Beth was a Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire—today the Democratic Republic of the Congo—teaching English, geography and philosophy at a state-run high school. At night, she would write by kerosene lantern about life in Kamponde: the weddings and funerals, the gossip and politics; the joys and frustrations of teaching; the diamonds and pythons and palm wine. She wrote about the unrelenting kindness shown a young woman so far from home. It was here that Beth found her voice, determined to become a journalist. She pledged to return and write about them all one day.
 

She did. Three times. Her first story in 1996 earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination. She returned again in 2006, then one last time in 2019 to discover the final chapter of her memoir about her enduring bond with this small village.
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