The wishlist
THE CROOKED PATH: Colonization to Decolonization
Brian Hawker
The Crooked Path brings together observations and insights from Brian Hawker’s two decades as an educator in Northwestern Ontario. Within his first year, he realized that his training program could not realistically achieve its goals. He was training people who, with few exceptions, brought complex personal issues and health-related problems to the classroom. Like many non-Indigenous specialists working in the North, Brian became aware that the sheer number of problems, the jurisdictional wrangling over who was responsible for solving them and the history of past failures was almost overwhelming. In the process, he realized he had been totally unprepared for the work he had been asked to do.
How Deep is the Lake
Shelley O’Callaghan
Curious about the previous inhabitants of the lake where her family has spent the summer for over one hundred years, author Shelley O'Callaghan starts researching and writing about the area. But what begins as a personal journey of one woman's relationship to the land and her desire to uncover the history of her family's remote cabin turns into an exploration and questioning of our rights as settlers upon a land that was inhabited long before we came. In her research, O'Callaghan uncovers a history that runs as deep as the three hundred metre lake itself. Eager to pass on her discoveries, she shares her journey with her six grandchildren.
Tizita: A Memoir of perseverance and enchantment
Marian Dodds
Traversing personal narrative and broader social themes, this memoir will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt compelled to do good in the world, whether in person or by donation. Vivid descriptions, historical context and personal insights offer an immersion into Ethiopian life and the triumphs and challenges of international work through the eyes of a Canadian volunteer. TIZITA will appeal to those currently on the journey of international work, locals working with them, or returnees still pondering their impact. And of course, it will entertain armchair adventurers curious about the fascinating history, geography, traditions and cultures of Ethiopia.
Finding myself in Borneo
Neil Mckee
Finding Myself in Borneo is an honest and buoyant chronicle of a young Canadian man's adventures during 1968-70, while teaching secondary school as a CUSO volunteer in Sabah, Malaysia (North Borneo). Travel with Neill McKee on his unique journey through vibrant Asian cultures as he learns the craft of teaching, the Malay language and local customs, and gains many friends in his small community. He climbs the highest peak in Southeast Asia-Mount Kinabalu, has a love affair, and navigates Borneo's backwaters to make his first of many documentary films. McKee travels by freighter to Indonesia, where he discovers the scars of that country's recent genocide, a contrast to his hilarious motorcycle journeys in Sabah with his American Peace Corps buddy. They make a hallucinogenic discovery-North Borneo is, indeed, J. R. R. Tolkien's famed Middle-Earth of The Lord of the Rings! The enterprising duo establish the North Borneo Frodo Society, an organization Tolkien joins.
Indelible: A social worker in the wake of Civil War
Wendy Nordick
Driven by a long-standing desire, her education and her faith, mental health professional, Wendy Nordick, and her husband Bill Blair, a retired judge, plunged into a two-year assignment with Canadian University Services Overseas. She believed her 25 years of clinical social work were appropriate credentials to help a country with the highest rates of suicide in the world. Bill hoped to work for peace and justice. They felt they became laughingstocks when work visa delays left them homeless. Days before leaving, Wendy's father died. Once in Sri Lanka, she shivered in a rickety beer factory cum hospital where she taught mental health skills. A year later, she was transported into steamy, bombed out Jaffna, the epicenter of a civil war to teach a trauma team who worked with the war affected and tortured during the war. She was humbled by what she did not know and sought help from a previous refugee.
Not one, Not even one: A memoir of Life altering experiences in Sierra Leone, West Africa
Nancy Christine Edwards
In 1978, Nancy Edwards left as a CUSO volunteer for Sierra Leone, where she spent three years working as a community health nurse and two years evaluating primary health care programs. Her stories of village life convey the ravages of tuberculosis; threats of witchcraft; and tragedies of deaths related to pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn tetanus. She celebrates local advocates for health improvements-mothers, traditional birth attendants, and village health committees.
Acutely aware of her role as a cultural outsider, the author reveals how she learned about the power of ancestors and the women's Secret Society among the Mende people. Four decades after her arrival in Sierra Leone, Edwards comes to grips with her stance on the cultural practice of female circumcision. She takes us behind-the-scenes, describing how her West African experiences shaped her life and research career.
Though steeped in hardship, tension, and conflict, Not One, Not Even One is buffered by humour, heartened by breakthroughs and shifting perspectives, and propelled by fierce hopes for the future.
An outsider within
Mary Ndlovu
Originally volunteering in Zambia as a secondary school teacher for English, she met Edward Ndlovu; A senior member of ZAPU, one of the two major parties in Zimbabwe’s liberation movement. The couple fell in love, married, and welcomed their two daughters while there. In April 1980, they moved to Zimbabwe to celebrate the nation’s independence and, later that year, the arrival of their son. Settling in Bulawayo, Mary lived and worked in Zimbabwe for the next 36 years and returned to Canada in 2016. The memoir covers a range of topics and emotions, from her years in the education systems of Zambia and Zimbabwe, including the politics of the liberation struggle and of independent Zimbabwe, the latter scarred by severe state violence and dashed democratic hopes. It also covers Zimbabwe’s prolonged economic crises and the devastation of AIDS; Mary’s involvement in civil society organizations and movements, her contributions as a researcher, historian, and consultant working with Zimbabwean CSOs.
The land that became Thailand: Exploring its early history
Jim Carmicheal
The Land That Became Thailand outlines the early history of the Southeast Asian country that was once called Siam and is now known as Thailand. Its focus is on what happened within Thailand's current borders prior to 1400 CE. Much of this story is only vaguely known, even in Thailand, as traditional history education has not been one of the country's strong suits. For instance, one wonders how many people are aware that virtually all of what now comprises Thailand was once ruled by Khmer, Mon and Malay people? Also, while the Kingdoms of Sukhothai, Ayutthaya and Chiangmai-based Lanna are well-known, one might question who has heard of the Lavo Kingdom, which lasted longer than any of the others? A final example: who knows anything at all about the powerful Ayutthaya Island-based state that China called Xian, which gained fame and notoriety for its trading and raiding, and whose territorial holdings once included Singapore?
Karuara: People of the River
Stephanie Boyd
This collection of stories takes the reader on a voyage down the Marañon River in Peru’s Amazon region, sharing tales about the astonishing spiritual world beneath its surface.
The stories were told by Kukama elders and illustrated by children,
with an introduction by best-selling author Naomi Klein and filmmaker Avi Lewis.
The African Diaries: A Love Affair
James G. Duncan
"The Africa Diaries: A Love Affair", a collection of 30 different stories gleaned from records kept at my post in Botswana from 1982 to 1984, during the length of my contract. The tales are largely about my work as a CUSO (the former Canadian University Service Overseas) International volunteer District Officer (Lands) for Chobe District, in Botswana's far north. Here, planning for agriculture to feed the country was my primary responsibility, to counter the domination of the immense Kalahari Desert. My employment also entailed, among other things, the development of plans for the scenic villages of Kasane (where I was based) and Kazungula, both fronting on the Caprivi Strip of Namibia.
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