Wake Up Barbara and Help Me Find this Snake [Paperback]

Barbara Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2002

The intrepid Ralph is proud of being a maverick. Barbara, the shy co-ed, runs when Ralph pursues her. The real challenges begin, however, after their unlikely romance and marriage. The adventurous Ralph jumps at the chance to move to the Dominican Republic. Barbara reluctantly follows. Ralph embraces the place, the people, and the music. Barbara battles the language, the heat, and runs in terror from the two-inch cockroaches.

Twenty years after her return to the States, Barbara journeys back to the Dominican Republic, and makes a surprising discovery.

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Infinity Publishing.com (February 18, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0741410060
• ISBN-13: 978-0741410061
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,626,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story!, April 29, 2003

By 

Simona Nielsen (Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wake Up Barbara and Help Me Find this Snake (Paperback)

This is the true and amazing story about a missionary couple's four years in another country and culture so much different from what they know.
 
If you think missionary work is `romantic' - think again! Barbara followed her very remarkable and charismatic husband, Ralph to the Dominican Republic, where she actually had a culture shock and struggled with everything that was new to her - the language, the heat and the two-inch cockroaches - just to name a few of them.
 
Ralph - on the other hand - adored the place, the people, the other culture and the music and did whatever it would take to make Barbara feel comfortable in their new home.
 
The book is written in letter form - especially from the correspondence of her best friend, Sue, but also from letters to her family and other friends. She reveals everything there is to know about being a missionary in another culture and is most honest about it. I'll really recommend this book to everyone who wants to read a real person's memoir and get a realistic insight in a woman's life among strangers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Various readers, March 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Wake Up Barbara and Help Me Find this Snake (Paperback)

"Engrossed in a time and place, I was full of admiration for Barbara dealing with cataloguing boxes of donated eyeglasses, and Ralph solving one huge problem after another to make things work; all the while working to plant churches in that difficult tropical place. This is a valuable read for anyone, and especially for one who takes seriously a call to mission involvement." --Pat Young, retired editor, Dublin, OH

"I liked "Wake Up Barbara!" very much. First of all, I know some of the main characters, and have a great deal of respect for them, and know that their characterization in the book is honest. Second, the book is obviously real. It has an authenticity that cannot be faked. Third, it is vibrant with immediacy. Every page captures and holds the reader in that time and place. Finally, I liked it because it's a good story well told. Those are the qualities I look for in a book, and I'm glad I read this one." --The Rev. Dr. Paul W. Harmon, Spartanburg SC

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars she has a story to tell, September 11, 2002

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wake Up Barbara and Help Me Find this Snake (Paperback)

Barbara Watson has led an interesting life and has a good story to tell. Worth reading. Chronicles the author's transition from a shy conservative Christian married to a boisterous and charismatic man, to a reluctant missionary in the Dominican Republic where she never quite feels like she fits in. Nor does she ever become accustomed to the 8-legged critters and legless slitherers that inhabit her new world. Her perspective upon her return to the DR 2 decades later, however, is revelatory.