The Nigerian people hold strong ties to their families, clans, tribes, and country, and it doesn't take long for foreign residents to feel the same bond. So in 1962, when twenty-one-year-old Catherine Onyemelukwe launches her two-year adventure with the brand-new Peace Corps, she has no idea what the African country has in store.
Catherine's heartfelt memoir revisits her two years overseas that become twenty-four, during which her experiences brim with friendships, students, travels around the country, and love. It recalls how her future Nigerian husband contrives to meet her, their falling for each other, and their controversial wedding that becomes world news and a spread in Life Magazine.
It is also a deep look into the coups and wars that leave their family without electricity and running water, as they struggle to keep their children safe and healthy. When it becomes too much, they flee to the United States, only to be greeted with scorn for their mixed-race children.
This story of adapting to cultures, taking risks, surviving, and embracing differences will inspire the reader to venture beyond perceived horizons and see the world in a whole new light.
About the Author: Catherine Onyemelukwe grew up in Midwestern United States, where she gained an international perspective from her German immigrant father and a sense of compassion from her American mother. After graduating high school, she joined the newly formed Peace Corps, which assigned her to teach German at the Nigerian capital's Federal Emergency Science School and English and African history at a rural village's secondary school. This began a lifelong relationship and deep connection with the country, its culture, and its people.
Among her many advocacies, Catherine is cofounder of Nigerwives, an organization of foreign wives of Nigerians; a former member of the National Association of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers; and a founding member of Friends of Nigeria.
She holds a bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College, a master's degree in elementary education from California State University Sacramento, and an MBA in public and private management from the Yale School of Management.
