's birthing house, attending births, edu More...

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Sep 29, 2011

Erin rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Oct 01, 2010

Stephanie rated it:

I really enjoyed reading this book and find that my criticisms are so minor that I cannot assign this book any less than five stars. Kris Holloway does a fantastic job of transporting the reader into this African village where she worked as a Peace Corps volunteer. I could see, hear, and smell the landscape and the people, and I felt completely immersed in this foreign culture.

In this book Holloway chronicles her friendship with a young woman, Monique, who, with only nine months of f More...

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Mar 10, 2009

Carlie rated it:

Fabulous little tome about a slightly squeamish Peace Corps worker's who spends two years in Mali and befriends a local village midwife. Very interesting to see a snatch of daily African life through an American's eyes. Made me want to travel, join the Peace Corps, have Malian natives over for the week and be a rustic midwife. There were moments where I felt annoyed at the wussification of the little Peace Corps woman but that was about the depth of the negatives for the whole book for me. I fou More...

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Feb 13, 2011

Tim rated it:

Kris Holloway's account of her two years in Mali as a Peace Corps volunteer, working with midwife Monique Dembele, reminded me profoundly of my daughter Jennifer's Fulbright year in Jamaica working at Victoria Jubilee hospital, learning to deliver babies. Kris has effectively avoided bringing a wide-eyed, idealistic, naive perspective into her narrative and reports her experience with very little reference to herself and great insight into the thinking and mores of the people with whom she spent More...

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Oct 26, 2010

Cathy rated it:

3 1/2 stars. Holloway writes about her experiences during her 2 year Peace Corp assignment in Mali. She spends that time with Monique, a partially trained midwife, who does all she can to help mothers and babies in the small town of Naposella where women give birth on a concrete slab then go back to their work in the fields a few hours later, where the maternal and infant mortality rate is one of the highest in the world (1 in 12 mothers die in childbirth, 1 in 5 babies don’t live to see their More...

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Dec 17, 2008

Marcy rated it:

This is the story of two friends, one a Peace Corps volunteer, and a midwife who lived and worked in a small village in Mali. These two friends shared their cultural beliefs, learning about each others' worlds, wishing for the best in both in each others' lives. Together, they worked to bring Monique's village a more sterile place where women could give birth more safely and comfortably. Together, they taught women in the village how to keep their infants and babies alive with cleaner water m More...

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Jan 18, 2011

Jo Ann rated it:

Kris Holloway, just out of college, joins the Peace Corps and is sent to a remote village in Mali and during her 2 years thre befriends Monique, a young woman only 2 years older, who is the village midwife. I can't imagine the conditions under which Kris lived for these 2 years, as the village of Nampossala, Mali, was very primitive - no electricity, running water, toilets. Her descriptions and expereinces are unique, and her friendship with Monique, who literally becomes a legend in her own ti More...

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Oct 08, 2010

Laura rated it:

I read this book for my "Diversity and Health" class but it's the kind of book I would read anyway because I love learning about the intersection of culture and medicine. It's really about two amazing women, one from Mali in West Africa and one from the United States, their friendship and the amazing ways they made a difference in the world. I also learned a lot about this particular culture. This is a quick read. It made me very glad that I was born (and gave birth) in the U.S., b More...

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Jun 18, 2010

Dana rated it:

Kris Holloway becomes a Peace Corps Volunteer in a small town in Mali. She is hosted by Monique Dembele who runs a health clinic and well baby clinic. Monique is the mid-wife in a place where childbirth is anything but simple. Monique weighs babies and then dispenses information on how to keep those babies well nourished and healthy. Poverty and hard work are the mainstay of this village.

Kris is built a house by the people of the village, a mud hut with an iron corrugated roof. She i More...

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Nov 10, 2009

Nicole rated it:

We had to read this book as part of an assignment for nursing school. Overall, I liked the book but I felt that the author didn't go into very much detail. She skimmed over events that occured while she was in Mali, but I feel she left out things that many readers were curious about. Her writing style was short, simple, and not very detailed. I did learn a lot about the culture of Mali when I read this book. The information provided here would greatly benefit anyone that is interested in nu More...

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Dec 13, 2009

Amy rated it:

I like this book a lot, so far! It is the story of a friendship which crosses country, color, and language barriers, opening my eyes to other cultures, something in which I have long been interested. Monique, a Catholic in predominantly Muslim Mali, in an arranged marriage to an unfaithful, lazy man has completed a nine-month medical training course to be her village's sole medical provider. Kris Holloway, a Peace Corp volunteer, is assigned to be her helper. At barely two-hundred pages, Mon More...

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Apr 29, 2008

Megan rated it:

This was a wonderful memoir of a Peace Corps volunteer's experience with a midwife in Mali. At times I was laughing outloud and others I was crying. Wonderful- I want to know more.

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Feb 05, 2010

Emily rated it:

In 1989 Kris Holloway left rural Ohio and traveled to Mali in West Africa. From the first chapter of her book, the reader is transported there as well. The author offers riveting descriptions of everyday life in a country that most of us would be hard-pressed to find on a map. She paints a vivid picture of the culture, customs and religion of the region, all without sounding preachy. The story of her friendship with Monique, the lone village healthcare worker and midwife, is beautiful in its rar More...

