Customer Reviews

Margarita: A Guatemalan Peace Corps Experience

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My Mother also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala. "Margarita" gave a wonderful description of what life was like, in that area, for those volunteers, whose families, back in the states, eagerly waited for news from them. We wondered about their safety, their health, yet being oh so proud of their contributions to the quality of life of the people whom they served. American parents expect their children to "spread their wings", but when your Mother, at age 68, says she's going off to serve in a far place, that's a different story!

Margarita is a very thorough account of the author's experiences as she travels in and out of small towns in Guatemala. Her Guatemala experiences, demonstrates the act of an heroine. After reading Margarita, I applaused this courgeous sixty-two years old young heroine for taking on a culture that she barely spoke their language in her efforts to teach nutrition. Amazingly well written, I strongly recomemmed it as a strong noteworthy read.

Margarita's journalistic tale will engage readers who have been, are, or will be volunteers in rural community development programs. Universal elements of her Peace Corps experience (ants in the vegetable garden, bats in the house, annoying neighbors, inspiring co-workers, etc.) will ring true for anyone who has aspired to make the (Third) world a better place through this type of service. At times unintentionally funny, Margarita's somewhat dry narrative brings to life the daily rhythms of her sojourn with all its dramas, small and large. I gave this book to a friend who was en route to a 3-year volunteer term in Guatemala and she loved it.

This book by Ms. Casebolt is a nasty piece of work. She slags her fellow Peace Corps volunteers and patronizes the people with whom she worked - or played at working with. As a member of Ms. Casebolt's Peace Corps training group I would have expected a lot better of someone to whom I extended myself many times. Marge's service was characterized by inane efforts at "health education" for people who didn't have money to buy food or land on which to grow it, something she never grasped because she never learned Spanish at an adequate level. She took numerous expensive vacations during her Peace Corps service to escape from the rigors of her life as a volunteer, spent weekends at luxurious hotels and generally behaved like a rich snob, slumming among the poor and unwashed. If anyone wants a real idea of what Peace Corps life is like when one is actually engaged and comitted they should read "Living Poor" by Moritz Thomsen, still the best Peace Corps memoir.

I enjoyed this book, but it seemed more like I was reading directly from the author's journal. The author would be writing about an event and then abruptly end the paragraph and start a new one on a completely different topic. This aside, the book was a good read and gave a insight into her time in Guatemala.