African Odyssey

How does a little-traveled idealistic New Yorker adjust to the life of a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, teaching biology in a culture infused with superstition? In this memoir, a former Peace Corps volunteer recounts the challenges and frustrations of teaching secondary school science in Nigeria from 1964-66, just prior to the tragic Biafran War. Author Sandford describes memorable, often humorous, experiences living and working in Nigeria and traveling throughout the country, including unusual dining experiences, an embarrassing church visit, his first haircut by an African barber, and an encounter with a traditional Yoruba healer or juju man. He also relates traveling to National Parks and interesting locales in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, in East Africa, and his adventures there, including meeting Jomo Kenyatta in Mombasa, the Hyena Man in Harar, and surviving an elephant stampede in Murchison Falls NP.

African Odyssey is a readable and entertaining account of one American’s immersion in a different culture, and of the rewards that come when a person confronts new challenges and uniquely different situations, assuming the risks of journeying to places much different from those to which one is accustomed.