Tubob: Two Years in West Africa with the Peace Corps

by Mary E. Trimble

A memoir of a newly married couple who discover themselves in new light as they work and learn about the culture in a third-world country. They find strength and frustration trying to make a difference. Caught up in a military coup, they seek refuge in a house with 116 other people and wonder if their lives will ever be the same.

Genres: Memoir, Africa, Nonfiction

326 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2012

Reviews

[Carol Ryan]

Mary E. Trimble is a successful writer of romance novels set in rural Washington State. It turns out that her real life, a part of which is the basis for `TUBOB: Two Years in West Africa with the Peace Corps', is even more compelling than her novels.
Memoirs are a dime a dozen these days, and the genre is not everyone's cup of tea. But, a well written memoir can be a joy to read, transporting the reader in time and place and allowing the opportunity to experience life with another’s sensibility. If the subject is interesting as well, you have great memoir. That is the sort of book Mary E. Trimble has written.
The story takes place in the late 1970s. A newlywed couple from Seattle joins the Peace Corps and heads for The Gambia, a small and to put it kindly, undeveloped nation in West Africa. As Mary and her younger husband Bruce discover, coping with the challenges of the assignment will go better if they pool their considerable talents and support each other. Talk about romance. Here we have a real life example of a man and woman coping with extremely difficult situations that could easily have led to bickering and discord. Instead, Bruce and Mary rose to every occasion with humor, creative solutions and hard work. Despite a miserable climate, frustrating working conditions, and bouts of illness, the couple thrives and manages to have success--not as they originally imagined it, but real success none-the-less.

It's not easy to convey the clash of cultures Mary experienced; but she does so masterfully. She manages to go from naive to expert in third-world living without becoming cynical or preachy. She shows rather than tells the story. The result is a revelation for the reader.

In the interest of full disclosure, I met Mary soon after her Peace Corps adventure thirty years ago. We were both returning college students just back from our respective exotic travels; we were studying Information Technology (or as it was known then, Data Processing). Between classes Mary charmed me with a few of the stories in the book but I never got the full picture presented in the book. Nor did I get to see Bruce's excellent photos that add so much to understanding the experience. I was impressed then with Mary and Bruce, after reading the book, my admiration is even greater.
Suffice it to say, Mary has had a rich and varied life. She is a master story teller and what she has to say brings the exotic to you. Read her book you’ll long for sequels!

[Pat Jurgens]

Mary Trimble and her husband Bruce joined the Peace Corps in 1979 in The Gambia, West Africa. Their adventure sheds light on day to day life in a third world country. There were the bucket baths, the heat, the desire to make a difference, and the frustrations of communication and lack of infrastructure to create significant improvement. The detail about Gambian life and the names of so many people met is amazing. Mary writes of developing friendships with the locals as well as supporting other international volunteers who came and went. Her job keeping medical records for the hospital and Bruce's in implementing new wells seemed gratifying and at the same time not enough. Always strangers, always Americans, they put themselves whole heartedly into this work but were ready to come home after an attempted coup. Anyone who has lived in a third world country will relate to the joys and trials of the author's experience.

[Michelle Eames]

I loved this book. It describes what it is really like to be a Peace Corps volunteer. Mary Trimble joined the Peace Corps with her husband and worked in The Gambia, a small country in West Africa. She describes the training process, learning the language, moving to the assigned village, and what it's like to live and work in a very different culture with limited resources. The book is well written and detailed. Mary does not sugarcoat their experiences, she describes both the positives and the very real frustrations and challenges of being a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is a good and true-to life memoir.

[Suzanne]

Interesting memoir about the author's two year Peace Corps stint in The Gambia circa 1980. 3 1/2 stars.

[Arletta Dawdy]

Thanks to family and friends who, as requested, kept Mary Trimble’s letters from two years(1979-1981) in The Gambia, she was able to write this exceptional memoir. For Trimble, the African journey was the result of a long held dream; her husband went along for the ride, and his special gifts came in most handily at the end of their stay.
The Gambia is a small country stretching from 50 miles of Atlantic Ocean shore frontage to about 250 miles directly east along the Gambia River. Tiny by many measures, its diversity of tribes, languages and customs is rich. The weather is dauntingly hot, producing a laid-back attitude to time, work schedules and communication.
Months of in-country training scarcely prepared the couple for what lay ahead . Openness to learning and a wondrous ability to adapt saw them through a multitude of challenges. Bruce was assigned to a UN project of well-digging and he had the most difficulties as machine parts, availability of crew and transport so often eluded him. Mary was assigned to assist in a clinic that was under staffed, under supplied and under recorded; it was her duty to organize record-keeping but she did so much more. On her own, she developed well-baby and nutritional lessons, often visiting in near-by villages.
The story is full of great detail describing their ingenuity in adapting to life in their outpost, mixing with locals, other PC, UN and USAID volunteers and staff. In their forties at the time, it is abundantly clear that life experiences and the fact of being a couple better prepared them to make the most of their time as opposed to young college grads who had no idea of where or how to begin. One exception were the Crossroads Africa summer students who came from the US and managed to make differences.
An attempted coup just as the Trimbles prepared to return home, was full of drama, tension and anxiety. They put themselves to work to protect the 116 people crowded into the US Ambassador’s residence. Here, Bruce’s talents in building and operating radios put the group in contact with the absent Ambassador and others. Bruce received a special commendation afterwards. He also deserves recognition for the wondrous photos that lead off each chapter. Mary worked to monitor supplies, health needs and other issues arising from so many people in such a cramped house with the sounds of weaponry terrifying all.
Mary Trimble has a host of writing credits for her fiction and non-fiction. With this sometimes breathtaking book, she now enters the realm of memoirist with great style, sensitivity and beautiful characterizations.
The Trimbles pursued Bruce’s dream ten years later to sail throughout the South Pacific. I hope she is at work on that tale.

[Karen Hill]

loved it, was just like talking to Mary in person. Mary does not tend to over complicate her story, but manages to make you believe you are with her in the moment.