Customer Reviews

Wake Up Barbara and Help Me Find this Snake

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

 

 

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.

"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

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.

Barbara Watson is one tough babe. The trouble was that when her brand-new husband spirited her off to the Dominican Republic to be a missionary's wife, she didn't know she was tough. I'm not sure she realizes it even now.

Growing up in a loving family, Barbara was a good girl, the kind of girl who spends her teen years preparing herself to be a loving--and self-effacing--Christian wife. One of the reasons I enjoy reading memoirs is to meet people who aren't a bit like me, and in Barbara I hit the jackpot.

Because her standards were so high, she didn't think much of herself, and everything in the DR conspired to confirm her opinion. Her husband Ralph, an intelligent, boisterous man, made people laugh and made himself indispensable. Barbara had a terrible time learning the language, cringed at the very thought of living in the bug-infested, primitive medical encampment, and never thought she was pulling her weight by sorting used spectacles and doing the other tasks she was assigned.

She thought marriage would change her for the better--she'd become a more fitting wife for her charismatic husband. Listen to her: "But I'm still me, which is a disappointment." Ralph loved her, though, and pushed her to fly a little higher. She also thought that "being in a missionary setting, everyone would be sweet and kind." Guess what? They turned out to be people, and you know what they're like. But she hung in.

I couldn't believe the naivete of this woman when I first started reading her memoir, which is put together as a series of letters she wrote and others wrote to her, but watching her grow was fascinating. And grow she did, while holding steadfastly to her principles and beliefs, and gradually coming to realize that God must have had a purpose when he made introverts like her. Not until her four years in the DR were over, and she found herself a job in an animal shelter when they moved to South Carolina did she finally begin to recognize what she'd discovered: "I have always felt I'd be in the shadow of whoever I married and my needs would be filled by the fulfillment of his needs," she wrote to her best friend. "But you know something? I have needs, too." I felt like applauding when I read that.

She tells the story of her unlikely courtship here, and it's poignant and hilarious at the same time. Life in the hinterlands of the DR was a hard school, and her letters are full of the places she saw and the people she met, and the mixed emotions they
enerated--this book would be invaluable for anyone who considers the missionary life, and illuminating to those of us who would never even think of such a thing. She calls those three years a profound learning experience, and people who read her letters will thank her for letting them live with her as she learned.

Oh, about that snake. I'm not going to tell you what happened--you'll have to read the book yourself.--J.M.

"The missionaries supported by my church had no knowledge of what the mission field entailed before heading into it. Some only visit the foreign country two weeks while on deputation and in two weeks, they do not get much real knowledge of what being a missionary really entails. Wake Up Barbara! would give them a taste of what it is like when "the rubber hits the road." It is not only realistic, but gives a spiritual background as to how to handle difficult situations. Wake Up Barbara! would give a prospective missionary a more realistic knowledge of what they are to prepare for in going into the mission field. --Irvin Prickett, retired accountant, Frederick, MD

"This delightful book is a refreshing look at real missionary work viewed by a couple who served with devotion and commitment, but who also kept their eyes open to reality. The book is worth the price, plus the reader's time, to meet dear, wacky Ralph." --Nora Beth Featherston, Spartanburg, SC

"I recommend this book as required reading to anyone who needs to learn some of the realities of living in the Third World. Americans expecting to spend time in a foreign country will appreciate this detailed account. There is no "rose garden" here. Culture shock comes through clearly in a clever and amusing way. We find the native contacts warm and touching. The author helps us to understand the austere Dominican perspective. This book will be hard to forget. --Robert Watson, retired computer consultant, Asheboro, NC

"Wake Up Barbara! has a message of more than just a "missionary's memoirs." Barbara's and Sue's correspondence of single versus married life apply to many people. Also the underlying theme of being adaptable where God plants us applies to us all. We don't know how truly blessed we are sometimes." --Cinde Phillips, technical writer, Boiling Springs, SC

"Wake Up Barbara! shows how God can help us grow mentally and spiritually if we submit ourselves to His will - even when it seems contrary to what we feel is best. --Winifred Davidson, retired school teacher, Philadelphia, PA

"Wake Up Barbara! is about going to lost corners of the world, and it is also about discovering that to go away, no matter how far, is inevitably a journey into oneself. It confirms that living at ease with truths is not always a graceful process. The story has returned to me many times after reading it, not in exact terms, but as lessons of the hard travel of a soul through our modern world." --Dr. Judy, Spartanburg, SC

"I found this book interesting, not only for its missionary experiences, but as an honest record of the life and growth of an ordinary person. I was impressed that Barbara was willing to reveal her struggles as she strove to cope and mature in what was for her a challenging situation." --Susan Browder, R.N., Louisville, KY

"After I got into Wake Up Barbara!, I couldn't put it down. Barbara's willingness to be vulnerable in this book is one of its real strengths; it's real, because she is. It was pure delight to watch her grow as I read. I am sure that other women will personally identify with Barbara as I did. She tells it like it is - without a trace of piety. Great book!" --Peggy Campolo, St. Davids, PA

"Barbara Watson's memoir of her experiences in the Dominican Republic is engaging, funny, sad and frightening. Whether you think of yourself as adventurous or prefer to play it safe; whether you are looking for romance, wisdom, or just fun; whether your personal beliefs are religious or secular in nature, you will find a story and a heroine here to whom you can relate, and with whom you will want to spend your time. Barbara's coming-of-age story is both incredibly unique and wonderfully universal. Rarely has a mature and intelligent author so accurately captured the insecurity and foolishness of the youthful mind--particularly her own." --Amy Kay Watson, Operations Coordinator, Ohio Dominican University, Columbus OH

"I predict that everyone who reads Wake Up Barbara! will appreciate and enjoy sharing the journey of a newly-wed young woman who embarks on high risk adventure with a most unconventional young husband. Barbara possesses uncompromising candor and willingness to take personal risks in her relationships. Her honesty in dealing with her emotions and doubts concerning her work, her worth, her marriage and even her faith reveal a strength of character that will be an inspiration to many readers who may not have had the same ability to question the unquestionable." --Randy Conway, senior consultant, Multivariable Testing, Campobello, SC

"This book offers us a first-hand look at the lives of a young missionary couple while their experiences show a collage of contrasts: courage & timidity, enthusiasm & reluctance, and expectation & frustration. The author's honesty only increases one's appreciation toward those willing to serve people who are needy." --Malcolm Huston, retired school teacher, Vestal, NY

"Barbara candidly relates the drama of her unlikely romance, her sometimes faltering journey of faith, her fearful bridging between her family and her in-laws, her passionate commitment to Ralph, and the mission they shared in the Dominican Republic. A market for the book is Christian college students, campus ministry groups, and the thousands involved as volunteers in mission. It could also be used as a resource for Sunday school classes. --Rev. A. Mickey Fisher, retired pastor, South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church