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Jan 21, 2011

Agnes rated it:

A very enjoyable and informative memoir. Highly recommended for new mothers, midwives/nurses and those interested in West Africa. The book tells the story of Monique Dembele, barely-trained midwife and only medical practitioner in a small village in Mali, and her friendship with the author, a Peace Corps volunteer. I really appreciated that the author talked far more about Monique's role in the village than her own role as a volunteer. She seemed to equally highlight the positive aspects of the More...

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Feb 22, 2011

Esmeralda rated it:

The author Kris records events as a Peace Corps volunteer helping a midwife Monique in Mali. Birth control, pregnancy, genital mutilation, harvest, and doing house chores from scratch, are just some of the interesting topics touched upon through this writing. Kris goes into her day to day cultural, language mix ups as well with grace and humor.

This book is a reminder that the world community should share resources. The major hospitals in Mali don't have equipment or personell to handl More...

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Jan 09, 2010

Laurence rated it:

Thank you Amy for recommending this book to me. You rarely find all the aspects of a woman's existence forced into such close confrontation. This true story makes you stare at the raw reality of womanhood and motherhood, especially the condition of wives in a culture that demands total submission to their husband. Monica is like a western woman caught in primitive times, yet her life is one of service, courage and loyalty. Expect your sense of comfort to be rocked. Regretably, the sole remedy to More...

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Jul 30, 2009

Sandy rated it:

A wonderful, inspiring, eye-opening memoir by a Peace Corps volunteer who spent two years in West Africa working with a native midwife. Not preachy at all, and written in a very matter-of-fact manner. It reminded me a bit of "The Bookseller of Kabul" - a really good look at women's lives in a very different culture.

Mali has one of the highest rates of infant death, child malnutrition, and death in childbirth - even for Africa. And very high rates of female genital mutilatio More...

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Aug 07, 2009

Osho rated it:

Mali.

The author, a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in Mali, recounts her experience with an emphasis on her friendship with Monique, the local midwife. The narrative is not as interior as some travel/work memoirs; the trade-off is that Holloway is able to focus on descriptions of the village, her work with Monique, and interpersonal relationships. Holloway is warm but not sentimental; she recounts her conversations with Monique about female genital mutilation as well as Monique's More...

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Dec 03, 2010

Vivian rated it:

When the author became a Peace Corps volunteer in 1989 she had no idea how this experience would change her life. Her story shares the friendship she enjoyed with her midwife mentor, Monique Dembele.

Join Kris and Monique in the village of Nampossela, south of Timbuktu in Mali. Learn how it would be to live and work in a West African community governed by the seasons. Marvel at the way young Monique quietly and patiently brings needed change to the women she serves through her sm More...

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Feb 27, 2010

Laura rated it:

This is the story of a Peace Corps worker who lives in the village Nampossela in southern Mali for two years and enters the life and work of the midwife there, Monique. It's a well-written and compelling story about the depth of relationships across cultures. At the same time, however, it opens the door onto a view of the daily trials of life in one of the poorest and most illiterate countries in the world. The status of women, in particular, comes under scrutiny amidst the complex web of com More...

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Aug 14, 2010

Bonnie rated it:

"I realized there was, in their stories, a sense of calm in her final minutes, a lack of urgency in the actions or the telling. That was a sharp contrast to the flurry of activity to prolong a life in our country. Hers was not seen as an emergency, but rather as the hand of God. How much of this attitude was the product of simply not having the knowledge or resources to save the dying, I didn't know. I did know that I had to accept their stories, for they were all I had."

Am More...

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Aug 07, 2011

Amanda rated it:

Kris Holloway was a Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Mali in 1989-1991. Her host in the small town of Nampossela was Monique Dembele, the local midwife and health worker. This book chronicles their experiences over those two years, and also addresses many issues that women face in that part of the world.

This was an incredible book. It starts with some of Kris’s first experiences. She is re-named Fatumata while she’s in Mali (so that she can have a name in the local l More...

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Apr 09, 2011

Sandy rated it:

2007 - This is just a wonderful book - somewhere between a memoir of the author and a biography of a sweet and lovely woman. While the writing may not be brilliant, the narrative about a remarkable and wonderful girl/woman(Monique) and a unique time in the author's life, as assistant to Monique - the village midwife, during a stint in the Peace Corp is a gem. Toward the end there is a priceless and beautiful description of Monique's expectations of and visit to America. It is absolutely wonderfu More...

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Jan 16, 2009

Heather rated it:

Monique and the Mango Rains is the moving account of Kris Holloway's experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa, assisting Monique Dembele, the area's local midwife and medical worker. In the crippling poverty of Mali, Monique and Kris work to help Mali's women and children in times of medical distress. From the birthing of babies to relationship counseling, fending off disease and infection to nutrition education, Monique labors ceaselessly and tirelessly. Her work builds a rep More...

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Aug 24, 2008

Jeanette rated it:

A very quick read. This is the first Peace Corps memoir I've ever read. I know there are a lot of them floating around out there. This book gives a good idea of what a Peace Corps volunteer might do in a small African village. If you ever take simple things for granted, you need to read a book like this. No toilet paper, or substitutes for it, in this village!!
Kris Holloway spent 1989-1991 in the village of Nampossela, near the border with Burkina Faso. She forged a strong friendshi More...

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